Beef Newsletter - September 2022

Download Publication (PDF)

In this month's edition:

• Jobs to consider this month
  • With a bit of luck, you will have secured enough fodder to see you through the winter months, but it is timely to do a fodder budget and test silage quality.
  • Weanlings that will be housed next month will need their booster pneumonia vaccination if they have already been vaccinated. 
  • With the dry weather last month, signs of lungworm in young stock may be delayed. Be alert to signs like coughing in both suckler and dairy-beef weanlings.
  • Most spring-born calves will now be in that five- to eight-month window, which is ideal for recording weights if you are in the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme – Sucklers (BEEP-S).
  • If you have selected the faecal sampling option to check cows for fluke, you have until October 3 to get the samples into an approved lab.
• Look at the figures
  On the economic side it has been a turbulent few months but thankfully factory, store and weanling prices have held up well and the hope is that will continue. With such volatility and increased financial outlay, taking time to crunch the numbers could be time well spent.
• Research update - The maternal herd at Grange
  Colin Byrne, Animal and Bioscience Research Department, Teagasc Grange, Dunsany, Co. Meath reports on work to measure the value of the Euro-Star replacement index. The maternal herd at Grange was set-up to validate the Euro-Star replacement index by comparing the production performance (milk yield, liveweight, and weaning), reproductive efficiency, and feed/production efficiency of elite and average suckler cows for maternal traits.
• DairyBeef 500 farm walk
  Farming 47ha of grassland just outside Ballymacarbry, Co. Waterford, Richard Long operates a calf-to-beef system. Richard will host the first major farm walk of the DairyBeef 500 campaign on September 8 at 3.00pm, where details of how this reduction in slaughter age was achieved through improvements in animal performance and genetics.
• Health & Safety - Maintaining wellbeing
  Wellbeing is vital for ongoing satisfaction with life, yet rural dwellers report lower levels of wellbeing than the population as a whole. Mental Health Ireland (MHI) advocates a five-step approach that anyone can follow to feel good and function well.