Newford Herd, the 100-cow suckler-to-beef demonstration herd located in Athenry, Co Galway, has now drafted 28 steers for slaughter with another batch of 14 processed on 7 December.

The steers delivered an average carcase weight of 384kg, 7kg higher than the batch drafted on 15 November. The average slaughter performance was R=3=, with individual performance detailed in Table 1.

Total concentrate consumption was significantly higher though. This batch consumed 220kg extra concentrates, bringing total intake since concentrates were introduced in July to 973kg while lifetime concentrate consumption stands at 1.22t.

Steers slaughtered to date have significantly exceeded the performance of their 2017 counterparts who achieved a carcase weight of 340kg over the entire group.

There is still 33 steers left to slaughter and while the slaughter weight of these will be reduced by steers from first-calf heifers included, they should still hopefully achieve a significant increase over 2017 slaughter performance.

Performing well

Farm manager Matthew Murphy says the remaining batch is performing well since moving on to a higher level of supplementation.

They are currently consuming 10kg concentrate split into a morning and evening feed and also have access to ad-lib silage. The target is to draft the remaining steers next week.

Matthew says weanlings also appear to be performing well since housing. Bulls and heifers have access to the better-quality silage harvested with a dry matter digestibility (DMD) in excess of 70 DMD and are also receiving 2kg concentrate supplementation daily.