Our stock bulls went out with the cows on 23 May, so this is the eighth week of breeding. We have 86 cows and replacement heifers for breeding this year and they are being served in three groups.
The cows were being served in two groups of 37 at the start of the breeding period. We put our most fertile and best milking cows in one group to our Simmental bull, with the aim of getting replacements.
The second group of cows were later-calving animals, or cows with less milk.
These animals were turned out with the Limousin stock bull, which is a more terminally bred animal. The replacement heifers have been running with an Angus stock bull for calving ease.
Lameness
I would like to say that breeding has been problem free, but once again, we have had some issues with stock bulls.
Our Limousin bull started off well, but then developed problems with his feet, with an abscess forming on both the front and back legs.
He had served a few cows before his feet gave him bother. We moved a number of these cows to join the group of heifers that were running with the Angus bull.
Around two weeks ago, the Simmental bull also had a bit of an issue with lameness and was removed from the cows for a short rest and treatment.
At the same time as the Simmental developed feet problems, the Limousin bull had recovered and went in with his cows to cover any of those animals yet to be served.
Breeding activity
As we have had problems with stock bulls in the past, we kept a tight eye on the level of breeding activity among cows.
Thankfully, despite the problems with bulls’ feet, cows are currently showing little signs of breeding activity.
While it is early days still, we are hopeful the Simmental has the bulk of his breeding group settled in-calf. However, we will wait until scanning time to confirm this.
Replacements
Our plan is to take the Angus bull away from the heifers this week, as he has been running for nine weeks.
This is a long enough breeding period for heifers, as we ideally want them calving down in the first six weeks of the calving period.
We will leave the Angus with the cows for another three weeks as a safeguard against animals that had been with either the Simmental or Limousin bulls.
Spring calving
Of the 86 cows and heifers being bred, the target is to get 75 cows with live calves on the ground next spring during March and April.
As we finish male calves as bulls, we don’t want calving to run any later than early to mid-May. Ideally, we would like calving to be finished up in 10 weeks. If there is a higher barren rate because of the stock bulls having feet problems, we will purchase additional in-calf heifers from a farm we have sourced breeding stock from in previous years.
Young bulls coming fit for slaughter
We have started drafting our 2019-born bulls for slaughter. Eight bulls were finished in June, with another four drafted this week. There are still 25 bulls to go and the bulk of them will be killed over the next month.
However, while beef price has moved in our favour, we really want to get the calving pattern moved into March and April, so that bulls are killing in May and June, rather than June and July.
This Simmental-cross Limousin bull was slaughtered at 14 months old. Final liveweight was 668kg with a carcase weight of 423kg .
This will mean heavier bulls being weaned off grass and less concentrate required during the indoor finishing period. The bulls slaughtered so far are a mix of Simmental-cross, Limousin and Angus-cross animals. Bulls are weighed regularly to monitor performance and again just as they move off-farm for slaughter.
Carcase weight
The Simmental-cross bulls have killed really well, with animals yielding over 60% kill-out, although there will be a small bit of gut fill affecting this figure. One bull in particular averaged 668kg when sold and yielded a carcase weight of 423kg at 14 months.
The Angus bulls have also performed well, but are typically 40kg lighter than the Simmental bulls. They are still hitting carcase weights of 380kg by 14 months and achieving U-grade conformation.
Earlier killing
One of the more positive aspects of finishing bulls this winter is that we are getting animals away five to six weeks earlier than normal.
In the past, we have struggled to get adequate fat cover on bulls, as they were pure-bred Limousin animals and tended to hold them until they were coming up on 16 months before drafting for slaughter.
But with more crossbreeding and tailoring our winter feeding programme, we are getting bulls into fat class three a lot earlier.
Silage
Second-cut silage is now ready for harvesting, with 35ac to be ensiled. The same area was cut in May and yielded 300t, compared to 450t in previous years. As cow numbers have increased, the farm is stocked around 2.9 LU/ha, which is the highest we have ever carried. So, the demand for silage is greater than ever.
As such, we will make a small third-cut of around 20ac. I have also purchased 100t of good-quality silage harvested in mid-May from a neighbouring farm, with the option to purchase more as required.
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Our stock bulls went out with the cows on 23 May, so this is the eighth week of breeding. We have 86 cows and replacement heifers for breeding this year and they are being served in three groups.
The cows were being served in two groups of 37 at the start of the breeding period. We put our most fertile and best milking cows in one group to our Simmental bull, with the aim of getting replacements.
The second group of cows were later-calving animals, or cows with less milk.
These animals were turned out with the Limousin stock bull, which is a more terminally bred animal. The replacement heifers have been running with an Angus stock bull for calving ease.
Lameness
I would like to say that breeding has been problem free, but once again, we have had some issues with stock bulls.
Our Limousin bull started off well, but then developed problems with his feet, with an abscess forming on both the front and back legs.
He had served a few cows before his feet gave him bother. We moved a number of these cows to join the group of heifers that were running with the Angus bull.
Around two weeks ago, the Simmental bull also had a bit of an issue with lameness and was removed from the cows for a short rest and treatment.
At the same time as the Simmental developed feet problems, the Limousin bull had recovered and went in with his cows to cover any of those animals yet to be served.
Breeding activity
As we have had problems with stock bulls in the past, we kept a tight eye on the level of breeding activity among cows.
Thankfully, despite the problems with bulls’ feet, cows are currently showing little signs of breeding activity.
While it is early days still, we are hopeful the Simmental has the bulk of his breeding group settled in-calf. However, we will wait until scanning time to confirm this.
Replacements
Our plan is to take the Angus bull away from the heifers this week, as he has been running for nine weeks.
This is a long enough breeding period for heifers, as we ideally want them calving down in the first six weeks of the calving period.
We will leave the Angus with the cows for another three weeks as a safeguard against animals that had been with either the Simmental or Limousin bulls.
Spring calving
Of the 86 cows and heifers being bred, the target is to get 75 cows with live calves on the ground next spring during March and April.
As we finish male calves as bulls, we don’t want calving to run any later than early to mid-May. Ideally, we would like calving to be finished up in 10 weeks. If there is a higher barren rate because of the stock bulls having feet problems, we will purchase additional in-calf heifers from a farm we have sourced breeding stock from in previous years.
Young bulls coming fit for slaughter
We have started drafting our 2019-born bulls for slaughter. Eight bulls were finished in June, with another four drafted this week. There are still 25 bulls to go and the bulk of them will be killed over the next month.
However, while beef price has moved in our favour, we really want to get the calving pattern moved into March and April, so that bulls are killing in May and June, rather than June and July.
This Simmental-cross Limousin bull was slaughtered at 14 months old. Final liveweight was 668kg with a carcase weight of 423kg .
This will mean heavier bulls being weaned off grass and less concentrate required during the indoor finishing period. The bulls slaughtered so far are a mix of Simmental-cross, Limousin and Angus-cross animals. Bulls are weighed regularly to monitor performance and again just as they move off-farm for slaughter.
Carcase weight
The Simmental-cross bulls have killed really well, with animals yielding over 60% kill-out, although there will be a small bit of gut fill affecting this figure. One bull in particular averaged 668kg when sold and yielded a carcase weight of 423kg at 14 months.
The Angus bulls have also performed well, but are typically 40kg lighter than the Simmental bulls. They are still hitting carcase weights of 380kg by 14 months and achieving U-grade conformation.
Earlier killing
One of the more positive aspects of finishing bulls this winter is that we are getting animals away five to six weeks earlier than normal.
In the past, we have struggled to get adequate fat cover on bulls, as they were pure-bred Limousin animals and tended to hold them until they were coming up on 16 months before drafting for slaughter.
But with more crossbreeding and tailoring our winter feeding programme, we are getting bulls into fat class three a lot earlier.
Silage
Second-cut silage is now ready for harvesting, with 35ac to be ensiled. The same area was cut in May and yielded 300t, compared to 450t in previous years. As cow numbers have increased, the farm is stocked around 2.9 LU/ha, which is the highest we have ever carried. So, the demand for silage is greater than ever.
As such, we will make a small third-cut of around 20ac. I have also purchased 100t of good-quality silage harvested in mid-May from a neighbouring farm, with the option to purchase more as required.
Read more
Teagasc launch sustainable worm control initiative
Newford update: Scanning reveals six-week conception rate of almost 80%
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