Limited winter housing and dry land on suckler beef farmer Fionbharr Hamill’s farm near Downpatrick allows outwintering cows to work well as part of his system.
Fionbharr is a participant in the BETTER Farm NI programme and he hosted an open day on his farm on Thursday.
Spring-calving herd
The 100-cow spring-calving herd is made up of mostly Angus cross cows that have been outwintered on a forage crop for the past two years.
Swift, a hybrid crop between kale and forage rape, was planted this year and cows have been strip-grazing it since early November.
More housing will become available over the winter as beef cattle are finished and cows will be housed in February ahead of calving in early March.
Cows will be housed in February ahead of calving in early March.
At the BETTER Farm NI walk on Thursday, visitors saw the crop and, although ground conditions were wet following heavy rain earlier in the week, cows were content and in good condition.
Outwintering suits Fionbharr’s farm as the land is dry and it is part of a cropping rotation.
Fields are planted with spring barley following the forage crop and an autumn reseed is carried out after that.
The forage crop also takes pressure off silage stocks and means there is less slurry to store and spread.
Challenges
However, it was acknowledged at the farm walk that forage crops are not the low-cost way of wintering cattle that some think they are and management can be difficult in a wet time.
“It is not for the faint-hearted,” said local farmer Paul Turley, who also outwinters cattle.
Programme adviser Daryl Boyd presented figures which indicated a daily feed cost of £0.42/head.
This figure does not include straw (a 4x4 round bale is being fed to 24 cows every day) and mineral costs. It also assumes a crop dry matter content of 15% (which could be too high) and 100% utilisation of the swift by cows, which does not happen in practice.
Utilisation partly depends on the weather, and also on target weight gains in cattle. Where utilisation is at 80% it might be suitable for dry cows, but young stock could have low weight gains. In wet conditions, and where higher weight targets are sought, utilisation could be closer to 60%. This would leave the cost for the swift alone, around £0.70/head.
“It is not necessarily a cheap way of wintering, it comes down to management and utilisation,” said Francis Breen from CAFRE.
Read more
BETTER Farm NI: grazing season draws to a close in Co Down
Store cattle housed for winter finishing in Co Down
Limited winter housing and dry land on suckler beef farmer Fionbharr Hamill’s farm near Downpatrick allows outwintering cows to work well as part of his system.
Fionbharr is a participant in the BETTER Farm NI programme and he hosted an open day on his farm on Thursday.
Spring-calving herd
The 100-cow spring-calving herd is made up of mostly Angus cross cows that have been outwintered on a forage crop for the past two years.
Swift, a hybrid crop between kale and forage rape, was planted this year and cows have been strip-grazing it since early November.
More housing will become available over the winter as beef cattle are finished and cows will be housed in February ahead of calving in early March.
Cows will be housed in February ahead of calving in early March.
At the BETTER Farm NI walk on Thursday, visitors saw the crop and, although ground conditions were wet following heavy rain earlier in the week, cows were content and in good condition.
Outwintering suits Fionbharr’s farm as the land is dry and it is part of a cropping rotation.
Fields are planted with spring barley following the forage crop and an autumn reseed is carried out after that.
The forage crop also takes pressure off silage stocks and means there is less slurry to store and spread.
Challenges
However, it was acknowledged at the farm walk that forage crops are not the low-cost way of wintering cattle that some think they are and management can be difficult in a wet time.
“It is not for the faint-hearted,” said local farmer Paul Turley, who also outwinters cattle.
Programme adviser Daryl Boyd presented figures which indicated a daily feed cost of £0.42/head.
This figure does not include straw (a 4x4 round bale is being fed to 24 cows every day) and mineral costs. It also assumes a crop dry matter content of 15% (which could be too high) and 100% utilisation of the swift by cows, which does not happen in practice.
Utilisation partly depends on the weather, and also on target weight gains in cattle. Where utilisation is at 80% it might be suitable for dry cows, but young stock could have low weight gains. In wet conditions, and where higher weight targets are sought, utilisation could be closer to 60%. This would leave the cost for the swift alone, around £0.70/head.
“It is not necessarily a cheap way of wintering, it comes down to management and utilisation,” said Francis Breen from CAFRE.
Read more
BETTER Farm NI: grazing season draws to a close in Co Down
Store cattle housed for winter finishing in Co Down
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