With grass supplies starting to dwindle, the decision was made to house the majority of finishing stock on the farm. Eleven Belgian Blue bullocks had already been housed, as they were a long way off finishing, despite more than six weeks of meal feeding at grass.
They have since been joined by a group of bullocks and a group of heifers that are more than two weeks from being drafted for slaughter.
The last draft of bullocks and heifers from grass were slaughtered on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, 13 bullocks and 16 heifers were slaughtered from grass. This is the third draft of heifers and second draft of bullocks from pasture. The bullocks achieved an average carcase weight of 293kg, while the heifers averaged 268kg. With an average date of birth of the second week in March, this results in a slaughter age of just over 19 months.
Housed cattle
Housing the finishing stock at this stage will likely delay slaughter by about two weeks, as they take time to adapt to the new indoor diet. Meal feeding levels will remain at 3kg for heifers and 4kg for Angus and Hereford bullocks, while the Belgian Blue bullocks are being increased to 5kg/day concentrate.
In next week's Irish Farmers Journal, there wil be a full update on the slaughter performance of finishing cattle on the demo farm.
Calves at grass getting 1kg concentrate on the farm roadway.
Calves
This year’s calves remain at pasture and will do so for another two to three weeks. They are currently on a vaccination protocol in preparation for housing. They received their IBR vaccine 10 days ago and received their first shot for PI3 and RSV early this week. This will be boosted in 10 days’ time. It is hoped that the calves can be left at grass for a further week to 10 days post-booster, to allow maximum immunity to build up prior to housing.
With grass supplies starting to dwindle, the decision was made to house the majority of finishing stock on the farm. Eleven Belgian Blue bullocks had already been housed, as they were a long way off finishing, despite more than six weeks of meal feeding at grass.
They have since been joined by a group of bullocks and a group of heifers that are more than two weeks from being drafted for slaughter.
The last draft of bullocks and heifers from grass were slaughtered on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, 13 bullocks and 16 heifers were slaughtered from grass. This is the third draft of heifers and second draft of bullocks from pasture. The bullocks achieved an average carcase weight of 293kg, while the heifers averaged 268kg. With an average date of birth of the second week in March, this results in a slaughter age of just over 19 months.
Housed cattle
Housing the finishing stock at this stage will likely delay slaughter by about two weeks, as they take time to adapt to the new indoor diet. Meal feeding levels will remain at 3kg for heifers and 4kg for Angus and Hereford bullocks, while the Belgian Blue bullocks are being increased to 5kg/day concentrate.
In next week's Irish Farmers Journal, there wil be a full update on the slaughter performance of finishing cattle on the demo farm.
Calves at grass getting 1kg concentrate on the farm roadway.
Calves
This year’s calves remain at pasture and will do so for another two to three weeks. They are currently on a vaccination protocol in preparation for housing. They received their IBR vaccine 10 days ago and received their first shot for PI3 and RSV early this week. This will be boosted in 10 days’ time. It is hoped that the calves can be left at grass for a further week to 10 days post-booster, to allow maximum immunity to build up prior to housing.
SHARING OPTIONS