A beef club meeting, organised by local vet Finbarr Kiernan of Finbarr Kiernan veterinary practice in Cavan town, took place in the Cavan Crystal hotel on Tuesday night.

The main topics on the night included animal nutrition and animal health, and the importance of these two factors for high-performance within suckler and beef herds.

Kiernan opened proceedings by thanking the 110-strong crowd which showed up to the event, and also welcomed the guest speakers – Prof. Finbar Mulligan, an animal nutrition lecturer at UCD school of veterinary medicine, and Sarah Campbell, vet advisor with MSD animal health.

Nutrition

Prof. Mulligan was the first speaker on-stage and provided a comprehensive breakdown of the nutritional requirements of both suckler and beef (fattening) operations.

In terms of nutrition, he put very simply the role feeding plays in animal performance: “It is most important to remember that animal performance is based on the usable energy or calories consumed by the animal.

“If we think of ourselves, at Christmas time an extra few pounds gained is because of extra calories consumed over the festive period. It’s the same for animals, the more calories they can consume, the more weight gain can be achieved.”

He then went on to explain diets for maintaining performance, particularly where fodder supplies might be scarce.

“A survey carried out by Teagasc showed that in this region (Cavan/Meath/Westmeath), 35% of farmers are short on fodder for the winter. The average amount these farmers are short is about 16% of requirements.”

In dealing with fodder shortage, Mulligan said the most important point is to ensure animals are getting enough energy/calories into their diet to maintain BCS or ensure thrive. In a case study, he pointed out “for a 580kg Friesian steer to perform at 0.6kg/day, he has an energy demand of 7.3UFL/day. Silage has roughly 0.68UFL/kg DM. Where silage reserves are short, a demand for 11kg DM silage can be cut to half if 4kg of soya hulls were used as supplementation.”

The point he was getting across was that it is important to consider energy demand when formulating alternative beef diets.

Another key point in terms of nutrition and the provision of energy in the diet was to get your silage tested.

“Feeding poor-quality silage is the same as running faster just to stand still,” he said. Grazed grass has a UFL value of 0.9 to 1.0. In comparison, 68% DMD silage has a UFL value of 0.71 to 0.75, while 74% DMD silage has a UFL value of 0.82 to 0.85.

Again to put this scenario into practical terms, he said “to build up cows with a low BCS, they need either 72% DMD silage ad-lib, 67% DMD silage plus 2kg of concentrates or 60% DMD silage with 3kg of concentrates.” This clearly showed the difference silage quality can make and therefore the need to test silage.

Finally, focusing on fattening cattle, he pointed out that where energy demands for sucklers, growing cattle and stores are given on a UFL basis, the energy requirements for fattening cattle are given on a UFV scale.

“This,” he said “has a big difference in the way we compare the value of feeds in the diet of fattening cattle. For example, beet pulp and citrus pulp are very good value feeds for sucklers, stores and growing cattle based on the energy they provide, however, based on the energy they provide to fattening cattle they are not good-value feeds.”

For fattening cattle, Mulligan said his favourite feed ingredient would be maize meal, followed by rolled barley. He also said he “would never substitute rolled barley with wheat in the diet of finishing cattle".

Health

Sarah Campbell then took to the stage to discuss some practical disease prevention and vaccination techniques farmers should be using to keep stock healthy this winter.

“Ventilation is key for keeping animals healthy. Any shed will be ventilated on a good breezy day, but it is on the mild and calm days that we need our sheds to have good ventilation.”

Adding to this, she pointed out that “cobwebs can be one of the best signs of poor ventilation. If there is dust on cobwebs, if a spider can freely dangle from a roof, or if there is condensation on cobwebs, then ventilation isn’t adequate".

Finally on the issue of ventilation, she also stressed that farmers must remember to avoid creating down-drafts or floor drafts, particularly with young stock, when addressing ventilation issues.

As well as ventilation, Cambell also got a large amount of questions on the management and administration of vaccines. On administration she said that “if giving into the muscle, always inject into the neck”. Finbar Kiernan also added that “the best place to inject is into the soft part of the neck, roughly a few finger-widths in from the shoulder and a few down from the top of the neck”.

Campbell also said that “many vaccines are now licenced to be administered with each other, while some are not. Always check out what can and can’t be given together before treatments”.

To properly manage vaccines, she said “the biggest thing with vaccines is keeping them cool. Vaccines become denatured and don’t work if the temperatures rise. These vaccines are made, stored and transported all the way to veterinary surgeries in cool conditions. This cold-chain is then often broken when farmers buy the vaccine and leave it sitting on the dashboard of their jeep for a couple of hours. Make sure your practice gives you a cooler bag to transport the vaccine and make sure you store it in a working fridge when you get home”.

Finally, Campbell said: “Most vaccines will only last for 10 hours maximum once opened.Once the seal is broke either use it all in the one day, or it’s no good after that.”

To hear vet Finbarr Kiernan summarise the evening and discuss what health issues he is seeing on farms across the country, listen to the podcast below.

Listen to "Vet Finbarr Kiernan" on Spreaker.