In the past year, Robert Abbott has reduced sheep numbers, increased cow numbers and retained some of his own calves for finishing for the first time. His 29ha farm is laid out in one block on the outskirts of Edgeworthstown, Co Longford.

Having initially run two calving spreads, Robert chose to move toward a spring-calving pattern after much deliberation with the BETTER management team and his local B&T adviser Shane Devaney. Calving facilities, spring grass supply and ground conditions need to be right for spring-calving herds, particularly those calving in January and February. Being a live seller keen to maximise weight on sale day, Robert joined BETTER farm with 20 to 25 cows calving from mid-January.

While his calving facilities were good, the nature of his farm’s soil meant that cows and calves were spending a long time indoors before they could get to grass. Also, given the presence of his small sheep flock, Robert was finding it difficult to have a decent supply of grass ahead of his fresh calvers when they could indeed get out.

Robert decided to move his calving spread back towards March and April.

Table 1: Information on two of Robert’s calves

Huge helps

“In time, I want to finish most or all of my calves. Cash becomes an issue when you are moving from a trading to a finishing system, so I have done it gradually. The lamb sales, my off-farm job and the fact that my wife also works have been huge helps,” Robert said.

Robert’s change of system (to finishing) means that he now has a longer window to get weight on animals prior to their sale date. He can afford to calve slightly later. In this way, he is reducing stocking pressure on his housing, labour pressure on himself and disease pressure on the calf in early life.

On the grass front, Robert has shrunk the winter grazing allocated for his sheep flock and in 2017 implemented an autumn rotation planner – grazing off and closing paddocks around his yard from October.

Robert now has an excellent opening average farm grass cover of 740kg DM/ha (7cm) and is confident of getting light stock to grass once two to three consecutive dry days come.

Affording cow and calf the chance to move quickly into good weather conditions and plentiful spring grass will help the young calf to make good early gains and, crucially, help the suckler cow’s reproductive system to recover post-calving. The sooner this recovers, the sooner she goes back in-calf and the better chance we having of maintaining a 365-day calving interval.

However, on the calving front, Robert has been unexpectedly active in January and February for all the wrong reasons.

Abortions

“We’ve had three abortions since 3 January. The second one was on 30 January and then there was one on 9 February. I bought in-calf heifers that were due to calve in February and the first abortion was from one of these.

“They were strange in that the animals seemed to be springing up before they slipped. I thought it was initially just a cow that got a puck but alarm bells came after the second one. Maybe I had bought in something with these animals? The other two slipped calves were from my own animals who hadn’t even shared airspace with the bought-in stock, let alone had contact. It’s hard to know,” Robert said.

Robert’s herd is vaccinated against leptospirosis and BVD. The second and third foetuses were sent for analysis in Athlone RVL and blood samples were taken from the cows after the third abortion. Robert is working with his local vet Harry Ferguson.

“The first tests on the foetuses showed up nothing conclusive, so there’s further analysis to carry out. I hope to have the cow bloods back soon. Robert is keen to purchase more cows and heifers. But, I have advised him against bringing anything else in until we get to the root of this problem,” Harry commented.

Finishing school

Keen to add value to his own stock, Robert picked five of his best bulls to finish next summer. At nine months, their weight gain from birth was 1.2kg/day, with average weight being just under 390kg. Information on two calves in the group is outlined in Table 1. They are by the same sire, born on the same day. Dam milk production is driving weight gain in the calf 643 such that he was almost 100kg heavier than his compatriot at 9.7 months.

This group is on track to meet carcase weight targets at 15 months of age. However, the rest of Robert’s spring 2017-born progeny were not. Average weight gain from birth to nine months was 0.95kg/day.

The breeds in Robert’s cow herd are complementary – Limousin, Charolais, Salers and Hereford. Their average replacement index value is €85 and within this they hold a carcase weight value of 13kg (three-star) and an impressive daughter milk figure of 4.9kg (five-star). However, the BETTER farm team felt that Robert’s Charolais stock bull by Utrillo Mic, who held three stars on the terminal index, needed to be changed to improve calf quality and performance. He has since been sold and Robert is currently on the lookout for a replacement.

Adviser comment John Greaney, Teagasc

Robert is between systems at the minute. Ultimately, his goal is to double the output of the farm.

While plenty of changes occurred on the farm in 2016, cow numbers need to rise soon if Robert is to meet the targets set out.

Housing isn’t an issue on the farm and with a few adjustments Robert can go to 50 cows.

He has continually worked hard on soil fertility, which has been reflected in recent soil samples. All soils are now index 3 and 4 for both P and K with very little lime required.