Breeding

Breeding commenced on Wednesday 24 April. So far 46 cows and 41 heifers have been inseminated. Cows have been showing strong heats and farm manager Shaun Diver said: “We tail painted the cows two weeks ago and it was a good help checking heats.

"We are due to top up this week and as cows are bred, they get a different colour.”

Two vasectomised bulls were purchased for €575 each and are running with two groups of cows. The Mooheat device is also being used as an aid to heat detection and is working well. Shaun said: “We are checking the cows in the morning and in the evening and letting the Mooheat device do the rest. Once I get the text, I know the cow is in heat.

"The only thing you have to watch is if there are a few cows in heat and the bull doesn’t go near one of them.”

Cows are being inseminated once daily at midday each day and if a cow is still in heat in the evening, she is inseminated again the next day. The breeding season will go until 7 July which is just under 11 weeks. A stock bull will be turned out for the last three weeks of the breeding season to mop up.

Cows have all received their booster shots for Lepto and BVD. They have also received a mineral bolus as there have been issues in the past with copper deficiency on the farm.

Bull Selection

The farm plan is focused on producing maternal heifers suitable for replacements for the beef herd. With this in mind AI bulls are chosen that have a high replacement index and are proven with good reliability.

Cow type is predominantly Limousin X Freisian so the herd is generally very good for milk and fertility. Terminal traits are also paid attention to with above-average figures being sought for both carcase weight and carcase conformation.

We have set a limit of €12/straw for AI bulls being used on the farm and selected the bulls using the ICBF active bull list on www.icbf.com. This allows certain criteria be selected and it then prints out the bulls that suit the farms criteria.

Many of the bulls this year are similar to last year’s selections with three new additions, Fiston, an easy-calving Charolais bull who has high terminal figures. Fiston will be used on cows towards the end of the breeding season where heifers won’t be kept for breeding off later calving cows. Tomschoice Ironstone, a high replacement and high terminal Limousin bull and Edenvale Ivor, an easy-calving Limousin bull that will be used on heifers. The average figures of the team of bulls are detailed at the bottom of Table 3 and this is the important figure to focus on. Cows are being selected for each bull depending on breed type, indexes, calving history and visual attributes.

In 2019 it was decided to go with a fixed-time AI protocol on the farm for the maiden heifers. A change to the system in 2019 has meant heifers are being put in calf and sold as in-calf heifers rather than selling as maiden heifers.

This decision was taken as cow numbers are down a little in 2019 and, to maintain the stocking rate, heifers were kept.

Labour is at a premium on Tullamore Farm and heat checking can take a lot of time

The plan is to sell them as in-calf heifers on Monday 28 October in Tullamore Mart. Labour is at a premium on Tullamore Farm and heat checking can take a lot of time especially with three groups of animals to heat check. Table 1 above outlines the protocol used. Good conception rates (60-70%) have been reported by farmers who have used this protocol in heifers. The cost of the protocol is working out at €15/heifer but if a high conception rate is achieved, it will be money well spent. Heifers showed really good heats and the AI technician was happy when inseminating. Heifers will be artificially inseminated once more in three weeks and then turned out with stock bull for three weeks.