23 May 2025

98% of Newford cows bred in the first four weeks

Operating a 100% AI based breeding programme over 10 weeks, Michael Fagan fills us in on the latest happenings from the Newford Farm.

The breeding season started on April 21 and 100% AI is being used on the 77 mature cows and 31 maiden heifers on the farm again in 2025. Once-a-day AI is being used, and cows are being inseminated at midday each day. If a cow is inseminated at 12 noon and she is still showing signs of standing heat again that evening, that same cow will be bred again the next day at 12 noon.

Within the first three weeks of breeding, 72 of the mature cows put forward for breeding had been inseminated (94% of the herd). This increased to 76 cows or 98% of the herd up to May 19. Helping with these high submission rates is the early turnout of cows in February and the excellent weather we experienced for the last three weeks.

During the breeding season, cows are batched into two groups and a teaser bull fitted with a MooCall heat detection collar and a chin ball harness runs with both groups. Additionally, cows have also been tail painted yellow for the first round of breeding. This will be changed to blue for the second breeding cycle.

Heifers on Newford farm were synchronised, with AI occurring on April 18 after an 8-day programme. To date, there have been 8 repeats (75% held to first service) and breeding will only last for six weeks.

Grassland management

Utilisation on all paddocks is excellent at the moment and the average farm cover is 795kg DM/ha. As of May 20, soil moisture deficits in Roscommon were 54mm, so growth had started to slow up. Hopefully the rainfall expected this week will prevent any signs of a drought, as some fields on the farm are beginning to turn slightly brown.

In terms of silage, first cuts were taken on the out farm on May 14 and 2,000-2,500 gallons of cattle slurry will be spread per acre, followed by one bag of 18-6-12 and one bag of protected urea (46%) for a second cut.

Additionally, 13ac were taken out for surplus bales, as covers had exceeded 1,800kg DM/ha on the farm. Our aim is to continue to turn stock into pre-grazing covers of 1,300-1,400kg DM/ha.

Beef animals

All the beef bullocks were weighed on April 30 and averaged 435kg. Their average daily gain since turnout on March 3 to April 30 (58 days) was 0.78kg/day. Their turnout weight was 390kg.

Table 1: Weighing performance of Newford steers on April 30

The above was adapted for use on Teagasc Daily from the Newford Farm Notes prepared by Michael Fagan

More from Teagasc Daily: Breeding a better suckler herd with Future Beef farm, John Dunne

More from Teagasc Daily: Watch: A breeding update from Newford

Find out more about the Newford Farm here.