The ewes are all that remain outdoors now. There are good, strong covers built up, but ground conditions are extremely poor. As a result, the ewes are being strip-grazed, with two days’ worth of grass being allocated. It is proving to be a difficult task though, as utilisation is poor due to wet underfoot conditions.

Breeding with the mature ewes finished on Monday, as the Texel rams were pulled out. That equated to a 35-day breeding season.

The Charollais rams were pulled away from the hoggets and the ewe lambs on Friday, meaning a breeding season of 40 days and 21 days, respectively.

All ewes were tipped at least once and, promisingly, only a handful of ewes repeated.

Since the farm practised single-sire mating for the first part of the season, it means all rams proved to be fruitful.

Mature ewes were bred for 35 days.

Ewes will be scanned over Christmas to determine the full results of the breeding season.

A small number of ewe lambs became lame this week. They were isolated immediately and will be foot-bathed daily for seven days.

Suckler cows

Suckler cows are in the middle of a pre-winter health check at present.

Faecal samples will be taken in the coming days to determine if a worm and/or fluke dose is needed for the cows. Recent liver reports from slaughtered animals will also be taken into account.

As part of a trial, MSD was on the farm this week taking external parasite (lice and mites) samples from the cows.

Once the results of the faecal samples and external parasite samples come back, all cows will be treated accordingly. At the same time, backs and tails will be clipped.

On top of that, blood samples were taken from a portion of cows last week to identify the mineral status of the herd. A pre-calving mineral will be decided upon once the results are known.

Weanling health

Weanlings were housed over the past four weeks. Bull calves were housed first on 28 October, with heifer calves housed on 12 November. Weight gains were good up to this point, with bull calves averaging 380kg on 27 October and heifer calves averaging 340kg on 25 November.

All weanlings have been housed on slats in sheds with good ventilation. Prior to weaning in October, calves got a booster shot for RSV and PI3 and also an IBR vaccination.

They were also dosed for worms with an Avermectin-based product two weeks prior to housing. This dose had residual activity of four to six weeks, which should mean that all calves are clear of worms.

Fluke has not been an issue on the farm for the past number of years, but all groups of animals will be faecal sampled in the coming weeks to determine whether a dose is required.

Weanling feeding

All weanlings are being fed first-cut silage, which tested well at 42% dry matter (DM), 14% protein, 76.9% DMD and 11.7 ME (Mj/kg).

The current ration being used on Tullamore Farm is 30% barley, 30% soya hulls, 20% maize meal and 12.5% soya bean meal and is costing €250/t delivered.

The bull calves are on 3kg/head/day of meal, along with ad-lib silage.

They will be stepped up to 5kg/head/day in January and progress to ad-lib feeding to be slaughtered under 16 months in June and July 2020.

The heifer calves have started on 2kg ration/day along with ad-lib silage.

This will be reduced to 1.5kg/day for December and 1kg/day in January. Concentrates will stop being fed in advance of turnout in February when weather conditions allow.

All weanlings will be weighed in mid-December to determine growth rate and whether any tweaks in management are required.

A group of 13 livestock buyers from Algeria and Egypt on Tullamore Farm this week.

Visitors

Bord Bia is hosting 13 livestock buyers from Algeria and Egypt on a three-day business trip visiting farms and export assembly centres around Ireland.

They visited Tullamore Farm on Wednesday. The buyers included representatives from seven Algerian livestock companies and three Egyptian companies, with a combined purchase requirement of over 110,000 head of cattle per year.

The visit comes following the revision of health certificates for the export of Irish cattle to Algeria and the subsequent export of 250 Irish bulls to the Algerian market on 21 November.