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John Grieve farms in partnership with his father Gerard, with Gerard Jnr also helping out.
In 2018, 36 cows will calve down in the spring. There were 50 sucklers on the holding in 2017, but a large post-weaning cull took place as the trio chase genetic improvement in their breeding stock.
Part of this improvement plan will see a stock bull change from 2018. Their current bull is by Sesame and has €98 (five stars) on the replacement index and €149 (five stars) on the terminal index. He was born in May 2012 and has an 8.1% calving difficulty figure.
Old bull
“The bull is structurally sound and working fine, we’re just looking for something that’ll put more length in our calves. Maybe it was the genetics in our cows that was dragging weights down. Now that the poor performers are gone, that’ll hopefully change for the better,” Gerard said.
The Grieves have purchased a CF52 (Doonally New) son in recent weeks to replace their bull, who is currently listed for sale online but given the time of year many potential buyers have asked that he be held on to until the springtime before they collect him. As the Grieves have already paid for their new bull and need to generate cash, they will now fatten their former stock bull.
New bulls
Traditionally, weanling and light-store sellers, the Grieves will look to add value to their progeny in the coming years. This will mean holding on to them for longer and indeed finishing some. In this week’s Irish Farmers Journal, we will look in detail at the plans for their first leap into the world of finishing, as well as the progress on the animals earmarked for slaughter.
The 10 heaviest bulls are currently being fed on for an under 16-month finish. The group weighed 405kg on 22 October and should come close to the target of 500kg live weight by their first birthday on 26/12/2017. They are currently gaining just under 1.1kg daily, but this should increase as they have now fully transitioned from a grass to a silage/concentrate diet and are about to move on to a pit of 73% DMD silage, from 68% DMD.
This digestibility increase alone is the equivalent of 1.5kg of concentrates all else being equal. Dry matters for both of the Grieves’ silages are under 20%. The combination of this and high digestibility will lead to a high passage rate through the animal and very loose dung. To combat this, a small amount of straw is being included in the diet.
The Grieves’ silage was harvested off old pasture and crude protein is low in the 73% DMD pit at 8.7%. The low protein concentration in the grass silage is being offset by that of the supplementary concentrate which is being currently offered (5kg) to the bulls (16% crude protein).
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