He feeds continental-type bulls on a mainly home-grown ration. The aim is to slaughter in excess of 300 bulls annually.
All bulls are killed nearby in Euro Farm Foods, Duleek.
“I look for an animal that has the potential to grade U+, arriving here between 450-550 kg. If they hit the farm early in the year, they’ll get a spell at grass. The costs of the feed conversion that these types of bulls do at grass is small and it’s a good way of getting cheap kilos on. They come in then and we try to turn them around as quickly as possible. Bulls arriving from July onwards don’t graze – the power goes from grass from then on and the weather gets variable,” Donal said.
Bulls over heifers
Donal’s finishing shed is a six-bay double with open sides and rubber slatted floors.
Watch the video here
Bulls at Donal Hartford's feedlot in Co Meath. Average daily weight gain last year was 1.75kg. pic.twitter.com/nV3huK7o9b
— FJ Beef (@FJBeef) July 22, 2016
The diet
The diet consists of fodder beet, maize silage, caustic barley, straw (all home produced), maize meal, urea, buffers and minerals (bought in). The formulation is not rigid; Donal feeds in synergy with his tillage enterprise – keeping any high-moisture grain for the bulls. Wheat and oats often appear at the feed-face too.