In Co Louth, Martin O’Hare still has his weanlings at grass, with all other stock in.

“My spring-born weanlings are outside at the moment. There are a handful left to wean and it passed without any major problems. I was weaning by taking a couple of cows in from a grazing group at a time. I brought the last 10 calves inside to wean as it was hard to keep them settled with the weather,” Martin said.

So far, there have been no health issues as a result of the weaning process. Calves have been vaccinated against respiratory disease (Bovipast and IBR live) at a young age and received a booster prior to weaning.

“Weaning was OK but unfortunately we lost a weanling in the field a couple of weeks ago. The post-mortem results indicated clostridial disease, so all calves have now been vaccinated (Covexin-10).

“I had vaccinated against blackleg but the vet said the disease was a relation of blackleg.”

Autumn-calving cows are now inside and being bred to AI.

So far, Martin has used SA2153 (Highfield Odhran – Saler), SI2152 (Curaheen Earp – Simmental), SI2469 (Lisnacrann Fifty Cent – Simmental) and ZAG (Castleview Gazelle – Limousin).

Feed

Their calves (23) have access to a creep area and Martin is considering offering a small amount (<0.5kg) of a concentrate to calves.

Animals are at their most feed efficient when they’re young. If offering concentrates to young autumn-born calves, begin with a dedicated calf concentrate – these will be highly palatable feeds and encourage intake. However, they are quite expensive and can be substituted for a simpler ration after five to seven days.

As the animal is consuming large volumes of milk, protein is not critical in these rations.

My autumn sucklers are receiving 77% DMD paddock bales.

“The main 2017 first-cut was delayed by almost three weeks this year. Despite getting it grazed off in the spring, the sample returned 66% DMD.

“I never feed meal to cows here, but would have had to if I had no paddock bales to feed,” Martin said.

Martin has also carried out some adaptions to his bull-finishing shed in recent weeks, replacing drinkers with more sturdy alternatives that can be easily cleaned out and installing some more durable feed barriers and dividing gates (see gallery).

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