Tullamore Farm recorded a grass growth rate of 104kg/DM/ha over the past seven days. This is the third consecutive week in a row that grass growth has breached the 100kg mark and it was another week of taking out surplus paddocks to manage pre-grazing quality. Demand is running at 42kg/DM/ha/day, so there has been a surplus each week to deal with. This week coincided with main crop silage-cutting, so 10 acres of surplus grazing paddocks went in along with the main crop. The 50 acres bulked well. These fields will get slurry this week and fertiliser next week to try to build reserves with a bigger second cut than is needed. There are currently 16 days' grass ahead of stock and average farm cover is running at 690kg/DM/ha.

Pneumonia issues

There have been three cases of pneumonia in calves this week on the farm. One of these calves did not respond to treatment and died. This calf has been sent to Athlone RVL to determine the cause of death. The other two calves are being treated with antibiotics. Heat stress was an issue during the very hot days and this presented a challenge to calves. On veterinary advice, calves are going to be vaccinated for RSV and PI3 strains next week as part of a two-shot programme. This was completed just before weaning last year but will be carried out two months earlier this year. Hopefully, this will prevent any further cases occurring but stock are being monitored very closely to see if there are any signs of sickness

Breeding

At the end of this week, six weeks of breeding will be completed. Heat activity has slowed down a lot with only one to two heats being detected each day. Levels of repeats have been low. The two stock bulls will be joined with the main herd next week to mop up for four to five weeks. There is a pregnancy plan due to take place in two weeks to determine conception rate to AI for the first three weeks of the breeding season.