There was another significant draft of cattle on Newford Farm last week, with 14 bullocks slaughtered on Thursday.

The steers, which were aged just 20 months on average, had a liveweight of 636kg and delivered an average carcase weight of 341kg.

This equates to a kill-out of 54%, which is running at the higher end of kill-out performance when compared with previous years' data.

Average sale price

The steers graded R=3- and were sold on a base price of €3.60/kg. The average sale price was recorded at €1,341/head.

The bullocks were housed four weeks ago on a finishing diet of ad-lib silage and 6kg concentrate supplementation.

Concentrates were introduced at a lower level at grass prior to housing, with bullocks receiving 5.1kg on average across 62 days feeding.

The total volume of concentrates consumed was 316kg per bullock or €79 worth of meal at a cost of €250/t.

Remaining bullocks and heifers

There are 20 bullocks remaining on the farm and all but two of these, which had their growth stunted due to significant health issues in 2019, are on target to be slaughtered in the coming weeks.

The bullocks weighed 623kg when last handled on 2 November. On the day of weighing, bullocks also had their tails and backs clipped and received treatment for lice.

Farm manager Iarlaith Collins is happy with how bullocks are thriving on the finishing diet of ad-lib silage and 6kg concentrates (split 3kg in morning and 3kg in evening).

Iarlaith is hopeful that there will be another draft of bullocks and heifers before the end of the month.

Cattle are being selected once they hit an adequate level of finish and acceptable fat cover, with the economics of retaining cattle longer than required not overly attractive at present.

Good transition

The remaining 22 beef heifers were housed on 20 October and Iarlaith says they have transitioned well on to a silage and concentrate finishing diet.

This was helped by heifers receiving 5kg concentrates in advance of housing, with this level of supplementation continuing once animals were housed.

The heifers weighed 557kg on average on 2 November and Iarlaith is again hopeful of a significant percentage of these being drafted for slaughter before the end of the month.