Donal Fahy, technician for the dairy calf-to-beef trial in Grange, was speaking about the ongoing trial being undertaken at Teagasc, Grange, Co Meath.

The trial is in its second year and is comparing high- and low-genetic merit Angus-sired steers with progeny from Holstein Friesian bulls with progeny being brought through to slaughter as steers at 24 months of age.

Weaning

The aim is to try to maximise production off grass, according to Donal.

"We got yearling stock out on 12 February. Angus cattle were over 400kg at the last weighing in the last few weeks. High-genetic merit steers had done 1.14kg/day since birth while lower-genetic merit Angus steers had done 1.12kg/day. Friesian-sired steers were weighing 420kg, having done 1.07kg/day since turnout."

Concentrates

Donal said: "Last year, we weaned at 85kg at eight weeks of age. They then received 1kg of meal for two weeks at grass. This was then cut out with calves on a 100% grass diet until mid-September when meal was introduced for two months pre-housing.

"Performance during the grazing season was 0.68kg/day but you have to take into account the drought," Donal explained.

"We could have hit the higher performance if we introduced meal during the summer but it's a grass-based system we are running.

"We will be implementing a leader-follower system on the farm but it is not always easy to do when you are trying to push on performance for yearling stock."

Nicky Byrne, who is in charge of the trial, said: "This research has the ability to determine the merit of using elite beef genetics on the dairy herd, while analysing overall system inputs and outputs. It will also lead to a better Teagasc blueprint for dairy calf-to-beef systems"

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