Shane Keaveney May/June Update 2024
Finishing performance
- 2024 slaughter Performance to date
- Age of slaughter is reduced by 3 weeks
- The dairy/beef calves are weaned and let outdoors
Breeding update
- The breeding season comes to an end on July 2nd
- Good results from the fixed time Ai programme
Performance
Shane has been drafting the bulls for the last number of weeks. Once a bull reaches a fat class of at least a 2 +, he will select it. The bulls have been preforming very well over the last numbers of weeks gaining 1.55kgs per day. There are 20 bulls this year and 15 will have been slaughtered by the end of June. Shane is very happy with their overall performance. There are weighing close to 700kgs at finish and the kill-out is at 58%.
2024 Slaughter report
Reducing age of slaughter is a big lever to reduce overall emissions on the farm. To date, the age has been reduced by three weeks form 2023. In addition the bulls are 9kg heavier than last year . Another advantage is a significant saving on labour.
2023 Slaughter report
How has Shane achieved a reduction of three weeks? It comes down to slight changes in the overall management;
- The bulls were weaned earlier in the Autumn and given 2 kgs of meal/head/day prior to housing out on good grass
- Once the weather deteriorated the bulls were housed immediately for the winter
- Shanes used a high quality red clover silage (76%DMD) from housing until ad-lib feeding.
- Shane separated the bulls into 2 groups instead of 1 and the heavier bulls went on ad-lib meal earlier.
Picture; By July 1st 4 bulls will be left to slaughter
Photo; summer maintenance- Shane needs to improve the ventilation of the bull shed
Photo The dairy bred calves are weaned and eating 1.5kgs of meal/head/day
Breeeding
The breeding season will come to a close on July 2nd. The bull will have spent 9 weeks with the main herd at that stage. Shane observes closely and the last three weeks have been very quiet with just three repeats in that time.
The synchronisation programme has worked well this year. Shane selected 10 of his best cows that had calved over 50 days for the programme. 8 out of the 10 held after 3 weeks. The 2 repeats were inseminated again. To improve the milk trait in the herd the Simmental bull LYNX was used. He has a milk figure of over 9kgs.
Shane has 5 maiden heifers and he also used a fixed time AI programme for them. The LM bulls powerful proper was selected along with a red Angus AA4089 for a lighter heifer. Shane will scan in August. In total 40 females have been bred for 2024.
Photo; Breeding season will end on July 2nd.
Grassland
So far this year, growing grass has been a struggle. Like the majority of farms, growth rates have fallen. Shane has blanket spread the farm with 20units of protected urea/ acre but the east wind and cold nights has slowed growth to just 33kgs/DM/ha day . The demand on the farm is also 33kgs/DM/day so building grass covers has been difficult.
As a result, Shane had to re-house 10 store heifers in June. Opening silage and going back in with 1kg of meal is not what any farmer wants to do in the middle of summer. However, if that decision was not made on time, the average farm cover would have remained low at just over 650kgs/DM/ha. Shane needed to reduce demand and slow the rotation. The heifers will be back out again at the end of June.
Photo; 10 heifers re-housed due to poor grass growth.
Shane plans to take the second of red clover silage in the first week of July and close gain immediately. He will apply 2500gals of slurry per acre. The new red clover ley has been sprayed with a clover safe herbicide and will be cut for the first time in July also.
Photo; New red clover silage; sowing date April 24th.