It’s been another great week weather-wise on Tullamore Farm, with cows and calves continuing to head out to grass and ewes and lambs heading in the same direction.
This has taken the pressure off around the yard and has reduced the high labour required during lambing and calving.
There are currently 67 suckler cows and calves out at grass. There are also 61 yearling heifers out at grass grazing the demo field block of land on the outfarm at Cloonagh.
Farm manager Shaun Diver has also turned out 150 ewes with their lambs. There are about 50 ewes left to lamb and 30 ewes an lambs still in group pens around the yard. There are also seven cows left to calve.
Turnout procedure
All calves are tagged immediately after birth. That leaves dehorning and pneumonia vaccination to be completed at turnout.
Calves get a painkiller, anaesthetic, pneumonia vaccine and are dehorned before being turned out.
Cows also get a high magnesium bolus at turnout to protect against tetany.
Tullamore Farm: Calves get a painkiller, anaesthetic, pneumonia vaccine and are dehorned before being turned out.
The farm has had issues with tetany in the past and while licks are also available for cows in paddocks, the bolus is one of the ways you can guarantee the cow has enough magnesium.
Ewes that have been turned out are being fed 0.5kg meal daily to guard against tetany also. All lambs are numbered with their mother for ease of identification in paddocks.
Grass growth
Grass has been slow to get going. While it’s been a dry week, there’s been a cold wind, which hasn’t been conducive to growth.
The farm recorded a growth rate of 18kg DM/ha/day over the past seven days, which is just running behind demand of 21kg/ha/day.
Tullamore Farm: Cows get a high-magnesium bolus at turnout to protect against tetany.
However, this is with no silage ground closed up. Silage fields got 2,000 gallons of slurry to the acre and will be closed up early next week after fertiliser is spread.
Forty-five acres will be closed initially, with further ground to be closed when growth takes off.
This was grazed with sheep until January, so has been eaten off tight. This will increase demand, so we need growth to be closer to 30kg DM/ha next week.
Tullamore Farm: Heifers are being fed 1kg/head of meal daily to slow them up and allow grass growth catch up for the next 10 days.
Average farm cover is sitting at 574kg DM/ha and the farm is currently stocked at 1,000kg liveweight/ha.
All of the farm, except the 45 acres of silage fields, has received fertiliser to date. Heifers are being fed 1kg/head of meal daily to slow them up and allow grass growth catch up for the next 10 days.
Bull found dead
Farm manager Shaun Diver got a shock on Wednesday morning when he went to feed the group of under-16-month bulls and found one of them dead on the slats.
With current restrictions, bringing him to the RVL wasn’t an option, so Shaun rang our vet Donal Lynch to see if he could diagnose what killed the bull.
Donal couldn’t be 100% sure, but put the death down to a clostridia disease due to the way the body swelled up quickly afterwards.
All calves are vaccinated on Tullamore Farm as young calves and get two shots which covers them for the first grazing season.
Animals going back outdoors for the second grazing season get a booster shot to cover against clostridial disease. Bulls indoors don’t get this booster shot.
The bulls are on straw at the moment and maybe some soil might have been in a bale, we don’t know. The question was do we vaccinate the rest at this stage.
Vet Donal Lynch advised that putting them through the crush and possibly bruising some muscle could do more harm than good by bringing on more cases and we have taken the decision not to vaccinate.
We will have a look at it again next year and maybe give them a booster shot earlier in winter.
Read more
ABP Polish beef move a ‘kick in the teeth’ for Irish farmers – IFA
Irish Farmers Journal launch new online mart price calculator
Mart prices: calf prices hold firm in Carnew under new trading protocols
It’s been another great week weather-wise on Tullamore Farm, with cows and calves continuing to head out to grass and ewes and lambs heading in the same direction.
This has taken the pressure off around the yard and has reduced the high labour required during lambing and calving.
There are currently 67 suckler cows and calves out at grass. There are also 61 yearling heifers out at grass grazing the demo field block of land on the outfarm at Cloonagh.
Farm manager Shaun Diver has also turned out 150 ewes with their lambs. There are about 50 ewes left to lamb and 30 ewes an lambs still in group pens around the yard. There are also seven cows left to calve.
Turnout procedure
All calves are tagged immediately after birth. That leaves dehorning and pneumonia vaccination to be completed at turnout.
Calves get a painkiller, anaesthetic, pneumonia vaccine and are dehorned before being turned out.
Cows also get a high magnesium bolus at turnout to protect against tetany.
Tullamore Farm: Calves get a painkiller, anaesthetic, pneumonia vaccine and are dehorned before being turned out.
The farm has had issues with tetany in the past and while licks are also available for cows in paddocks, the bolus is one of the ways you can guarantee the cow has enough magnesium.
Ewes that have been turned out are being fed 0.5kg meal daily to guard against tetany also. All lambs are numbered with their mother for ease of identification in paddocks.
Grass growth
Grass has been slow to get going. While it’s been a dry week, there’s been a cold wind, which hasn’t been conducive to growth.
The farm recorded a growth rate of 18kg DM/ha/day over the past seven days, which is just running behind demand of 21kg/ha/day.
Tullamore Farm: Cows get a high-magnesium bolus at turnout to protect against tetany.
However, this is with no silage ground closed up. Silage fields got 2,000 gallons of slurry to the acre and will be closed up early next week after fertiliser is spread.
Forty-five acres will be closed initially, with further ground to be closed when growth takes off.
This was grazed with sheep until January, so has been eaten off tight. This will increase demand, so we need growth to be closer to 30kg DM/ha next week.
Tullamore Farm: Heifers are being fed 1kg/head of meal daily to slow them up and allow grass growth catch up for the next 10 days.
Average farm cover is sitting at 574kg DM/ha and the farm is currently stocked at 1,000kg liveweight/ha.
All of the farm, except the 45 acres of silage fields, has received fertiliser to date. Heifers are being fed 1kg/head of meal daily to slow them up and allow grass growth catch up for the next 10 days.
Bull found dead
Farm manager Shaun Diver got a shock on Wednesday morning when he went to feed the group of under-16-month bulls and found one of them dead on the slats.
With current restrictions, bringing him to the RVL wasn’t an option, so Shaun rang our vet Donal Lynch to see if he could diagnose what killed the bull.
Donal couldn’t be 100% sure, but put the death down to a clostridia disease due to the way the body swelled up quickly afterwards.
All calves are vaccinated on Tullamore Farm as young calves and get two shots which covers them for the first grazing season.
Animals going back outdoors for the second grazing season get a booster shot to cover against clostridial disease. Bulls indoors don’t get this booster shot.
The bulls are on straw at the moment and maybe some soil might have been in a bale, we don’t know. The question was do we vaccinate the rest at this stage.
Vet Donal Lynch advised that putting them through the crush and possibly bruising some muscle could do more harm than good by bringing on more cases and we have taken the decision not to vaccinate.
We will have a look at it again next year and maybe give them a booster shot earlier in winter.
Read more
ABP Polish beef move a ‘kick in the teeth’ for Irish farmers – IFA
Irish Farmers Journal launch new online mart price calculator
Mart prices: calf prices hold firm in Carnew under new trading protocols
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: