Breeding
Trevor scanned the breeding stock on the farm on 31st December and 24 cows were confirmed in calf, along with 8 heifers, which he was delighted with. Most of these were bred through a synchronisation programme with fixed time AI which to save Trevor work and time.
Ten heifers and 39 cows have been bred in total from 11th October 2025 to 29th January 2026, amounting to 18 weeks in total. The breakdown is as follows;
- 2 cows served 5 times
- 3 cows served 3 times
- 3 heifers & 15 cows served twice
- 7 heifers & 19 cows served once
Figure 1: The Saler bulls are penned with the cows to help identify any repeats
The later bred cows will be scanned when they are over 35 days bred. Trevor already has 3 cows picked out for culling in March/April due to later calvings, age and one cow with only 3 quarters. His aim is to calve down 8 heifers and 40 cows in the autumn.
Figure 2: The cull cows will be sold later in the year
Animal Nutrition
Trevor took 3 silage samples after Christmas. The highest result was 76.8% DMD at 30% dry matter with 15.06% crude protein which was excellent for any of the calved cows, breeding heifers or autumn born calves. The breeding heifers are getting 1.5 kg of ration/head/day and the calves are getting 1 kg/head/day along with their silage.
Figure 3: Results from the best silage sample
The 2 other samples did not test as high and came in at 67.2% DMD with 12.51% crude protein and 65.9% DMD with 11.27% crude protein, which is really only suitable for dry cows unless supplemented with ration to increase the protein and energy of the feed.
Figure 4: The calved cows are being fed good quality silage with no ration over winter
Performance
The last 9 bought in heifers were finished on 2nd December. Their average carcass weight was 249kg at 21.5 months of age and they graded O+3-.
The 5 bought in spring-born weanling bulls were weighed on 28th November and averaged 294kg, after gaining 1.11kg/day since birth.
The 2024 born bulls on the farms were weighed on 26th November and averaged 432kg, after gaining 0.67 kg/day since 7th September on average.
Some of the autumn 2025 calves were weighed in December and the average daily gains ranged from 0.89 to 1.14 kg/day since birth. As a lot of heifers were born in 2025, Trevor plans to buy in 15 bulls at 300-350kg and keep them for 6 months on grass with the autumn born bulls.
Figure 5: Some of the younger autumn 2025 born calves