Calving update & breeding plans
- Calving update
- Cows and calves at grass
- Breeding decisions for 2025
Wesley Browne March/April 2025 Update
- Handling area upgraded on out farm
- Holding pens & forcing gate installed
- Crush is angled for better flow
Upgrade of facilities
Breeding
Over 34 cows are calved to date since 16th February, with one calf born by c-section. Other than that they are progressing well and Wesley is turning the cows and calves out to grass within a few days of birth.
Figure 1: Freshly calved Saler cross cow with her calf at foot
Figure 2: One of Wesley’s heifers that calved at 24 months of age with her Limousin bull calf
Wesley’s breeding plans for this year are as follows;
- SalerX cows will be bred to the Simmental bull
- SimmentalX cows will be bred to a Limousin bull (to be bought)
- The heifers (~30) will be bred to the Angus bull
The Simmental bull is €147 on the replacement index and is 5.9% calving difficulty at 86% reliability for cows. He is 12kg for daughter milk and -1.8 8days on daughter calving interval so has good maternal traits. He is still strong on terminal traits at 27.8kg carcass weight and 1.53 on carcass conformation, with -6.51 days on age at finish.
Figure 3: Simmental bull Eurostar traits (March 2025)
These traits are complimenting his cows who are strong on carcass weight at 21kg, good on daughter milk at 5.8kg, -0.12 on daughter calving interval and 0.01 on docility and at €116 on the replacement index.
Figure 4: Eurostar details for the cows (March 2025)
Wesley is debating using the Angus bull on the heifers due to his terminal traits. He is 6.9% on heifer calving difficulty, but only at 52% reliability. He is 23.4kg on carcass weight which is much higher than the breed average of 7.55kg, but is only 0.53 on carcass conformation. His age at finish is -21.09 days and he is a good maternal bull at 12kg for daughter milk and -1.62 days on daughter calving interval.
The heifers will be weighed again before breeding and Wesley will make a final decision on the bull choice then.
Figure 5: Eurostar traits for Angus bull
Performance
The bulls (41) were weighed on 6th March. Overall they averaged 489kg and gained 1.53kg/day since the last weighing on 17th January. They are currently eating 8.5kg ration/head/day. However when they are divided based on whether they were creep fed meal before weaning it shows the following;
- The bulls that were eating meal averaged 526kg and gained 1.33kg/day on average since birth
- The bulls that didn’t eat ration averaged 473kg and gained 1.28kg/day since birth on average
- The bulls that were weaned early from the cull cows averaged 459kg and gained 1.15kg/day on average since birth
They have been moved into a larger pen to give them more feed and lying space.
Figure 6: Finishing bulls have been moved to a larger pen
Five cows were sold in the mart on 15th February. They averaged 680kg and averaged €2388/head (€3.51/kg). A further 2 cows were sold through the mart on 29th March. They averaged 845kg live weight and averaged €3375/head (€3.99/kg).
The Limousin bull was sold to the factory on 17th February and five heifers were sold to two different farms at the end of March.
Health & Safety
Wesley has upgraded the handling facilities on the out farm since last year. One group of cows and calves typically spend the grazing season there and the old system wasn’t fit for purpose any longer. Wesley installed two simple holding pens that join up to a crush that has a forcing gate at the back to help move cattle along the crush.
The cattle are moving along the handling unit to their left hand side which is as recommended. He also curved the top of the crush and gate to improve the flow through the crush and to give himself space to work. So far it is working well for him and is safer than the previous system.
Figure 7: The handling facilities on the outfarm have been upgraded