Kildalton’s 2017 spring-born calf crop were weighed on 4 September, prior to the open day.

Bulls weighed 292kg on average and mean date of birth was 18/2/2017.

This translates into a growth rate of 1.2kg daily. Heifers are growing at a rate of 1.12kg daily, weighing 264kg. Their average date of birth is 24 February.

The herd calves from mid-January to late-March and average calving overall date is 22 February.

Kildalton College's beef heifers

The top cows in the herd are bred to maternal AI sires and an LGL-sired (Charolais) stock bull runs with the rest of the herd and mops up after AI. Heifers are bred to easy-calving AI sires.

Cattle technician John O’Connor said that overall, calves are back around 15kg of weight on this time last year.

“They’re behind, but these calves are just starting meal this week as there’s lots of grass around. Last year, they had four weeks of meal at this stage,” John said.

The heaviest males (~70%) from the Kildalton calf crop will go for under-16-month bull beef next summer.

Bull performance in 2017 was exceptional. All bulls graded U, or better and average price was €1,917. Approximately 1.5t of meal was fed per head.

Financial performance

Overall farm gross output in 2016 was €2,422/ha and gross margin was €1,413/ha – meaning that the farm is keeping 58% of output before overheads.

However, while 2017 financial performance should be similar or better, high calving mortality this spring will likely hit next year’s profit monitor results.

Mortality

“Spring 2017 was our worst in memory, as we lost eight calves,” John told me.

“Sixty-two cows scanned in-calf and now we have 55 weanling calves,” he added.

Strangely, there were contrasting reasons for most of the losses.

“One cow had two dead calves a fortnight ahead of calving date. One calf was born with no back passage.

"One weak calf was slow initially, but looked like he would be OK. The vet injected him to get him going but he died while injecting.

"There were two calves born dead, for no reason. One calf broke a leg and had to be put down and one died after an exceptionally hard calving,” John said.

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