Animal Health
- Bought in heifers were dosed
- Ventilation calculations for the two sheds
- Air flow is slightly restricted to one part of the old shed
Trevor Boland May/June Update 2025
- Bulls are being fed ration at grass
- Latest weights for bulls
- Bought in heifers will be drafted for finishing as they come fit
Performance
Animal Health
The bought in heifers with injected with Animec super at the end of May. This treats for adult fluke, lung worms, stomach worms and lice.
Ventilation calculations were completed for the new and old shed in the farmyard. Measurements are taken from the shed length and width, and the number of cattle and their average live weight must also be taken into account.
The calculations show that an outlet of 3.28m2 is required for the 64 cattle (32 cows with calves) housed in the new shed, and that 18.43m2 is available through the roof canopy, timber lats at the back of the shed and a 0.3m eave opening between the top of the lats and the shed.
The calculations showed that there is more than enough of an air inlet at 88.2m2 (opening above feed barrier) versus the 3.28m2 required and this facing the prevailing wind.
The old shed requires an outlet of 2.28m2 for 50 cattle and it has 28.27m2 available. The outlets include a canopy at the top of the shed, and open doorway and an open space between the top of the shed wall and the roof.
The air inlet required is 2.28m2 and there is 4.8m2 available. However there are two pitched rooves in the shed and there may be insufficient fresh air travelling to the back of the shed. Trevor commented that he notices that that section of the shed seems to have less air flow over winter too. He simply houses the in calf heifers there so that there is less risk of the calves picking up any disease. It may be an option to add yorkshire boarding to the side of the shed where the wind prevails as an extra inlet in time.
Figure 1: One section of the shed appears to have poorer air flow
Grassland
Trevor is measuring grass regularly on the farm. His latest wedge on 21st June shows a farm cover of 617 kg DM/ha. Growth has dropped back to 33 kg DM/ha, but it is matching stock demand at 36 kg DM/ha. The days ahead are slightly high at 17 days but Trevor is comfortable where he is at and is happy to take out stronger paddocks if necessary.
The dry cows and the yearling bulls are currently grazing this block and the grass quality for the bulls is excellent as it is all after grass. The cows are grazing tightly to maintain their body condition so that they don’t become too fat in the lead up to calving.
First cut silage was made on 17th May, and one main field yielded disappointingly low so that Trevor only made 75 bales of silage. However he is confident that the yields will improve for the second cut and he will not be stuck for winter feed this year. All the slurry has been spread on silage ground to replace P and K offtakes.
Figure 2: Grass wedge for home farm on 21st June 2025
Performance
The bulls are being fed ration at grass since 25th May. They have progressed from being fed 1kg to 3.7kg of ration/head/day. Trevor plans to continue feeding them this at grass for 60 days, at which point he plans to sell them live. They are grazing the fresh re-growths on the silage ground and are moving onto fresh grass every day. They were dosed with Animec super this month to treat them for stomach and lung worms.
27 of the bulls were weighed on 17th June. The averaged 372kg and gained 1.82 kg/day on average since their previous weighing on 17th May. This ranged from 1.13 kg/day to 2.48 kg/day.
Figure 3: Yearling bulls eating ration at grass
Some of the bought in heifers are laying down fat at grass so Trevor expects that he will sell to them to the factory off of grass over the summer.
Figure 4: Bought in heifers at grass