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With first-cut silage now complete on the programme farms and grazing conditions holding up despite frequent rainfall, attention is now turning to animal health.
Controlling worms in young calves and growing cattle is now a leading priority at this point in the grazing season. With several of the BETTER Farm NI farmers using a synchronisation programme for breeding replacement heifers, limiting handling and animal stress has been important to maximise conception rates.
Therefore, maiden heifers have generally been the first cattle group to be wormed on farm this year. In many cases, heifers have been wormed early before the onset of breeding to have animals in the best possible health condition before they were inseminated.
Another reason for worming these cattle early is that maiden heifers were the first cattle to go back to grass in either March or April of this year.
Exposure
Therefore, they have had a longer exposure to worm burdens on grazing ground.
After maiden heifers, the next group of animals to prioritise for worm control is yearling steers or autumn calves.
Where possible, they also went back to grass early this spring.
As these animals will be housed for finishing in early autumn, it is important to keep on top of internal parasites now to maximise weight gain from grass.
Spring-born calves are now being wormed on farm, as the role of grass in the calf’s diet increases.
As young calves have no immunity to such parasites, it is important that animals are treated on time to provide adequate cover and limit any impact on calf performance.
Week in review
First-cut silage has been harvested on farm and ground is now closed up for second cut.
With cows in good condition and on good-quality grazing, there have been high levels of breeding activity.
Paddocks are being topped to maintain grass quality where grazing residuals were not fully cleaned out.
Paddocks are receiving 20 to 25 units of nitrogen after grazing to boost regrowth.
Farmer focus: Mark Lewis, Portadown, Co Armagh
Switching to 100%
spring calving
First-cut silage was harvested on 11 May with 55 acres of grass lifted. I am increasing the size of my suckler herd significantly this year, so there will be increased demand for silage this winter.
The suckler herd is split, with 61 cows calving this spring and 20 autumn-calving cows.
My plan is to build the suckler herd to 110 cows calving next spring.
To achieve this, I have made the decision to let the better-quality autumn cows slip back to the spring herd. The older autumn cows will be culled.
Along with the autumn cows moving to the spring herd, I have a group of 40 breeding heifers being mated at the moment.
After a few cull cows are removed from the spring herd and a few empty females, this should bring me up to the 110 cow mark.
I think going for 100% spring calving will suit my farm and make management that bit easier, with fewer stock groups.
Spring calving should mean three groups of cows and calves at grass, one group of replacement heifers and one group of beef heifers. All bulls are housed at weaning and intensively finished.
To accommodate the bigger herd, additional cattle housing is currently being constructed and will be used to winter cows.
The shed will have a split floor with slats and a straw lie-back. The tank has just been poured, so the project is on track for this year.
Breeding programme
I have always run Limousin stock bulls for breeding, but I think I am starting to lose out on milk production in cows.
To bring some new genetics into the herd, I purchased Simmental and Angus bulls this spring. Stock bulls went out with cows on 1 May and will be removed on 30 July.
Cows are in two groups. The first group has 39 cows and is being served by the Simmental bull to get replacements. The second group has 22 cows and is being served with a Limousin.
For the group of 40 heifers, I synchronised 17 animals and served them to AI on 4 May. Only three heifers have repeated, which I am delighted with, as this is the first time trying this.
On Friday of last week, I brought in another 11 heifers to synchronise. They were too light to serve back on 4 May, but the group has performed well at grass since then. The group currently weighs 360kg to 400kg liveweight and is now more suited to breeding.
The remainder of the heifers were served by the new Angus stock bull and he will also cover any repeats.
My breeding programme is outlined in Figure 1.
Winter forage budget
With an increasing herd, I will need a bigger silage reserve for winter feeding. Silage ground got a quick grazing before closing up for second-cut around one week after harvesting. There are 48 acres closed up, with a planned harvesting date of mid-July.
I have limited slurry on farm, so some of the silage ground went without. Ground was slurried at a rate of 3,000 gallons per acre and topped up with two bags of CAN, which should bring it up to 75 units of nitrogen. The remaining ground got two bags of 20:10:10 and 1.5 bags of CAN.
To boost forage reserves, there are 16 acres of wholecrop wheat to be ensiled. It has been under-sown with grass and I have found this to be a good way to reseed ground. There will be 10 acres of grass silage ensiled along with it.
Budgeting for a 160-day winter will take cows from 20 October to 1 April. To be safe, it is always best to factor in a safety reserve, so calculations are based on 180 days. Total silage requirement is around 916t, so I should be fine this winter.
Silage yields from the different cuts are:
55ac 1st cut @ 8t/ac = 440t.
48ac 2nd cut @ 7t/ac = 336t.
16ac wholecrop @ 12t/ac = 192t.
10ac 3rd cut @ 5t/acre = 50t.
Total silage = 1,018t.
With first-cut silage now complete on the programme farms and grazing conditions holding up despite frequent rainfall, attention is now turning to animal health.
Controlling worms in young calves and growing cattle is now a leading priority at this point in the grazing season. With several of the BETTER Farm NI farmers using a synchronisation programme for breeding replacement heifers, limiting handling and animal stress has been important to maximise conception rates.
Therefore, maiden heifers have generally been the first cattle group to be wormed on farm this year. In many cases, heifers have been wormed early before the onset of breeding to have animals in the best possible health condition before they were inseminated.
Another reason for worming these cattle early is that maiden heifers were the first cattle to go back to grass in either March or April of this year.
Exposure
Therefore, they have had a longer exposure to worm burdens on grazing ground.
After maiden heifers, the next group of animals to prioritise for worm control is yearling steers or autumn calves.
Where possible, they also went back to grass early this spring.
As these animals will be housed for finishing in early autumn, it is important to keep on top of internal parasites now to maximise weight gain from grass.
Spring-born calves are now being wormed on farm, as the role of grass in the calf’s diet increases.
As young calves have no immunity to such parasites, it is important that animals are treated on time to provide adequate cover and limit any impact on calf performance.
Week in review
First-cut silage has been harvested on farm and ground is now closed up for second cut.
With cows in good condition and on good-quality grazing, there have been high levels of breeding activity.
Paddocks are being topped to maintain grass quality where grazing residuals were not fully cleaned out.
Paddocks are receiving 20 to 25 units of nitrogen after grazing to boost regrowth.
Farmer focus: Mark Lewis, Portadown, Co Armagh
Switching to 100%
spring calving
First-cut silage was harvested on 11 May with 55 acres of grass lifted. I am increasing the size of my suckler herd significantly this year, so there will be increased demand for silage this winter.
The suckler herd is split, with 61 cows calving this spring and 20 autumn-calving cows.
My plan is to build the suckler herd to 110 cows calving next spring.
To achieve this, I have made the decision to let the better-quality autumn cows slip back to the spring herd. The older autumn cows will be culled.
Along with the autumn cows moving to the spring herd, I have a group of 40 breeding heifers being mated at the moment.
After a few cull cows are removed from the spring herd and a few empty females, this should bring me up to the 110 cow mark.
I think going for 100% spring calving will suit my farm and make management that bit easier, with fewer stock groups.
Spring calving should mean three groups of cows and calves at grass, one group of replacement heifers and one group of beef heifers. All bulls are housed at weaning and intensively finished.
To accommodate the bigger herd, additional cattle housing is currently being constructed and will be used to winter cows.
The shed will have a split floor with slats and a straw lie-back. The tank has just been poured, so the project is on track for this year.
Breeding programme
I have always run Limousin stock bulls for breeding, but I think I am starting to lose out on milk production in cows.
To bring some new genetics into the herd, I purchased Simmental and Angus bulls this spring. Stock bulls went out with cows on 1 May and will be removed on 30 July.
Cows are in two groups. The first group has 39 cows and is being served by the Simmental bull to get replacements. The second group has 22 cows and is being served with a Limousin.
For the group of 40 heifers, I synchronised 17 animals and served them to AI on 4 May. Only three heifers have repeated, which I am delighted with, as this is the first time trying this.
On Friday of last week, I brought in another 11 heifers to synchronise. They were too light to serve back on 4 May, but the group has performed well at grass since then. The group currently weighs 360kg to 400kg liveweight and is now more suited to breeding.
The remainder of the heifers were served by the new Angus stock bull and he will also cover any repeats.
My breeding programme is outlined in Figure 1.
Winter forage budget
With an increasing herd, I will need a bigger silage reserve for winter feeding. Silage ground got a quick grazing before closing up for second-cut around one week after harvesting. There are 48 acres closed up, with a planned harvesting date of mid-July.
I have limited slurry on farm, so some of the silage ground went without. Ground was slurried at a rate of 3,000 gallons per acre and topped up with two bags of CAN, which should bring it up to 75 units of nitrogen. The remaining ground got two bags of 20:10:10 and 1.5 bags of CAN.
To boost forage reserves, there are 16 acres of wholecrop wheat to be ensiled. It has been under-sown with grass and I have found this to be a good way to reseed ground. There will be 10 acres of grass silage ensiled along with it.
Budgeting for a 160-day winter will take cows from 20 October to 1 April. To be safe, it is always best to factor in a safety reserve, so calculations are based on 180 days. Total silage requirement is around 916t, so I should be fine this winter.
With anthelmintic resistance a growing problem in sheep flocks, the farmers in the NI Sheep Programme are making use of faecal egg counts to determine when to worm lambs.
Niall and Simone Maguire are utilising embryo transfer to speed up genetic gain in their pedigree and commercial suckler herd, with a new bespoke shed adding to the operation.
Adam Woods has the latest from Tullamore Farm, the Irish Farmers Journal beef and sheep demonstration farm in Co Offaly.
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