Trying times on Tullamore Farm

Calving is progressing well, with 85 cows calved out of 100. There were 44 cows calved in February, 28 in March and 13 so far in April. We have had one set of twins and we purchased two calves for two heifers which lost calves.

Losses have been higher this year than we would have liked, with seven calves lost so far. All calves have been sent for post-mortem to the Athlone vet lab, with nothing untoward coming back in the results. Five calves have been stillborn/dead at birth and two calves were found dead in the last seven days, one outdoors and one indoors. Calves will be faecal-sampled this week to see if coccidiosis is an underlying issue.

All calves get the first shot of blackleg vaccine at dehorning and the second four to six weeks later. Two of the stillbirths were from two purchased heifers and they came back with a positive result for Q fever. There are currently 85 cows on the farm with 81 calves.

Calves have been healthy, with only minor occurrences of scour and one navel infection treated. Male calves are averaging 49kg and female calves are 46kg. The majority of cows have calved unassisted and there have been three sections.

Lambing

Lambing went well, with minimal losses. Triplet lambs have been sold off. When labour was taken into the equation, farm manager Shaun Diver decided it was best to sell them at €25 each. Ninety ewes are currently out grazing with 170 lambs and these ewes are being supplemented with 1kg ration/head/daily.

Feed costs

With very low grass growth on the farm over the past month, all animals have had to be supplemented with concentrates in a bid to keep animal performance up, conserve silage and slow down animals at grass. This has increased the feed costs this spring and we estimate that spring 2018 is currently costing the farm €3,171/week in extra feed costs and reduced performance.

There are currently 85 cows calved and, in a normal time, the majority of these cows would be out grazing at this stage. Instead they are inside in straw-bedded sheds. The calving unit is jammed full with cows and calves now occupying the area which is used to put cows pre-calving. There are four calving pens on the farm and each pen had two cows and two calves last night. Cows are being taken off slats when showing signs of calving but this has led to some dirty cows calving down but can’t be helped.

There are 37 cows with calves grazing outdoors. These cows are getting 3kg concentrates daily in a bid to slow down the rotation and keep up animal performance. Calved cows indoors are on silage and 3kg meal also and are one of the toughest groups to keep straw under at the moment. There are 50 heifers on a sacrifice paddock getting 4kg of silage and 3kg of meal.

There are also 55 heifers still housed on 6kg of silage and 1.5kg meal. These 110 heifers in a normal grazing year should be out grazing since mid-March. They not only have increased feed costs on silage and meal, but also have reduced liveweight gain as a result of not being outdoors.

These heifers are currently gaining 0.6kg/day indoors and should be gaining 1kg/day. That’s 0.4kg/day reduced gain, and at €2.50/kg that’s €110/day of reduced liveweight gain.

Straw is the biggest increased cost at €135/day. Keeping cows and calves healthy and ewes and lambs free from disease has been the number one priority on the farm over the past four weeks and straw has played a vital role in that.

All these costs can be counted. However, the physical and mental stress of spring 2018 can’t be counted, but is a huge factor that should be recognised by all people involved in the farming community. Having sheds full has increased the labour around the yard. The farm cover completed this week shows a little improvement in grass growth but it’s still looking like another two weeks before normality resumes.

Grass growth

Grass growth is well below normal levels, with 10kg/DM/ha being grown on the farm for the week ending 10 April. To put this in context, the farm grew 44kg/DM/ha for the same week in 2017. Eighty per cent of the farm has been spread with 70 units of N per acre at this stage. The remaining 20% is too wet to spread. Thirty acres has been spread, with slurry at 2,000 gallons/acre as well.

Cows and calves are grazing the direst paddocks on the out-farm ewes and lambs are grazing low lying ground on the home farm. There is currently 25ac closed for first cut silage for last week of May. This was closed early to allow a quality cut of silage for ewes and got 2,000 gallons of slurry per acre and 80 units of N per acre.

What is happening on Tullamore farm?