Breeding
All 31 spring calving cows are currently calved on the farm and there are 8 heifer calves and 23 bulls.
The spring calving spread on the farm was just under 5 weeks on the farm which is very impressive. Eamon and Donnchadh’s herd are within the top 10% of herds for most breeding KPIs as outlined in the table below. All females on the farm are bred through artificial insemination so the AI sired calves is typically 100%, but 7 in-calf heifers were bought in for the autumn herd that were in calf to a stock bull. These were also over 26 months of age at their first calving, but all of Eamon & Donnchadh’s home bred replacements calved down between 22-26 months of age.
It is estimated that by increasing the number of calves per cow per year from 0.86 to 0.96, calving heifers at 24 months of age instead of 32 months and increasing the 6 week calving rate from 54% to 80% will generate a net margin of over €165 per cow on suckler farms.
Key Performance Indicator
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Eamon & Donnchadh’s herd
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National average
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Calving interval
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355 days
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395 days
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Mortality (dead at 28 days)
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0%
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2.36%
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Calves per cow per year
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1.01
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0.86
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% heifers calved 22-26 months of age
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59%
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23%
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Spring 6 week calving rate
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100%
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54%
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Autumn 6 week calving rate
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100%
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62%
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Recycled cows
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2%
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17%
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AI sired calves
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85%
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16%
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Eamon and Donnchadh have selected bulls for breeding the spring calving cows to. They will start breeding on 1st May for a period of 6 to 8 weeks. For the first calving heifers they prioritise easy calving bulls.
They are breeding replacements from the highest Eurostar cows and are looking for positive daughter milk figures, low daughter calving difficulty and good carcass weight so that any bull calves can still fit into the U16 month bull system.
Terminal bulls selected for cows aim to have over 40kg carcass weight, >2 on carcass conformation and a maximum of 9.5% on cow calving difficulty.
Some of the bulls selected from include SI4147 (replacement and terminal), LM2014, PT2165 (terminal), LM7599 (replacement), CH4321 (terminal), AU4683 (replacement), CH4252 (terminal), CH4082 (terminal) and CH7503 (terminal).