Breeding activity is under way for spring-calving herds on the programme farms. To date, there has been plenty of breeding activity in both mature cows and maiden heifers.

Settled weather and spring-calving cows grazing good-quality swards are having positive effects on cow fertility.

Cows are also in good body condition, which is also helping to boost fertility. Thin cows at calving had priority grazing ahead of the breeding period, bringing them up to the recommended body condition score of 3.0.

All of the programme farms are calving heifers at 24 months of age. To increase conception rates, it is important to have heifers at a target of 60% of mature cow weight. For most farms, this is typically 380kg to 420kg liveweight.

Target breeding weight

To get heifers to the target breeding weight, they are normally the first group of stock to go to spring grass on the programme farms.

Heifers that calve at 24 months can be a challenge to get back in calf again. Management is crucial post-calving to avoid a high barren rate.

Ideally, these first-calved heifers should be kept together as a separate management group, as they may require additional concentrate feeding in the first month after calving to increase energy intake.

To aid heifers calve down at 24 months and get back in-calf again, easy calving sires with shorter gestation periods are being used on the programme farms.

With little stress on first-calved heifers at calving, they have been quick to come back into heat post-calving once they have been out to grass.

Week in review

  • Breeding is now under way in spring-calving herds.
  • Replacement heifers are being bred to AI by natural service and synchronisation programmes.
  • First-cut silage is almost completed on farms, with some surplus grazing still to be baled.
  • Grazing days ahead are building as grass growth increases.
  • Ryan McDowell: Gleno, Co Antrim

    Spring calving

    Spring calving finished on 26 May. Cows calved inside a nine-week period, which could have been a bit tighter but for four late-calving animals. All of the heifers calved inside 12 weeks. We are pleased with how calving went, with 71 cows calving this spring and 71 calves on the ground.

    We only started our suckler herd three years ago, so we have been building numbers. The plan for next spring is to try to calve down 100 cows.

    Our cow type is mostly a first-cross Angus from the dairy herd. The heifers are bred from a Friesian cow rather than Holstein, with some Jersey-cross breeding in heifers also.

    We source around 20 to 24 dairy-bred heifer calves from the same farm every year and it has been working well for us so far.

    The heifers are bucket-reared on milk until they are around 10 to 12 weeks old and then weaned. Regular handling from a young age means that cows are quiet and easy to work with. Sourcing replacements from the dairy herd is bringing milk into the herd also.

    Breeding

    Heifers are served to calve down at 24 months of age and we have had no difficulty in getting heifers back in calf.

    This year, we have 42 heifers to bull. This group is made up of 23 homebred heifers and 19 bought-in dairy-cross heifers.

    We started inseminating heifers last Wednesday. Heifers were being inseminated as they came into heat naturally. So far, we have 19 inseminated, with 13 heifers served in the first three days alone.

    I am checking heifers for heat activity three times per day, which is morning, noon and night. I am finding that heifers are showing the strongest heats at night.

    To aid heat detection, heifers have heat pads on their backs and I am running a homebred vasectomised bull which is a great help.

    The heifers are grazing on an outfarm that we have split into paddocks. There is a yard on the outfarm with a proper handling facility.

    We run the group through the pens to separate out the animals for AI and they are returned to grass straight after.

    We purchased a new Angus stock bull this year and he will cover any repeats. With heifers on good-quality grass and settled weather, hopefully conception rates to AI will be high.

    Cows

    Breeding for the main cow herd started on Saturday 27 May. My original plan was to hold the bulls out for a couple of weeks, but there was a high level of bulling activity in cows, so I thought it would be better to start breeding earlier than planned.

    Cows are running in two groups of 34 and 35 animals. We run Hereford and Angus stock bulls with cows.

    My plan will be to rotate the stock bulls after three weeks to cover for any potential fertility issue.

    Setting up paddocks

    We have set up a lot of paddocks this year and they have been really successful at helping us improve grassland management. The 42 heifers are grazing on 10 acres, which we have split into seven paddocks at the minute. It was set up as four paddocks, but with strong grass growth, we have added extra divisions for now.

    There is one 150-litre drinking trough in the centre of the field serving all paddocks. The cost to set up the paddocks was as follows:

  • Trough = £75.
  • Water pipe = £66.
  • 25 wooden posts = £40.
  • 50 plastic posts = £50.
  • Electric wire = £30.
  • Reels = £50.
  • Fencing unit = £95.
  • Total = £406.
  • Other paddocks have been set up for the cows as well. We have taken out silage bales from surplus grass on paddocks, with 12 acres baled. There will be more paddocks to take out. Regrowth has been great and cows are moving back on to fresh silage aftermath in 12 to 14 days.

    We have 15 days of grazing ahead at the minute, which will probably increase as grass hits the peak period of growth this month.

    Grazed paddocks are getting fertiliser on a little-and-often approach, with 20 units/acre applied once per week.