Breeding
Autumn Calving Herd Update
The autumn calving herd started calving on the 15th of August, so far 8 cows have calved including 2 loses at birth due to a difficult calving. The cows calve in a paddock close to the yard with grass being restricted to the cows. The cows have access to hay/straw in the shed also which can be accessed at all times. By keeping the cows close to the parlour it allows for easier management if a cow needs to be handled at calving. This year the cows have been receiving 2 kg of a pre calver nut containing mainly oats, soya hulls and soya bean meal, the cows also receive their pre calver minerals dusted on the forage. Any calf born that does not suckle the cow, will be fed colostrum using a teat and bottle. The calves are then moved to another paddock and vaccinated for viral pneumonia at a week old. The heifers are mainly in calf to Sliabh Felim LM8929 and the cows are in calf mainly to Drumline S LM9577. Any cow not suitable for breeding replacements is inseminated to a Belgian Blue sire. Sliabh Felim was chosen for the heifers as he has a calving difficulty of 5.3% on beef heifers with a high reliability of 86%. Heifers by Sliabh Felim will also be retained in the herd for breeding. John calves down approximately 65% of the herd to ai. The spring and autumn calving cows are calved over a 12 week period in each period. The herd calving interval is 370 days and 0.94 calves per cow per year are weaned. A Limousin stock bull is used on any repeats. The Eurostar indexes for the bulls used are as follows:
Figure 1: Bulls used on autumn herd
Figure 2: Autumn calving cows with calves at foot by Drumline S
Animal Health
The spring calves are currently being prepared for the weaning process, bull weanlings are normally sold for the top end export weanling market, with heifers not suitable for breeding being retained on farm and sold as 1.5-year-old stores. Bull calves are separated from the female calves in September in order to prevent any heifer calves going in calf accidentally. The calves receive a viral pneumonia vaccine at a week old and, receive their first viral pneumonia vaccine in early august with the booster injection being given to the calves 4 weeks later. The calves have had faecal samples analysed for stomach worms, coccidiosis, and lungworms and to date have required 1 treatment for stomach worms. The calves are mainly observed for lungworm by watching out for signs of coughing as the presence of lungworm in faecal samples can often be too late. John used creep grazing to increase weight gains at grass for the unweaned calf. The wire is raised at both ends of the paddock so calves can graze ahead of the cows. John finds that this system works well and a beef nut can then be fed to the calves in feed troughs. This practice helps to break the cow calf bond and also helps weight gain in the unweaned calves at a time when their feed intake is increasing. The 200 day weight gain for the all calves born in 2024 was 1.18kg liveweight gain per day from birth, with the bulls averaging 1.24 kg and the heifers gaining 1.11kg from birth. The herd has a milk pta of 4kg which John is trying to increase. The carcass weight of 21kg is probably high enough and can e maintained or slightly reduced. John uses the quiet wean nose fittings to help break the cow calf bond and carries out the weaning process in batches by removing approx.. 10 cows at a time from the herd. The calves are left with the herd having access to both creep grazing and a creep feed. This practice helps to reduce stress on the weanling.
Figure 3: Beef Eurostar rating for the herd
Figure 4: Calf 1975, DOB: 26th Apr 25, Sire: Stockbull, Myostatin status: 2 x F94L
Figure 5: Calf 1942, DOB: 5th Mar 25, Sire: LM7077, Myostatin status: 2 x F94L
Figure 6: Calf 1944, DOB: 6th Mar 25, Sire: Stockbull, Myostatin status: 1 x F94L, 1 X NT821DEL11
Performance
Heifer weanlings are retained on the farm for sale as 1.5 year old stores. The farm also operates a dairy calf to beef system buying in heifer and male dairy bred calves and bring them through to stores or possibly beef. Grass supply is very plentifull on the farm with cows grazing covers of 1900kg dm/ha, with a farm cover of 830kg dm/ha. The spring calving herd are moved to an outside silage block, this will allow John to build covers for both the autumn calving herd and the store cattle. 2024 born heifers will be sold from September onwards with the dairy beef animals being retained and either finished off grass and concentrates before housing or will be sold as heavy store cattle in October/early November.
Some Autumn born 2024 heifers will be selected for breeding and the remaining heifers will be sold. Currently the herd replacement rate is 15%.
Figures 7,8,9 & 10: Suckler bred and dairy calf to beef 1.5year old heifers