Alan Cairns, Aghalee, Co Antrim

I have been busy over the past month finishing the construction of a new beef house in preparation for housing cattle. Indeed, with most cattle grazing on rented farms, bringing cattle home can be time-consuming. I try to house cattle on a dry day, where possible, as this helps to reduce the potential for pneumonia. The priority has been to house the heaviest cattle first.

The first cattle were housed in the third week of October, which was a group of 33 of the earliest spring calving cows. They were housed gradually over a week by removing them from the calves. The calves have been kept outdoors, rotationally grazing the same area and they still have 10 days grazing ahead. The last two fields left to graze have covers of over 2,800kgDM/ha (12cm).

Ground conditions are still good for grazing these lighter cattle. There is no ground damage and swards are being cleaned off well with good grass utilisation. Cattle are eating 1kg/day of meal fed in a trough and I hope to build them up to 2kg/day over the next week. Despite still having some grass growth, any fields grazed over the past three weeks will not be grazed again this year. I will get greater benefit from grazing it next spring when it should have a higher feed value.

At the time of housing the cows, ground conditions were beginning to deteriorate due to the heavier weight of these animals and there was just one week of grazing ahead for this group.

Weaning the calves has been a great benefit as it has allowed me to extend the grazing period and maintain a high level of calf performance. The calves have continued to thrive and with the high stress of weaning now past, the risk of pneumonia at housing will be reduced.

I housed a batch of 42 cows, along with their calves, last week. The cows are on slats with the calves having access to a slatted creep area and an open yard. These calves were eating some meal at grass over the past month and have settled well indoors. Allowing the calves access to an open yard keeps them healthier. It will also help reduce the bond with their mothers and should help to reduce the stress levels at weaning.

Two other batches of cows are still out on silage ground but will have to come in this weekend.

The first group of 33 cows that were housed was scanned last week with two not in-calf. The rest of the cows and heifers will be scanned next week. The empty cows are grouped separately for fattening. From my experience of finishing cows, a 60-day feeding period is sufficient to raise a cow by one condition score which is normally about 65kg to 75kg of liveweight for a continental type cow. They will be fed second cut silage and 2kg/day of a 14% beef blend.

Silage analysis was completed in September. The first cut analysed 59.4% dry matter, 10.3 ME and 8% protein, with a D value of 65 and an intake of 105.

The second cut was 41.5% dry matter, 10.3 ME and 13% protein, with an intake of 88. I did not expect the silage to be as dry. It just got a 24-hour wilt. I would have expected higher energy and protein levels.

One advantage of the higher dry matter is that I will get much more feeding from each bale. To maintain cows in their current body condition until calving, they require 12.6kg/day of the first cut silage which is about 70% of their potential intake. With silage at £20/tonne, 12.5kg/day is costing 25p/day, or £45/cow over a six-month winter.

If cows were fed ad-lib, they would eat 18kg/day, costing 36p per day or £64.80/cow. Restricting cows to their requirement is a saving of almost £20 per cow, or £2,400 over 120 cows

Second cut silage will be fed to weanlings ad-lib, along with 2kg/day of a 16% CP high energy ration (12.9MJ/kgDM). The aim is to grow these at an average DLWG of 0.7kg/day over the winter. I have found that, in the past, when cattle are turned out too fleshy, they lose weight immediately after turnout. By growing at a moderate DLWG, I would hope to have cattle in an ideal body condition score of 2.5 to 3.0 at turnout. This will help to achieve compensatory growth at grass next spring.