Breeding
Breeding finished on 20th July this year. Olivia started AI’ing cows on 5th May so that amounts to 11 weeks of a breeding season in total. Olivia already had 4 cull cows picked out that were not bred due to calving difficulties and temperament.
Olivia scanned the herd on 25th August. 49 females were bred in total this year; 9 heifers and 40 cows. 40 of them are confirmed in calf, and a further 3 must be re-checked as they are not long enough in calf. Two heifers did not go in calf and two of the empty cows had caesarean sections this year. Olivia’s target is to have 50 cows calving next spring so she will consider buying in some replacements this autumn.
Figure 1: Cows were scanned on 25th August
On the sheep side, Olivia has picked 57 ewe lambs for breeding next year. All of the sheep have been sheared since June and the rams will be turned out with the ewes in early September. The ewes are on good quality grass in the lead up to breeding in order to ‘flush’ them. Two Charollais rams will be bought this month also.
Figure 2: Some of the rams for this year’s breeding season
Olivia has been analysing her ICBF beef calving report for 2025, as per Figure 3 below. Calving started on 24th March and finished on 30th April, lasting 11 weeks in total. 12 heifers and 34 cows calved this spring. The calving interval was close to the 365 day target at 376 days, and well ahead of the national average figure of 400 days.
Mortality was higher than Olivia would have like this year, due to an increase in caesarean sections on the farm. Two calves had died before 28 days of age, or 4.3%. While it is below the target of less than 5%, Olivia believes they would have been avoided if the calvings were less difficult. Despite this, her calves per cow per year figure is still good at 0.93, only slightly behind the target of 0.95. The national average figure is 0.85.
While Olivia calves her home bred heifers at 24 months of age, she did not have the same option with her bought in heifers so 50% of the calved heifers calved at 22-26 months of age this year. The spring 6 week calving rate was 52% for 2025.
Olivia’s culling rate was high in 2024 at 33% (target 20%) and she would like to see this reduce over time, so as to avoid buying in expensive breeding females to keep her herd numbers up.
Figure 3: Olivia’s calving report for 2025 (Source: ICBF)
Animal Nutrition
Olivia measured the silage pit in Kilcash. It was 11.7m wide x 21.3m long and 4m high. He dry matter is estimated at over 30% as there was very little seepage from the crop. When this is inputted into Pasturebase, it estimates that 184 t of dry matter is available in the pit (see Figure 4).
Additionally, 48 bales of silage were bought and 168 bales have been made this year. Oliva is planning to have 45-50 cows this winter along with 22 weanlings, 235 ewes, 8 rams, 9 yearlings and 65 lambs. The silage will provide them with 195 days of feed for this winter, so she will have more than enough feed for the coming winter.
Figure 4: Fodder available budget on PBI
A second creep feeder was bought this year and Olivia is feeding the weanlings 2-3 kg of ration/head/day through it before weaning.
Figure 5: Olivia topping up the creep feeder with ration
Performance
Olivia weighed the cattle on the farm on 23rd July. The 2025 dairy beef heifers (3) averaged 150kg and gained 0.74 kg/day since birth. The 2025 dairy beef bulls (3) averaged 157kg and gained 0.8 kg /day since birth.
The 2024 dairy beef heifers (11) averaged 393kg and gained 0.9kg/day at grass since 13th March. The 2024 dairy beef vasectomised bulls (2) averaged 543kg and gained 1.06 kg/day since their last weighing on 11th November 2024.
Figure 6: 2024 born dairy beef heifers
The ICBF weaning performance is an excellent report for benchmarking the suckler calves. It can be generated after the suckler weights are inputted and will show details for calves that were from 100 to 300 days of age at the weighing.
Figure 7: Some of this year’s suckler calves
Olivia’s calf performance is well on target with an average 200 days weight of 297kg for the bull calves, who gained 1.25kg/day per day since birth. Meanwhile the heifers are averaging 283kg at 200 days of age, with an average weight gain of 1.2 kg/day since birth.
The average cow weight in the herd is 674kg and the weaning efficiency is 44%, ahead of the target 42%. This expresses the calf 200 day weight as a percentage of the cow live weight.
All cows and calves were weighed on the same day so Olivia has that part of her SCEP requirements complete for the year.
Figure 8: Calf performance from ICBF weaning performance report