Calving has started on five of the 10 Northern Ireland Suckler Beef Programme farms, including that of Conor Sheeran (featured below).
The emphasis on all of these farms has been firmly focused on ensuring calves are born easily, thereby reducing the stress on all concerned.
To achieve this, winter feeding regimes have been implemented to ensure as many cows as possible are in the appropriate body condition score to calve trouble-free.
Bulls have also been used with positive calving values, which is resulting in less difficult calvings and, in some cases, much shorter gestation lengths.
As well as leading to less veterinary intervention and associated costs, implementing these management practices also gives cows a much greater chance of going back in-calf quickly and calving again within 365 days.
However, getting a live calf on the ground is not always a guarantee of a live calf after one month.
This has been a period of high mortality on some programme farms. To address this, post-calving practices are now given close attention on all farms.
This includes ensuring that each calf receives three to four litres of colostrum in the first three hours of life.
Also, calf navels are disinfected and calves are BVD tissue-tagged once they are fed and dry.
The sooner a BVD-infected animal is removed from the herd, the better.
It is also important to have sufficient calving pens (at least one pen for every eight to 10 cows at peak times), to clean pens out between calvings where possible and to use plenty of straw.
Some of the farms routinely vaccinate for pneumonia from 10 days.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Calving commenced on five of the programme farms, with the remainder due to start by the end of the month.Ground conditions mean that even the driest farms have been unable to get stock out.Meal has been reduced or removed from all yearling cattle in preparation for turnout.All autumn-calving cows have now been scanned.Conor Sheeran, Rathfriland, Co Down
A new calving season has just started. By last weekend, nine calves were on the ground from nine cows and heifers.
Some have been born a little earlier than expected, including a heifer having a healthy heifer calf after a gestation of only 271 days.
I have used a lot of AI over the herd. When picking bulls, I have picked those with positive estimated breeding values for calving ease. This gives me peace of mind that, if presented correctly, there should be few calving difficulties. However, this is not always the case, with two of the nine born coming backwards and needing assistance.
Calves born to date are from two Aberdeen Angus bulls, Netherton Americano and Gear Fury, as well as a Simmental bull, Keeldrum Clio.
With the last cow not due to calve until early May, it means that calving is still too spread out. I intend changing this by gradually moving the average calving date forward through breeding replacements from the earliest-calving cows and ensuring those later calvers are well managed post-calving.
I have already made good progress in this area, but am loathe to cull some of the later-calving cows just because of their calving dates. Some of these were always later-calving cows before coming into the programme.
With good-quality replacements expensive and difficult to source, I will persist for the time being.
However, my ultimate aim is to have more cattle finished off grass. Therefore, long term, I need the majority of cows calved in February and March.
This year, before calving started, I erected some additional calving pens. The work was nothing fancy – just a few gates hung from the wall and a 100mm section of iron sunk into the floor with a 7ft, 90mm section of box inserted into it and the gates hung to the box. The pens can be easily dismantled, so the shed can then be used for grain storage during harvest. A headlock gate has also been fitted for each pen.
Vaccinated
All in-calf heifers and cows were vaccinated for the main scours using Rotavac corona and also vaccinated for IBR, which has been an issue in the past on this farm prior to calving.
Once calved, I am able to get freshly calved cows out to grass most years, resulting in healthy, thriving calves. My land type is relatively dry.
However, with such poor weather this year, this has not been possible to date. Even the driest areas of the farm are too wet, meaning these extra calving pens may be well utilised over the coming weeks.
Over the past few years, I have also been able to get weanlings out to grass by mid-February. Grass covers are very heavy, but as yet I have only had one group of heifers out for a one-week period.
These weanlings are on an out-farm and there is now just two weeks of silage left for them. If conditions don’t change soon, silage will need to be hauled up from the home farm.
Although there were some other days when they could have been turned back out, they would have had to be rehoused after a couple of days. I think cattle need to be settled to thrive, so I am realistically now looking for a forecast of four days of dry weather in this area before anything else will go out.
No fertiliser has been used to date, but if ground conditions improve, some urea will be applied at a rate of 25kg per acre.
Performance
I am very happy with the performance of last year’s spring-born calves. The average weight of the bullocks and heifers at housing on 7 November was 337kg and 288kg respectively.
At the last weighing on 9 February, bullocks averaged 390kg and the heifers 338kg, leaving an average weight gain since housing of 0.55kg/day. They have been on silage only since 26 December.
Slurry storage is also coming under pressure. Some of the driest areas have had to be covered, even though grass covers were higher than desirable.
To reduce grass contamination, I watered the slurry down and applied it lightly at less than 2,000 gallons per acre.
Calving has started on five of the 10 Northern Ireland Suckler Beef Programme farms, including that of Conor Sheeran (featured below).
The emphasis on all of these farms has been firmly focused on ensuring calves are born easily, thereby reducing the stress on all concerned.
To achieve this, winter feeding regimes have been implemented to ensure as many cows as possible are in the appropriate body condition score to calve trouble-free.
Bulls have also been used with positive calving values, which is resulting in less difficult calvings and, in some cases, much shorter gestation lengths.
As well as leading to less veterinary intervention and associated costs, implementing these management practices also gives cows a much greater chance of going back in-calf quickly and calving again within 365 days.
However, getting a live calf on the ground is not always a guarantee of a live calf after one month.
This has been a period of high mortality on some programme farms. To address this, post-calving practices are now given close attention on all farms.
This includes ensuring that each calf receives three to four litres of colostrum in the first three hours of life.
Also, calf navels are disinfected and calves are BVD tissue-tagged once they are fed and dry.
The sooner a BVD-infected animal is removed from the herd, the better.
It is also important to have sufficient calving pens (at least one pen for every eight to 10 cows at peak times), to clean pens out between calvings where possible and to use plenty of straw.
Some of the farms routinely vaccinate for pneumonia from 10 days.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Calving commenced on five of the programme farms, with the remainder due to start by the end of the month.Ground conditions mean that even the driest farms have been unable to get stock out.Meal has been reduced or removed from all yearling cattle in preparation for turnout.All autumn-calving cows have now been scanned.Conor Sheeran, Rathfriland, Co Down
A new calving season has just started. By last weekend, nine calves were on the ground from nine cows and heifers.
Some have been born a little earlier than expected, including a heifer having a healthy heifer calf after a gestation of only 271 days.
I have used a lot of AI over the herd. When picking bulls, I have picked those with positive estimated breeding values for calving ease. This gives me peace of mind that, if presented correctly, there should be few calving difficulties. However, this is not always the case, with two of the nine born coming backwards and needing assistance.
Calves born to date are from two Aberdeen Angus bulls, Netherton Americano and Gear Fury, as well as a Simmental bull, Keeldrum Clio.
With the last cow not due to calve until early May, it means that calving is still too spread out. I intend changing this by gradually moving the average calving date forward through breeding replacements from the earliest-calving cows and ensuring those later calvers are well managed post-calving.
I have already made good progress in this area, but am loathe to cull some of the later-calving cows just because of their calving dates. Some of these were always later-calving cows before coming into the programme.
With good-quality replacements expensive and difficult to source, I will persist for the time being.
However, my ultimate aim is to have more cattle finished off grass. Therefore, long term, I need the majority of cows calved in February and March.
This year, before calving started, I erected some additional calving pens. The work was nothing fancy – just a few gates hung from the wall and a 100mm section of iron sunk into the floor with a 7ft, 90mm section of box inserted into it and the gates hung to the box. The pens can be easily dismantled, so the shed can then be used for grain storage during harvest. A headlock gate has also been fitted for each pen.
Vaccinated
All in-calf heifers and cows were vaccinated for the main scours using Rotavac corona and also vaccinated for IBR, which has been an issue in the past on this farm prior to calving.
Once calved, I am able to get freshly calved cows out to grass most years, resulting in healthy, thriving calves. My land type is relatively dry.
However, with such poor weather this year, this has not been possible to date. Even the driest areas of the farm are too wet, meaning these extra calving pens may be well utilised over the coming weeks.
Over the past few years, I have also been able to get weanlings out to grass by mid-February. Grass covers are very heavy, but as yet I have only had one group of heifers out for a one-week period.
These weanlings are on an out-farm and there is now just two weeks of silage left for them. If conditions don’t change soon, silage will need to be hauled up from the home farm.
Although there were some other days when they could have been turned back out, they would have had to be rehoused after a couple of days. I think cattle need to be settled to thrive, so I am realistically now looking for a forecast of four days of dry weather in this area before anything else will go out.
No fertiliser has been used to date, but if ground conditions improve, some urea will be applied at a rate of 25kg per acre.
Performance
I am very happy with the performance of last year’s spring-born calves. The average weight of the bullocks and heifers at housing on 7 November was 337kg and 288kg respectively.
At the last weighing on 9 February, bullocks averaged 390kg and the heifers 338kg, leaving an average weight gain since housing of 0.55kg/day. They have been on silage only since 26 December.
Slurry storage is also coming under pressure. Some of the driest areas have had to be covered, even though grass covers were higher than desirable.
To reduce grass contamination, I watered the slurry down and applied it lightly at less than 2,000 gallons per acre.
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