Breeding
- Autumn calving finished after 5 weeks
- 62 live calves on the ground
- Bull selection for the breeding season
- Latest grass wedge
- Building autumn covers
- Red clover – to mulch or cut for a 4th time?
- Latest weights of yearlings and finishing cattle
- First batch of finishing cattle sold
- The last batch will be sold on 19th September
Grassland
Performance
Breeding
Ken’s calving season has been excellent for 2025. The first calf was born on 1st August 2025 and the last cow delivered a set of twins on 6th September, amounting to a 5 week calving season in total. 62 calves were born, including 2 sets of twins, from 60 cows. The weather suited Ken’s autumn calving season this year and most of the cows calved outside on their own. He had to help 2 heifers calve to Red Pepper (AA4303) so he will be reluctant to use that bull on heifers again.
Figure 1: Some of the recently born calves
Although 3 cows were scanned in calf last winter, they did not calve down. One was scanned with twins at the time that didn’t look promising and the other 2 appear to have slipped embryos which would be unusual on Ken’s farm. They won’t be kept for this year’s breeding season and will be sold to the factory. Two calved cows have also been picked for culling this year, due to slight temperament issues at calving, and one also has a tear in her bag.
The calves born on the farm this year are sired by AA4087, AA4089, AA4303, AA7485, CH2216, CH5626, CH8112, LM6172 and LM9577. Aside from the calving difficulty with 2 heifers to AA4303, Ken is very happy with this year’s calves. As a result he is planning to use a similar team of bulls for this year’s breeding season, but will focus more on matching them to individual cows. He also wants to use 2 Aubrac bulls as he likes the Aubrac heifers that are in the herd.
This year’s bull selection includes;
- AA7506 Tower Tommie: For heifers <6kg daughter milk, positive age at finish & maternal cows with carcass weight >18kg
- Heifer calving difficulty: 5.1% at 91% reliability
- Replacement index: €190
- Terminal index: €105
- Daughter milk: 8.2kg
- Daughter calving interval: -7.24 days
- Carcass weight: 10kg
- Carcass conformation: 0.82
- Age at finish: -17.53 days
- AU4460 Dauphin: For heifers >6kg daughter milk and negative age at finish
- Heifer calving difficulty: 4.2% at 90% reliability
- Replacement index: €173
- Terminal index: €115
- Daughter milk: 6kg
- Daughter calving interval: -2.55 days
- Carcass weight: 13.6kg
- Carcass conformation: 1.82
- Age at finish: 2.01 days
- SI4350 Rubyjen Here’s Johnny: For maternal cows
- Cow calving difficulty: 4% at 96% reliability
- Replacement index: €152
- Terminal index: €99
- Daughter milk: 8.4kg
- Daughter calving interval: -1.03 days
- Carcass weight: 25.5kg
- Carcass conformation: 1.63
- Age at finish: -4.64 days
- LM9577 Drumline S 1185: Maternal cows with daughter milk of >9kg, carcass weight <10kg and negative daughter calving interval
- Cow calving difficulty: 4.1% at 96% reliability
- Replacement index: €177
- Terminal index: €183
- Daughter milk: 4.9kg
- Daughter calving interval: 1.38 days
- Carcass weight: 36.6kg
- Carcass conformation: 2.73
- Age at finish: 0.22 days
- CH8112 Messmer: For maternal cows with carcass weights <5kg & terminal cows with age at finish less than -8 days
- Cow calving difficulty: 2.4% at 96% reliability
- Replacement index: €156
- Terminal index: €162
- Daughter milk: 8.8kg
- Daughter calving interval: -0.26 days
- Carcass weight: 45.9kg
- Carcass conformation: 1.79
- Age at finish: 1.19 days
- AU4683 Turloughmore Magnificent: Maternal cows >10kg daughter milk & terminal cows
- Cow calving difficulty: 2.9% at 98% reliability
- Replacement index: €230
- Terminal index: €146
- Daughter milk: 2.8kg
- Daughter calving interval: -6.22 days
- Carcass weight: 19.6kg
- Carcass conformation: 1.79
- Age at finish: -6.33 days
- CH5626 Love P: Terminal cows
- Cow calving difficulty: 4.2% at 96% reliability
- Replacement index: €101
- Terminal index: €158
- Daughter milk: 5.7kg
- Daughter calving interval: 0.59 days
- Carcass weight: 44.1kg
- Carcass conformation: 1.84
- Age at finish: -13.76 days
- CH2216 First: Terminal cows
- Cow calving difficulty: 3.1% at 97% reliability
- Replacement index: €31
- Terminal index: €175
- Daughter milk: 0.2kg
- Daughter calving interval: 5.51 days
- Carcass weight: 41.1kg
- Carcass conformation: 2.09
- Age at finish: -9.85 days
Each bull was matched to a cow or heifer based on the criteria above. They were also checked against the inbreeding search on ICBF as some of the bulls have been used in the herd previously. Breeding will start at the end of October and continue for 6 weeks in total. 61 cows and 15 heifers will be bred, amounting to 76 females in total.
Grassland
Ken’s latest wedge is reflecting a drop off in grass growth over the last few weeks. While growth at 27 kg DM/ha/day is just exceeding the demand of 24 kg DM/ha/day, the farm cover is low at 626 kg DM/ha. Another batch of finishing cattle are being sold this week, which will drop the demand to 20 kg/ha/day and will give Ken an opportunity to build grass covers. It will also increase his days ahead from 26 days to 31 days to leave him in a good position. The target days ahead are over 25 in September, with a target farm cover of 800-900 kg DM/ha. Ken will start closing paddocks in early October to leave them available for the calves to graze by day over the winter.
Some farmyard manure is left over and Ken is considering spreading a light cover of it on the fields that have been cut for silage to replace nutrient offtakes, and to encourage more grass growth this autumn.
Figure 2: Grass wedge on 13th September 2025
Ken has also been monitoring his red clover crop. He was debating whether to take a fourth cut but as the cover is quite low he has decided to mulch it instead to return the nutrients to the soil. The three cuts have yielded just over 9t DM/ha this year.
Figure 3: The fourth cut of red clover will be mulched
Performance
The yearling and store cattle were weighed on the 11th of August. The 2023 born bullocks (42) averaged 636kg and gained 0.94 g/day since 26th February. The 2023 finishing heifers (10) averaged 566kg and gained 0.89 kg/day since 26th February.
Figure 4: Some of the last batch of finishing cattle
The 2024 born bullocks (30) averaged 378kg and gained 1.06 kg/day since 11th March, while the beef heifers (16) averaged 345kg and gained 0.98 kg/day since March.
Figure 5: Some of the 2024 born yearlings
The first batch of finishing cattle were sold on 15th August. Five heifers averaged a carcass weight of 317kg and graded R=4- at 23.6 months of age. The 21 bullocks averaged 358kg carcass weight and graded R=3+ at 23.6 months of age.
The next load of finishing cattle are due to be sold on 19th September.