Bull slaughter

Another batch of bulls were slaughtered last week. There are now nine bulls left and these will be slaughtered next week along with some cull cows that lost calves in spring. Table 1 outlines the performance so far for this year’s bulls.

Bulls have been fed on an ad-lib diet for the past 120 days and have gained 1.6kg day. Average carcass weight for bulls slaughtered so far is averaging 380.1kg at 58.2% kill-out. The average grade has been a U-2+ and bulls have grossed €1,638.81 so far. Table 2 outlines the ration details that bulls have been fed on.

Grass growth

Average farm cover has risen again this week to 770kg, which is 200kg/DM/ha higher than last week's cover. Growth has also increased to 35kg/DM/ha/day in line with demand at 34kg/DM/ha. Table 3 outlines the grass details for this week.

Thirty acres of silage was cut and baled last weekend. These fields have been spread with fertiliser for a third cut. Two groups of cows and calves returned to normal grazing at the weekend, with silage supplementation stopped. Calves will continue to be fed concentrates in troughs in adjacent paddocks to where cows are grazing. This will also help to encourage creep grazing. Twenty heifers have been drafted out of the dairy x heifer group for meal feeding, along with finishing lambs. Thirty-five lambs were drafted for slaughter this week.

Forage crop

At Tullamore farm, 25 acres have been sprayed off since May in anticipation of reseeding. Unfortunately, weather conditions put a halt to these plans and these fields were used as stand-off areas over the past two months. It was decided this week to sow a forage crop of redstart (hybrid between rape and kale). This will be planted in 19 acres, while the remaining six acres will be sown with grass. The field was ploughed as there was dung to be spread on these fields and redstart was sown with a one-pass system. Three bags of 18:6:12 were also spread on the field. This will hopefully grow three to five tonnes DM/ha of fodder for winter months. Seventy bales of silage will also be placed in these fields for feeding during grazing in winter months. This crop will be used to graze heifer weanlings and late-calving cows. These fields will go back into grass next spring.

Tullamore farm open day

Tullamore farm will have a series of mini open days in 2018. The first one of these is due to take place on Friday, 17 August. These days are aimed at discussion groups. Farm tours will start at 11am and 2pm and last for approximately two hours. The focus of next week’s tours will be on winter fodder and forage crop establishment. Places are limited so you need to book by contacting John Walsh on 01-4199-500 or emailing jwalsh@farmersjournal.ie to secure your spot. The next dates for open days are Friday, 5 October, and Friday, 9 November, where winter health and nutrition will be covered.