The 2019 grazing season has more or less finished on our farm, as persistent rainfall during September and October made ground conditions increasingly difficult to manage.
We tried to be as proactive as possible to prevent cattle from poaching swards, by giving animals 24- to 48-hour grazing allocations.
However, even though cows were moving to fresh grass more often, they were hard to keep settled. Therefore, we started housing cows around three weeks ago.
BETTER Farm NI: Ryan McDowell from Gleno, Co Antrim.
The cows were grazed on two separate land blocks all summer and, as such, they were housed in two batches. The first group to come indoors consisted of 29 cows and calves, with the second group of 33 cows and calves being housed one week later.
It is amazing to see how quickly animals settled indoors once they moved on to drier silage, compared with grazing wet grass day in, day out.
In-calf heifers
The only cattle still grazing is a group of 22 in-calf heifers. There is still plenty of grass on farm, but utilisation is the problem.
As cows are too heavy to graze swards, we felt the heifers would be better suited to grazing, as they are lighter animals.
Ideally, we would like to keep the heifers outside for another fortnight to clean out paddocks, but this is totally dependent on the weather.
There was heavy rain on Friday last, with 10 mm recorded on-farm, and this has left some paddocks totally saturated.
Indoor feeding
Now that cows are housed, they are being fed baled silage, with four bales/day required to feed all 62 cows and their calves.
Silage quality is good, although there is a fair variation in dry matter between bales, depending on when the fodder was saved. Therefore, we are mixing dry and wet bales to improve utilisation.
Calves are being fed silage and concentrates through creep areas.
Some of the first-cut bales were analysed and feed value is 16% crude protein, 10.5 ME (energy), 27% dry matter and 66% D-value.
Cows are still suckling calves indoors and being fed a silage-only diet, as they were housed in great condition.
Therefore, we are planning to utilise some of this body condition to maintain milk production rather than feeding purchased concentrate.
Scanning
Cows have now been scanned and out of the 62 animals bred, there were 61 confirmed in-calf.
We served 32 cows to AI using the Charolais sire Fiston, along with two Limousin bulls, Lodge Hamlet and ZAG.
Scanning confirmed that 21 cows held to AI, of which 15 animals are in-calf to Fiston.
The remainder of the cows are in-calf to either an Angus, Hereford or Salers bull.
The Salers bull was purchased during the breeding season, as we were concerned that the Hereford was not working properly, so we made an early call to replace him.
Cows are due to start calving to the stock bulls from 20 March onwards. Cows served to AI are due to calve around 29 March.
Heifers
Over the past few years, we have established a good market for selling in-calf heifers. This year, we put 52 heifers to the bull and scanning confirmed that 48 animals are in-calf.
We have started to sell these animals, with 17 Angus heifers sold to date. The heifers are a mix of Angus and Hereford and were served to Angus and Stabiliser bulls.
Preparing calves for weaning
The spring-born calves are still on their mothers and the plan is to wean them at the end of November.
Given that cows are in such good body condition, we are in no rush to wean them just yet
We have moved our calving pattern back to start in late March, as this is much better suited to turning freshly calved cows out to grass.
However, the later calving pattern means calves are younger at housing. Given that cows are in such good body condition, we are in no rush to wean them just yet and hopefully calves will gain another 30kg to 40kg on the cow before weaning.
Vaccinations
With weaning just over one month away, all calves are up to date in terms of the herd health plan. They have received the primary and booster shots for pneumonia, as well as an IBR vaccine.
Calves have also been wormed in advance of housing and had their backs and tails clipped this week.
While cows are on a silage-only diet, calves are being fed a small level of concentrate in creep areas to prepare them for weaning.
We will take dung samples to monitor fluke burdens, with animals being treated accordingly.
Calf weights
The first group of cows and calves to be housed were weighed on 9 October. These calves would be the youngest animals born this year.
There are 17 heifer calves and they averaged 163 days old on 9 October. They weighed 222kg, giving an average daily gain of 1.11kg/day from birth on a grass-only diet.
There are 11 bull calves and they weighed 258kg at an average age of 174 days old. This gives a daily gain from birth of 1.24kg/day.
The cows in this group were also weighed and averaged 559kg.
The remaining calves are due to be weighed this weekend and will be much heavier, so this will push weaning percentage up.
Drafting bullocks for finishing
Our 2018-born bullocks are now being drafted for slaughter. We sold 10 bullocks earlier this month, five of which were Angus and the remainder being Hereford.
There are five Angus cattle booked for slaughter on Friday
Carcase weights averaged 303kg at 18 months of age, which is an improvement on last year when the first bullocks drafted averaged 296kg carcase weight.
There are five Angus cattle booked for slaughter on Friday, with another five animals coming fit for slaughter and 10 lighter animals which will be ready to kill next month.
Bullocks are being finished on good-quality silage and a beef finishing nut.
Read more
Watch - Farmer Writes: my oldest cow still going strong
Chinese beef market access will be a game changer
The 2019 grazing season has more or less finished on our farm, as persistent rainfall during September and October made ground conditions increasingly difficult to manage.
We tried to be as proactive as possible to prevent cattle from poaching swards, by giving animals 24- to 48-hour grazing allocations.
However, even though cows were moving to fresh grass more often, they were hard to keep settled. Therefore, we started housing cows around three weeks ago.
BETTER Farm NI: Ryan McDowell from Gleno, Co Antrim.
The cows were grazed on two separate land blocks all summer and, as such, they were housed in two batches. The first group to come indoors consisted of 29 cows and calves, with the second group of 33 cows and calves being housed one week later.
It is amazing to see how quickly animals settled indoors once they moved on to drier silage, compared with grazing wet grass day in, day out.
In-calf heifers
The only cattle still grazing is a group of 22 in-calf heifers. There is still plenty of grass on farm, but utilisation is the problem.
As cows are too heavy to graze swards, we felt the heifers would be better suited to grazing, as they are lighter animals.
Ideally, we would like to keep the heifers outside for another fortnight to clean out paddocks, but this is totally dependent on the weather.
There was heavy rain on Friday last, with 10 mm recorded on-farm, and this has left some paddocks totally saturated.
Indoor feeding
Now that cows are housed, they are being fed baled silage, with four bales/day required to feed all 62 cows and their calves.
Silage quality is good, although there is a fair variation in dry matter between bales, depending on when the fodder was saved. Therefore, we are mixing dry and wet bales to improve utilisation.
Calves are being fed silage and concentrates through creep areas.
Some of the first-cut bales were analysed and feed value is 16% crude protein, 10.5 ME (energy), 27% dry matter and 66% D-value.
Cows are still suckling calves indoors and being fed a silage-only diet, as they were housed in great condition.
Therefore, we are planning to utilise some of this body condition to maintain milk production rather than feeding purchased concentrate.
Scanning
Cows have now been scanned and out of the 62 animals bred, there were 61 confirmed in-calf.
We served 32 cows to AI using the Charolais sire Fiston, along with two Limousin bulls, Lodge Hamlet and ZAG.
Scanning confirmed that 21 cows held to AI, of which 15 animals are in-calf to Fiston.
The remainder of the cows are in-calf to either an Angus, Hereford or Salers bull.
The Salers bull was purchased during the breeding season, as we were concerned that the Hereford was not working properly, so we made an early call to replace him.
Cows are due to start calving to the stock bulls from 20 March onwards. Cows served to AI are due to calve around 29 March.
Heifers
Over the past few years, we have established a good market for selling in-calf heifers. This year, we put 52 heifers to the bull and scanning confirmed that 48 animals are in-calf.
We have started to sell these animals, with 17 Angus heifers sold to date. The heifers are a mix of Angus and Hereford and were served to Angus and Stabiliser bulls.
Preparing calves for weaning
The spring-born calves are still on their mothers and the plan is to wean them at the end of November.
Given that cows are in such good body condition, we are in no rush to wean them just yet
We have moved our calving pattern back to start in late March, as this is much better suited to turning freshly calved cows out to grass.
However, the later calving pattern means calves are younger at housing. Given that cows are in such good body condition, we are in no rush to wean them just yet and hopefully calves will gain another 30kg to 40kg on the cow before weaning.
Vaccinations
With weaning just over one month away, all calves are up to date in terms of the herd health plan. They have received the primary and booster shots for pneumonia, as well as an IBR vaccine.
Calves have also been wormed in advance of housing and had their backs and tails clipped this week.
While cows are on a silage-only diet, calves are being fed a small level of concentrate in creep areas to prepare them for weaning.
We will take dung samples to monitor fluke burdens, with animals being treated accordingly.
Calf weights
The first group of cows and calves to be housed were weighed on 9 October. These calves would be the youngest animals born this year.
There are 17 heifer calves and they averaged 163 days old on 9 October. They weighed 222kg, giving an average daily gain of 1.11kg/day from birth on a grass-only diet.
There are 11 bull calves and they weighed 258kg at an average age of 174 days old. This gives a daily gain from birth of 1.24kg/day.
The cows in this group were also weighed and averaged 559kg.
The remaining calves are due to be weighed this weekend and will be much heavier, so this will push weaning percentage up.
Drafting bullocks for finishing
Our 2018-born bullocks are now being drafted for slaughter. We sold 10 bullocks earlier this month, five of which were Angus and the remainder being Hereford.
There are five Angus cattle booked for slaughter on Friday
Carcase weights averaged 303kg at 18 months of age, which is an improvement on last year when the first bullocks drafted averaged 296kg carcase weight.
There are five Angus cattle booked for slaughter on Friday, with another five animals coming fit for slaughter and 10 lighter animals which will be ready to kill next month.
Bullocks are being finished on good-quality silage and a beef finishing nut.
Read more
Watch - Farmer Writes: my oldest cow still going strong
Chinese beef market access will be a game changer
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