There is just one cow left to calve on Tullamore Farm and all other cows and calves are out at grass.

There are currently three groups of cows grazing on the farm.

Two groups of breeding cows of 40 cows each and a bunch of cull cows are being grazed.

Calving date

Heats have been recorded for the last two weeks and cows were tailpainted on Thursday 24 April ahead of breeding commencing on 25 April. This will mean cows will start calving around 4 February 2021.

Vasecomisted bulls have been turned out with cows and bulls have been fitted with a chinball harness and a mooheat collar to pick up heats.

Table 1 outlines the bulls picked to use during the 2020 breeding season.

Grass

Average farm cover went up last week to 774kg/DM/ha from the previous week’s figure of 742/kg/DM/ha.

The farm recorded a growth of 51kg/DM/day over the last seven days. Growth is now ahead of the demand figure of 39kg/DM/ha/day.

There is now 20 days ahead of stock on the farm with 94 cows grazing, 220 ewes and 61 yearling heifers.

It’s probably a little too much for the time of year but it’s a balancing act.

Farm manager Shaun Diver said: “We have two paddocks heading for 1,900kg/DM/ha on them but I’m a little afraid to take too much out with the moisture situation. We haven’t had any rain here for four weeks and could do with some to keep growth going. If rain is forecast, we’ll take out a few paddocks next week and, if not, we will graze them. Utilisation is excellent in the good weather."

Bulls

Five bulls were killed this week and averaged 382kg carcase weight. Performance was good with an average lifetime daily liveweight gain of 1.42kg/day.

The price was very disappointing at a base of €3.40/kg and really calls into question the merits of the bull finishing system.

The bulls averaged €1,390/head, back €275/head on 2018 prices

The price was very disappointing at a base of €3.40/kg and really calls into question the merits of the bull finishing system

The bulls are currently on 11kg of meal/day at €271/t, so meal costs are coming in at €3/day. Add in other costs of €0.20/day for straw, etc, and total daily costs come to €3.20/day.

At a daily gain of 1.7kg/day and a 58% kill-out, that’s .98kg carcase/day. At €3.64/kg, that’s a gross of €3.56/day. So the bulls are currently clearing €0.36/head/daily.

It’s nowhere near where we need it to be to make money but we have to continue to be as efficient as possible to reduce the losses that they will incur for 2020.