Winter finishing: I had a few calls over the past week on finishing budgets. Some asked about a heifer budget. Heifers will have similar performance levels to steers. MartBids data for the week ending 13 September shows a 500kg heifer was costing €1,150 (€2.30/kg). Slaughter date is early March 2021 and it’s a similar breakeven price to that required for steers. The price required is €4.56/kg. Everybody’s figures will be different. The important thing is to sit down and do your figures for your farm. This will help with factory discussions and should help you decide whether to purchase or not.

Weight gains for TWO-year-old calving: Heifer calves that will be kept for breeding should be weighed at regular intervals to check weight gains.

To get heifers calving at 24 months of age, the key period to keep them on track for liveweight gain is in the first winter. Separating this group allows you to give them priority management. The first target to hit is to get the heifer to 60% of mature cow weight by 15 months of age. If the average cow weight is 650kg, heifers should weigh a minimum of 390kg at breeding. Getting heifers to target breeding weight prevents the animal from becoming stunted and increases the chance of getting heifers back in-calf again. Meeting this target weight is a reasonable expectation. At 15 months, the heifer is 450 days old. Given that the calf starts with a birth weight of around 40kg, the animal needs to gain around 350kg of liveweight in 450 days – daily gain of 0.77kg/day from birth. For example, a March-born heifer calf being weaned and housed now at 260kg liveweight needs to gain around 0.6kg/day while housed. Over a 180-day winter and allowing for 30 days with no gain post-weaning, the heifer should weigh 370kg when turned out to grass next spring. This leaves around 50kg of weight gain required from grass before breeding which should be easily achieved.

Slurry and farmyward manure dates: While the last date for spreading chemical N fertiliser was 15 September, you are still OK to spread slurry and farmyard manure so long as ground conditions allow. The last date for spreading slurry is Thursday 15 October. The last date for spreading farmyard manure is 1 November 2020. Good weather for the last week has meant ground conditions are trafficable. Use the opportunity to get slurry out.