Things have been winding down here on Tullamore Farm over the past week ahead of the Christmas break.

Preparations have been put in place over the last few days to leave work at a minimum over the Christmas peroid. This includes stripping pits this weekend and timing silage to go into sheds on Christmas Eve to minimise work on Christmas Day and St Stephen's Day.

Meal feeding and herding stock are the only two jobs that will need to be completed daily.

Ewes remain outdoors but will be housed in early January. One hundred replacements are being supplemented with silage outdoors at the moment ahead of housing in two weeks. The main flock continues to graze off the last few paddocks on the outfarm in Cloonagh.

Weanlings

Bull weanings are currenty on 4.5kg of weanling ration and first-cut ad-lib silage. Heifers are on 1.5kg and on similar-quality baled silage.

All calves got an avermectin pour-on dose two weeks ago to cover for lice and worms. All weanlings were also clipped going into the shed.

Faecal samples were taken and there is no evidence of fluke in the weanlings on the farm.

Bull calves were weighed in November and weighed 380kg gaining 1.21kg/day since weaning, which was ahead of target.

Heifer calves were also weighed in November and they weighed 340kg gaining 0.7/kg/day since weaning. All weanlings will be weighed in mid-January to assess performance so far this winter.

Cows

Cows were divided up into thin cows and over-condition cows, with thinner cows getting access to better-quality silage. The remaining cows have been batched up depending on calving dates.

Dry cow mineral feeding has started and soya feeding will start in mid-January to the early calving cows. Cows were all clipped this week and they also got a lice treatment (Spot-on). In-calf heifers got an avermectin based pour-on to cover for worms and lice. First calves are expected on the farm in the first week of February.

Commenting on 2019 , farm manager Shaun Diver said: "I've been really happy with the farm's performance this year but there is always room for improvement. Our open day was the highlight of the year here and it was great to meet people from all over the country and tell our story."

I would like to push on grass growth more and hit 13t DM/ha in 2020

Looking ahead to 2020, he said: "We have extra ewes to lamb down this spring so that will bring challenges with it in terms of shed space and labour but we are putting together a plan that will hopefully minimise stress on animals and labour requirements and will hopefully lead to a successful lambing season.

"I would like to push on grass growth more and hit 13t DM/ha in 2020. We also have a super bunch of weanling heifers and I'm really looking forward to seeing how these go on ahead of our annual sale in October 2020."

"I'd like to take this oppurtunity to wish all our readers a Happy Christmas and a peaceful 2020. Thanks for all the feedback and comments during the year and if there is anything anybody would like to know about the farm or things they think we should be doing, get in touch with one of the livestock team or myself here at Tullamore Farm," Shaun said