Castration

With a lot of questions being asked about the future viability of bull beef systems and processor requirements changing more and more, farmers are castrating bull calves.

For farmers operating a spring-calving steer-based system, now is the time to think about castration in calves. Where castration is to be carried out on farm without an anaesthetic, it needs to be completed before the animal reaches six months of age. Vets recommend the use of a pain killer for a procedure like this.

If you are planning to castrate male animals in the next couple of weeks, one of the first steps is to ensure animals have received a clostridial vaccine, especially if banding is taking place. Make sure the vaccine covers tetanus. The primary course and booster vaccine should be given four to six weeks apart.

If using a burdizzo, it is advisable to crush the spermatic cord twice, one below the other for 10 seconds each time. Completing this job well in advance of weaning will also decrease the amount of stress on the animal.

Weighing

Be careful around weighing in BEEP-S. Remember you need to weigh cows and calves before you wean them, ideally between 150-250 days to get a good picture of the performance on the cow. You also need to feed meal for two weeks after you wean the calves so once you weigh them, you can’t technically sell them for two weeks after this.

With wet weather again this week, it may restrict some farmers making a quick decision and selling. If all these jobs are completed, it gives you more scope to sell when you need to and avoid receiving any deductions on your BEEP-S payment.

BDGP

Time is closing in on the BDGP deadline of 31 October. You must have 50% of the reference number of cows in your herd genotyped four- or five-star by this date. There are 1,200 herds in the country falling short of this target and these herds require 8,000 heifers/cows to fulfil the requirements of BDGP.

There are a number of special BDGP qualified heifer/cow sales taking place in marts nationwide over the next few weeks. Farmers falling short of this target can log in to ICBF on the morning of the sale and see what heifers have been entered under the mart tracker tab. You can select the mart you are going to and it will list the number of eligible heifers, including the lot number of each.

Beef Finisher Payment

Don’t forget to apply for the beef finisher payment. Applications must be submitted by Wednesday 9 September. The scheme will pay €100/head on animals slaughtered between 1 February and 12 June 2020. It is important to log in and see whether you have animals eligible for payment even if you didn’t slaughter animals. If you sold them and they were slaughtered within 30 days of the sale, the payment reverts to you.