The target is to calve all of the 100 cows on the farm from October to December. This year, the last of the calves was born in early February. Through culling and gaining a little time on breeding, the target next year is to have all cows calved by the end of December.

Almost all the cows calve and are bred indoors. In terms of calving pens, the farm is well equipped. In total, 10 pens are available during the calving season, all of which can be accessed from the main cow shed, leaving it a one-man job.

As with any herd calving over autumn and winter, having good-quality silage on the farm is essential to ensure that cows are in correct body condition score (BCS) at calving and breeding.

The key targets for an autumn-calving herd are to have the cows calving down at a BCS of 3.0. Between then and breeding, the cow’s BCS should not drop by more than half a score to 2.5.

To achieve this, Mike feeds high-quality 72 to 74DMD silage ad lib, along with 1kg to 1.5kg of ration. Ration is removed from the diet after the cows are back in calf to keep costs as low as possible, which is difficult in most years on a farm with heavy land. Heat detection is crucial on a farm like this. There is no stock bull and all cows are served to AI. Mike does not use any heat detection aids or a teaser bull, but relies 100% on observations in the shed. There are 50 cubicle spaces on the farm and Mike feels that these are crucial for heat detection.

By having a quick walk through the sheds three times a day, he can spot cows easily in the cubicles that are emitting a discharge. He then makes sure to pay close attention to these in the proceeding few days to observe if they become marked or show signs of oestrus.

“It is all down to experience really; everyone has their own way of spotting cows that are bulling and some people are better at it than others. For me, it’s one of my strong points.”

Culling

Mike has become more ruthless when culling. About 35 days after the end of the breeding season, cows are scanned and those not in-calf are noted. Any other cows that need to be culled are noted also.

This year, he has weaned the calves of these cows one month to six weeks earlier than the main herd. With the start of weaning now approaching for the main herd, all cull cows have already been removed from the farm.

Along with keeping output high, it also helps to reduce the demand for grass on the farm.

Most of the cows were slaughtered, but some were sold live. In the coming year, Mike intends to slaughter all cull cows, but the final decision for this will rest on a budget being completed and the live market assessed.

Weaning

Calves will start to be weaned from cows in the coming weeks. Bulls and heifer calves are separated early in the season and run separately. The plan is to start weaning the older bull calves first in batches of 10.

The cows will be housed and calves will be let in to suckle on the first day, but no suckling will take place on the second day.

The calves will suckle the cows once on the third day and then be removed. Mike feels that this protocol helps to leave the cows’ udders empty.

Reduced labour

Last winter, Mike constructed a new slatted shed on his outfarm for finishing bulls. The four-bay shed has a 16.5ft slat and is designed for finishing bulls on an ad-lib system.

On one side of the pens is a normal feed barrier, while on the opposite side is a cattle crush and concrete feed trough.

Mike opted to put in an auger and batch feeder system to cut out the carrying of meal to the bulls. The system is set on a timer so that the auger will come on for 15 minutes every four hours and has an automatic trip.

The reason it was set to a timer of 15 minutes was to ensure that each pen of bulls has enough meal, but never too much.

Mike said: “We put the timer on the augers because it was coming on and off constantly as the bulls on the first pen were eating it.

“The bulls spread out the concentrates in the trough as it comes out of the pipe. Without the timer turning the augers off, too much meal was ending up with the bulls and I want to avoid waste.”

The system, supplied by Crowley Engineering, cost approximately €2,500 including VAT and excluding the meal bin, which is significant, but when the cost is spread over the lifetime of the equipment, Mike thinks that it is well worth the investment.

Bull performance

Up to two years ago, very little stock was finished on the farm. However, now almost all stock is finished, with some cull cows sold live.

There is currently a group of 16 bulls indoors for finishing; more have been slaughtered in the past few weeks. Some of these were bought-in bulls and the majority were slaughtered under 16 months of age.

Mike estimates that the 16 bulls are eating approximately 11kg to 12kg of ration per day at the moment, along with 72DMD silage as a roughage source. The finishing ration being fed to the bulls is a simple high-maize blend with no fillers supplied by Howards.

Prior to housing, the bulls were built up to 4kg of ration per day and then weighed and housed for a 100- to 110-day finishing period. During the finishing period, the bulls had an average weight gain of 2kg/day.

Mike said that he thinks there are a few main factors for the high level of performance. Firstly, the slat mats in the new shed; secondly, the fact that the bulls are healthy; and thirdly, the quality of the ration they are eating.

Health has improved significantly in the past few years. Previously, issues with IBR were identified on the farm. As a result, a strict vaccination programme was implemented.

Every calf born on the farm gets an IBR vaccination followed by a booster shot. Before housing, they get a third vaccination to ensure that there are no IBR issues in the shed. Since implementing the vaccination programme, Mike said that there are no sniffles at housing.

He also thinks that the new shed has helped. It was built on an outfarm to reduce the movement of slurry and to keep any bulls that are bought in for finishing isolated from his own herd. The shed itself was designed to ensure that there is always good air flow through the shed, but no draughts.

Adviser comment

Mike’s change in system to all finishing has allowed him to fully exploit the top genetics in his stock.

His bulls and heifers have shown impressive weight gain during the finishing period, with higher-than-predicted carcase weights.

Along with improved grassland management, use of all five-star AI bulls and tightening up his calving spread, this will contribute to a hugely improved gross margin this year when compared to his starting point in 2012.

His system will demonstrate how to farm very profitably on extremely heavy land.

Alan Dillon