The breeding season is drawing to a close on Frank Goodman’s farm near Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan. Over the past few years, the herd has been mostly spring calving, with around 20% of cows calving down in an autumn block.
However, Frank delayed breeding the autumn calvers last year and all cows will calve down in one block from next February onwards.
Repeats in the milking herd are getting served with beef semen at present and all breeding will finish up before the end of July.
The beef sire being used is Norman Inventor. The Limousin bull was selected as he ranks in the top 10% for dairy beef with an index value of €137.
Dairy bulls were used for the first eight weeks on the milking herd. Frank mainly selects sires based on overall EBI values, but milk sub-indices for fat and protein, as well as type, have some weighting in his decision making.
Dairy sires used on the Goodman farm this year include Sport FR5551 (EBI €292), Chilton FR5668 (EBI €291), Cade FR5551 (€271), Motion FR5076 (EBI €232) and Ronaldo FR2298 (EBI €225).
“Sexed semen from Motion was used in maiden heifers for the first six weeks, then we put in a Friesian stock bull to mop up. Thankfully, he seems to have had very little work to do,” Frank said.
Frank Goodman and Peter McCann.
Heat detection
In previous years, heifers on an out-farm had heats detected by visual observation, which tended to be time consuming. Frank has taken a different approach this year by investing in heat detection technology.
All heifers were EID tagged and a vasectomised bull with a MooCall heat collar was used for detecting heats.
“You get a text to your phone to say when the heifer has come on heat. It has worked well and meant we only had to go down to the out-farm to AI,” Frank said.
The milking herd was tail-painted for the main part of breeding, but all cows were EID-tagged and the teaser bull went in when AI in the heifers finished up. It has meant Frank spends less time watching for repeats in the lactating cows while still being able to use a good-quality AI beef bull.
Growth recovers
The dry conditions in May and June had a detrimental impact on grass growth on the Goodman farm.
Growth rates slowed up to 13kg DM/ha/day in mid-June, but have recovered over the past two weeks to 83kg DM/ha/day this week.
“Grass was almost non-existent at a stage and what was there was shooting into stem. We housed the cows after evening milking for 12 nights and fed bales of silage, meal and maize silage,” Frank said.
Cows are back at grass full-time now and yields have picked up to 27.7 litres/cow/day after dipping slightly in mid-June.
Growth on silage ground was also slow and the second-cut crop was looking light. Frank was considering mowing and baling second cut because there was not enough to justify bringing in a harvester.
“The covers have bulked up well since the rain arrived two weeks ago. When we get two dry days forecast, we will mow and will probably put it in the clamp. The better than expected crop is also taking some pressure off having to make a bigger third cut later in the summer,” he said.
The plan is to take stock of silage reserves after second cut by calculating a fodder budget. If winter feed is looking tight, Frank has some options such as closing up a bigger area for third cut by selling beef cattle on an out-farm that were due to go later this year anyway.
Weekly round-up
Grass growth rates have continued to increase on farms that were experiencing drought conditions.However, rain is starting to affect ground conditions on some farms with heavier soils.Second-cut silage has been ensiled on some Dairylink Ireland farms.Fodder budgets are being calculated for programme farms.
Growth rates on the Goodman farm have picked up over the past two weeks.
Heifer treatments and reseeding plans
This year’s calves were in the yard earlier this week for an IBR vaccine and a doramectin-based pour-on that covers gutworms, lungworms and various external parasites.
“The in-calf heifers didn’t seem to have any problems with coughs or dirty tails, so we just gave them a fly repellent pour-on. It is supposed to last for six weeks, although we will keep an eye on them and take a few faecal samples to see if they need a worm dose before then,” Frank said.
The Monaghan man has also been progressing with reseeding plans. A 13-acre field on an outfarm is ready for reseeding with minimum cultivation. The old sward included the high-yielding ryegrass Westerwold, which proved difficult to burn off and needed to be sprayed twice.
An intensive silage mix has been selected for sowing. It is made up of 4.8kg of AberClyde (tetraploid), 3.6kg AberGreen (diploid) and 3.6kg of AberWolf (diploid).
Farm facts
87 Holstein Friesian cows.Rolling average milk yield of 6,521 litres.Feeding 1.47 tonnes of meal per cow.3,252 litres from forage Read more
Dairylink: second cut plans in Armagh
Dairylink podcast: lungworm control on dairy farms
The breeding season is drawing to a close on Frank Goodman’s farm near Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan. Over the past few years, the herd has been mostly spring calving, with around 20% of cows calving down in an autumn block.
However, Frank delayed breeding the autumn calvers last year and all cows will calve down in one block from next February onwards.
Repeats in the milking herd are getting served with beef semen at present and all breeding will finish up before the end of July.
The beef sire being used is Norman Inventor. The Limousin bull was selected as he ranks in the top 10% for dairy beef with an index value of €137.
Dairy bulls were used for the first eight weeks on the milking herd. Frank mainly selects sires based on overall EBI values, but milk sub-indices for fat and protein, as well as type, have some weighting in his decision making.
Dairy sires used on the Goodman farm this year include Sport FR5551 (EBI €292), Chilton FR5668 (EBI €291), Cade FR5551 (€271), Motion FR5076 (EBI €232) and Ronaldo FR2298 (EBI €225).
“Sexed semen from Motion was used in maiden heifers for the first six weeks, then we put in a Friesian stock bull to mop up. Thankfully, he seems to have had very little work to do,” Frank said.
Frank Goodman and Peter McCann.
Heat detection
In previous years, heifers on an out-farm had heats detected by visual observation, which tended to be time consuming. Frank has taken a different approach this year by investing in heat detection technology.
All heifers were EID tagged and a vasectomised bull with a MooCall heat collar was used for detecting heats.
“You get a text to your phone to say when the heifer has come on heat. It has worked well and meant we only had to go down to the out-farm to AI,” Frank said.
The milking herd was tail-painted for the main part of breeding, but all cows were EID-tagged and the teaser bull went in when AI in the heifers finished up. It has meant Frank spends less time watching for repeats in the lactating cows while still being able to use a good-quality AI beef bull.
Growth recovers
The dry conditions in May and June had a detrimental impact on grass growth on the Goodman farm.
Growth rates slowed up to 13kg DM/ha/day in mid-June, but have recovered over the past two weeks to 83kg DM/ha/day this week.
“Grass was almost non-existent at a stage and what was there was shooting into stem. We housed the cows after evening milking for 12 nights and fed bales of silage, meal and maize silage,” Frank said.
Cows are back at grass full-time now and yields have picked up to 27.7 litres/cow/day after dipping slightly in mid-June.
Growth on silage ground was also slow and the second-cut crop was looking light. Frank was considering mowing and baling second cut because there was not enough to justify bringing in a harvester.
“The covers have bulked up well since the rain arrived two weeks ago. When we get two dry days forecast, we will mow and will probably put it in the clamp. The better than expected crop is also taking some pressure off having to make a bigger third cut later in the summer,” he said.
The plan is to take stock of silage reserves after second cut by calculating a fodder budget. If winter feed is looking tight, Frank has some options such as closing up a bigger area for third cut by selling beef cattle on an out-farm that were due to go later this year anyway.
Weekly round-up
Grass growth rates have continued to increase on farms that were experiencing drought conditions.However, rain is starting to affect ground conditions on some farms with heavier soils.Second-cut silage has been ensiled on some Dairylink Ireland farms.Fodder budgets are being calculated for programme farms.
Growth rates on the Goodman farm have picked up over the past two weeks.
Heifer treatments and reseeding plans
This year’s calves were in the yard earlier this week for an IBR vaccine and a doramectin-based pour-on that covers gutworms, lungworms and various external parasites.
“The in-calf heifers didn’t seem to have any problems with coughs or dirty tails, so we just gave them a fly repellent pour-on. It is supposed to last for six weeks, although we will keep an eye on them and take a few faecal samples to see if they need a worm dose before then,” Frank said.
The Monaghan man has also been progressing with reseeding plans. A 13-acre field on an outfarm is ready for reseeding with minimum cultivation. The old sward included the high-yielding ryegrass Westerwold, which proved difficult to burn off and needed to be sprayed twice.
An intensive silage mix has been selected for sowing. It is made up of 4.8kg of AberClyde (tetraploid), 3.6kg AberGreen (diploid) and 3.6kg of AberWolf (diploid).
Farm facts
87 Holstein Friesian cows.Rolling average milk yield of 6,521 litres.Feeding 1.47 tonnes of meal per cow.3,252 litres from forage Read more
Dairylink: second cut plans in Armagh
Dairylink podcast: lungworm control on dairy farms
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