Breeding
The breeding heifers were scanned and 21 out of 28 were confirmed in calf. One however was unsuitable for breeding so it resulted in a pregnancy rate of 78%. The Limousin bull was let back in with the heifers and they can be sold as later calving in calf heifers if they go in calf.
Figure 1: Some of the in calf heifers
The cows are yet to be scanned and will be done in late August/early September. 60 cows were bred to AI this year through a synchronisation programme. The breeding season started on 4th May and AI’ing finished on 4th May. The stock bull was removed from the cows in mid-July before the annual herd test.
With the surplus heifers bred this year, Michael and Niall will decide after scanning if they will cull harder on their cows and keep more in calf heifers, or sell some as breeding stock. From a labour and facilities perspective they are unlikely to build numbers more than 70 cows.
Animal Health
Preparation for weaning is well underway on Michael & Niall’s farm. The calves are being creep fed 1kg of ration per head per day, and are creep grazing ahead of the cows. This is particularly useful on the drier parts of the farm where cows can be held back a little longer and the calves can graze ahead of them.
Figure 2: Bull calves being creep fed ration
Figure 3: A heifer eating ration from the creep feeder
The vaccination process will start in mid-August when the calves will receive their first shot of Bovipast (followed by a booster 4 weeks later), and an IBR vaccine to help prevent them from getting pneumonia.
The calves will be weaned using nose paddles which will be inserted for 5-7 days to help break the maternal bond, and then the cows will be removed from them. Michael and Niall find them useful at weaning as the calves do not roar as much when separated from their dams.
Weaning will take place in September, depending on the weather. All suckler cows and calves have also been weighed on the same day as part of the SCEP programme prior to weaning. The TB herd test was passed in July also.
Performance
The cows and calves were weighed on 14th July. According to the weaning performance report, the bulls averaged 1.22kg/day from birth, achieving an average 200 day weight of 287kg. The heifers gained 1.14 kg/day and averaged 272kg at 200 days of age. This was higher than the calf performance in 2025, despite the slow spring.
The heaviest male calves are gaining up to 1.48 kg/day with the lowest at 0.78 kg/day. The heaviest heifer is gaining 1.45 kg/day with the lowest at 0.86 kg/day.
The average cow weight was 652kg and the herd achieved a weaning efficiency (calf 200 day weight as % of cow weight) of 44%, which is above the target 42%.
Figure 4: Some of the cows and heifer calves