It often occurs that it takes an accidental outcome, or factors outside of our control, to re-affirm or show us just how important it is to do the simple things right.

Cork farmer Niall O’Mahony had a similar experience last winter when he saw first hand the impact of failing to administer a fluke dose had on animal performance.

Niall runs a dairy herd and beef finishing enterprise alongside his father, Nelius, in Crookstown, Bandon, Cork.

All progeny from the dairy herd (excluding replacements) are finished on farm with cattle also purchased and finished indoors in batches throughout the winter.

As cattle are purchased primarily through local marts, the previous history is generally unknown and, as such, no chances are taken in regards to health treatments.

All animals receive a fluke dose, IBR vaccine and an Ivermectin-type pour-on for worms and lice as soon as possible after arriving onto the farm and at most within a couple of days.

The importance of this was re-affirmed last winter. Two heifers from a group of 30 (purchased in one lot) were extremely aggressive arriving onto the farm and were missed with the fluke dose. The plan was to dose the heifers when they settled but they were missed entirely. Before slaughter, the batch of heifers were very uniform with no real visible difference.

However, once slaughtered, Niall found there were two animals in the batch weighing 19kg and 26.5kg lower than the lightest of their counterparts. The group kill data was very uniform with all animals grading R= or better and fat score 4. The two heifers in question graded R- and fat score 3.

Niall said that if he had not followed the heifers up the line himself he would likely be querying the two lighter carcases.

But as he was present in the factory he knew there was another reason behind the lower weight gain.

On returning to the farm, his records showed that the two lighter carcases matched the numbers of the animals that weren’t fluke dosed.

This left him with two explanations: “There can only be two factors – the fact that the animals remained very wild and aggressive could have had some effect on performance or the fact that the animals missed their treatment for liver fluke leads me to believe it was the liver fluke burden that was more to blame. This is hardly surprising, I suppose, given the weather we had throughout 2012.”

Liver fluke monitoring

Administering health treatments is now seen as the most important job once animals arrive on the farm.

“There is no point in feeding parasites. The margins in beef farming are too tight not to have animals performing every day they’re on the farm.”

All heifers also have their backs clipped and Niall finds this works well in keeping animals cool and in facilitating easier administering of pour-on.

The health of all animals being killed is also followed up as a matter of routine with the factory to get an indication of any issues that may be present in remaining stock.

A follow-up on the presence of liver fluke is being aided by ABP Bandon putting a programme in place two years ago to record the health status of livers of all animals slaughtered on the sales docket.

Livers are classified as A (containing active liver fluke), C (cured from liver fluke) and N (no liver fluke).

Niall said that seeing a clear status gives him peace of mind that liver fluke has not hampered performance but also that treatment is working successfully.

Focusing on the basics

The O’Mahonys are also strong advocates of providing animals with a comfortable environment that facilitates maximum animal performance.

Following arrival, animals are initially transferred to a straw-bedded shed, or slatted area with a straw lie-back, so that they can rest and quickly overcome any stress from trading through the mart.

Animals are offered silage initially and this also serves to identify animals that are not accustomed to this diet or are shy eaters. Where this is the case, these animals will be allowed to stay longer in these areas to allow them to adjust to their new surroundings with minimum stress.

After a couple of days, and once all health treatments are administered, animals are grouped and penned on slats. Animals are monitored closely during this period for early signs of disease or to see if aggressive animals need to be removed from pens to prevent bullying.

Niall said that the changeable weather this winter and fluctuation from low to higher than normal temperatures has made it harder for animals to adjust to being indoors and has significantly increased the risk of pneumonia.

The stocking rate in pens has reduced and Niall said that this has significantly helped ti improve animal performance with a tendency in the past to often overstock pens.

Finishing system

Niall said that there is nothing out of the ordinary taking place on the farm, with the finishing system changing as required to suit the farm’s resources and to extract maximum returns from the marketplace.

There has been a recent switch from bull beef to heifer finishing with heifers viewed as an easier prospect to finish and more suitable to current market demand.

Breed is not a big deciding factor when purchasing. “I will buy any breed or colour as long as the animal has scope to feed into and killout as an R grade carcase and will reach the correct fat score not too soon before or long after 70 days of feeding to meet quality assurance residency rules.

“Obviously, I’d prefer if there was a way of trading through marts without compromising on the final 70-day residency period but I have to work with what is facing me.”

Animals are drafted from pens once fit for slaughter with remaining animals left in their group and pen (no mixing of animals takes place) until a decision is taken to draft all animals.

“People say don’t mix bulls once penned together but I find that mixing heifers and steers can also have an impact on performance. Even if this is temporary, it is still costing you in terms of lost performance,” Niall said.

Typical carcaseweights range from 260kg to 300kg for Angus and Hereford’s to 340kg for continental bred animals. A fat score of 3+ and 4-/= is preferred as Niall finds it helps kill-out percentage of animals with dairy breeding in their background.

Animal performance

Measuring daily liveweight gain is not viewed as a suitable indicator of animal performance due to the short finishing period and weight fluctuations while acclimatising to a new diet.

Instead, Niall uses estimated carcaseweight gain to monitor performance.

“I take an average kill-out depending on the type and breed of animal to get an initial carcaseweight when purchasing the animal and compare this with the final carcaseweight achieved.

“You find that some animals perform better than you think while others will under-perform for one reason or another.

“Some animals with a lot of scope can gain 50kg to 60kg carcaseweight, but 40kg carcaseweight is a good barometer over a short finishing period.

“This is something I find works for me and once the same criteria and assumptions are used, it allows me to track performance and helps to highlight any issues with performance.”

Finishing diet

The finishing diet is kept simple. Heifers are fed ad-lib silage of excellent quality and built up over a 10-day to two-week period to 6kg meal supplementation.

When questioned on the merit of including silage in the diet over an alternative high concentrate diet, Nelius said that the quality of silage available determines this decision. He said that to realistically finish animals on a silage-based diet, only top quality silage will suffice.

Achieving this is a multi-pronged approach. Cutting date is a major factor with the target to have first cut silage harvested by 20 May and second cuts within seven weeks or shortly after.

Working back from this, all silage ground is also grazed early in the year to remove any grass that has accumulated over the winter.

Nelius said the quality of grass and the way soil is looked after will also greatly influence silage quality.

Silage ground is reseeded every five to six years (in a rotation with barley) and having young swards, along with maintaining the correct soil fertility levels (lime and N, P and K), are seen as a critical component in growing a high-yielding quality crop in seven to eight weeks.

Nelius has a similar philosophy to ration formulation. Barley is grown and stored on the farm.

“If you get barley with a good fill, saved at 17% to 18% moisture, rolled well to break the grain and stored to avoid any spoilage, there is not many better feeds,” he said. Barley is included at 66% and balanced with 22% distillers grain, 10% to 11% soya hulls/beet pulp and 2% minerals and vitamins.

Meal is fed twice daily, with fresh silage provided every day to prevent feed from accumulating, spoiling and the risking of depressing intakes.