Given the high costs of a young bull finishing system, performance is key and high lifetime daily weight gains are critical to its success.

A high weaning weight is central to this. The more weight you can put on the calf while still on the cow, the less feed it will take to get that bull to a finished weight. With finishing rations coming in at up to €450/t on farms, this is important.

The 2022-born Tullamore Farm bulls were weighed on 6 February 2023. The average weight of the group came in at 457kg. The average daily gain of the 41 bulls since birth was 1.24kg, and they have gained 1.57kg/day since 14 December 2022.

The heaviest bull in the group is 580kg while the lightest is 356kg. This is one of the youngest bulls on the farm.

Numbers are small for making comparisons but the Simmentals had a daily liveweight gain of 1.3kg/day.

Table 1 outlines the results of the latest weighing. The two Charolais bulls in the group gained 1.4/kg/day since birth while the two Aberdeen Angus bulls gained 1.18kg/day since birth. The Limousin came in next with a daily liveweight gain of 1.21/kg/day since birth.

The bulls are now on ad-lib meal feeding along with some silage and straw, with the first of the older bulls due for slaughter around the end of May.

Bulls will be weighed at four-week intervals during the finishing phase to analyse performance.

A 500kg bull will consume 10kg of concentrates/day so feed costs are coming in at €4.50/day when silage and straw are included so high performance is key to holding on to any type of margin.