The 2020-spring born calves were housed last week on the Irish Farmers Journal Thrive dairy calf to beef demonstration farm in Cashel, Co Tipperary. The 65 heifers had an average weight of 245kg while the 75 bullocks weighed 266kg.

While we are four days later housing the calves this year compared to last year, the heifers are 28kg heavier and bullocks are 47kg heavier than last year’s calves at the same point in time. For a 19-month system the target housing weight for all cattle is 250kg so we are pleased with this year’s performance at grass.

Looking at the growth rates graph it is clear to see that last year’s calves fell behind target early in the grazing season. This reduced growth rate was in the first few weeks post turnout to grass last spring. Performance from mid-season onwards was quite good although it did tail off during the last six weeks at grass due to poorer conditions.

It is hard to say what the difference between the two years is caused by, however, it is likely a combination of factors. Perhaps a slightly better-quality calf in 2020. Also, the weather was very favourable around turnout this year and there was no setback at all once calves went to grass.

We may have also pulled the meal feeding from calves too soon post-turnout last year, which might have had a negative effect initially.

To combat this, this year farmer John Hally continued to feed 1kg/day concentrate to the lightest batch of 47 calves throughout the second half of June, July and August. Meal was then reintroduced to all calves from September onwards at a rate of 1kg/day.

What this has done is bring up the lightest calves closer to the older heavier calves and this in turn has pulled up the overall average weight of the group.

Calf performance through to the first winter on the demo farm 2019 vs 2020.

Winter target

The target growth rate is around the 0.8-0.9kg/hd/day over the winter. We will monitor performance closely over the winter period because this is typically where cattle can fall behind by not hitting target growth rates.

Having a housing weight is a critical piece in the puzzle. If you do not know what weight the cattle are at the start of winter then it is impossible to know if they have performed adequately over the winter months. Where cattle are housed and are yet to be weighed, it is an exercise well worth doing.