Hello! My name is Emer O’Neill and I’m from Ballygawley, Co Tyrone. I am 12 years old and in first year at St Patrick’s Academy in Dungannon. Before this, I attended St Malachy’s Primary School Glencull, near Ballygawley.

My calves

Just before Christmas, me and my dad went looking for six to eight calves to keep in the field beside my house. We ended up getting eight Aberdeen Angus heifer calves from a local dairy farmer that milks Holstein Friesian cows.

When we got them, they were on meal and grass and were roughly three months old. They weighed approximately 200kg each.

Once we got them on January 9 2023, we kept them at my uncles’ farm in a small field for three days. This gave us enough time to get them vaccinated for pneumonia and black leg. Once vaccinated, we then moved them up to a larger field where they will stay for a few weeks.

Plan for summer/spring

The eight calves were up at my uncles’ farm until the start of February, then we moved them down to our field beside the house. They are currently on 1.5kg of meal per day.

We buy smaller 25kg bags to prevent the meal from going off or rotting in a large bag.

They will stay in our field all summer and will be getting weighed every two months to track their progress. Worm treatments or other medicine will only be given if necessary.

Grass

The way we like to do grass is by splitting the fields into paddocks with electric fences. The paddocks will last them roughly four to five days.

The reason we do this is to ensure there is always fresh grass growing, giving it time to rest and regrow while the calves are in another paddock. By doing this, it ensures that the calves will rarely run out of fresh grass.

Plan for autumn/winter

The plan for autumn and winter is that once the eight calves come down off our hill, we are going to sell them to my uncle, who is going to get them ready for beef and keep them warm in his shed.

They will get silage and meal during their second winter. They will then be sold for Aberdeen Angus beef during the spring of 2024.