A generous amount of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday has helped the grass situation on Tullamore Farm – for now.
Early last week, farm manager Shaun Diver reported that he was only days away from having to buffer-feed hay to the suckler cows in an effort to slow down their rotation.
At that stage, the average farm cover had dipped below 500kg DM/ha and growth was slowing fast.
A day’s ahead figure of 8 looked ominous.
Thankfully though, the latest grass walk, completed on Friday, showed that the farm cover has bounced back to 614kg DM/ha and growth is also back above 60kg DM/ha.
Major boost
Another major boost is that demand on the farm has dropped from 42kg DM/ha/day back to 31kg DM/ha/day because the second-cut silage ground has come back into the rotation. There are no plans to take up any more ground for silage.
With these slight improvements, buffer feeding has been put on hold for now.
That said, if more rain doesn’t fall in the next seven days, things will likely start to tighten up again.
Cattle
All of the under-16-month bulls have now been sold.
Full data will be presented at the upcoming open day, but, in the meantime, Adam Woods gave a brief synopsis of their performance, and the market, in this week’s paper.
Competition time: in advance of our Tullamore farm open day on Wed 24th July,we’re giving away an @farmersjournal goodie bag to the person who posts the nearest liveweight, deadweight, grade and fat cover on bull below.This lad heading to factory tomorrow. @FJBeef #tullamorefarm pic.twitter.com/4r6UVKiykq
— Adam Woods (@ajwwoods) July 9, 2019
Elsewhere on the cattle front, replacement heifers were dosed with a fendendazol-based product this week after a number of animals were found to be coughing.
These were also weighed going through the crush and their average weight was 485kg.
That’s a gain of 0.92kg/day since they left the redstart and went to grass.
This week coming, the plan is to dose and weigh all of the suckler calves.
Cows will also be weighed as part of the requirements of BEEP. Some calves will also be genotypes as part of BDGP.
Sheep
Thirty-three lambs were drafted for slaughter this week. The average carcase weight was 20.1kg and they came into an average price of €104.58/head.
Eighty-four lambs have been drafted this year to date.
So far, lamb grading seems to be slightly better this year thanks to the introduction of Texel breeding.
Grass fed Texel and Charolais lambs from our mule ewe flock.. join us on our #TullamoreFarm open day 24th July where all performance figures will be available and the flock on display @farmersjournal @ajwwoods @FJSheep #MulePower pic.twitter.com/s79JDADlCx
— Shaun Diver (@diver_shaun) July 8, 2019
All lambs were weaned this week. At the time, they received a worm dose, a cobalt bullet and they were foot-bathed, as scalds were starting to creep in.
Thankfully, maggots have not been an issue yet, so the application of Click pour-on seems to have done the job.
Ewes are now fully dried off and are grazing on bare paddocks.
Open day
The Irish Farmers Journal Beef & Sheep open day on Tullamore Farm will take place on Wednesday 24 July from 11am-4pm, Eircode R35 AT81.
A throw back to some moments from spring 2019 on #TullamoreFarm it was an enjoyable one. join us on July 24th to see how this years stock are performing and a full update on the farm performance since you last joined us in 2017.. all stock on display on the day.. pic.twitter.com/KaTJCJhBow
— Shaun Diver (@diver_shaun) July 10, 2019
Farm performance, breeding, grassland management, soil fertility and animal health will all be covered.
Live demos on sheep handling units and sheep dipping will also take place.
Live workshops on cattle finishing, sheep foot-bathing, health and safety and animal handling and future CAP policy will also take place in the yard area. Admission is free and it’s a KT-approved event.
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