This week on Tullamore Farm, the spring 2021-born bulls were weighed to analyse their overall performance and average weight gain from their last weighing in March.

The system on Tullamore Farm is an under-16-month bull beef system, with the bulls slaughtered out of the shed from late-May onwards.

At the beginning of March, bulls were moved from a grower weanling ration (16% crude protein) on to a finishing ration (12% crude protein) and have been continued to be fed ad-lib.

Weighing took place on Monday 9 May, with the 31 bulls recording an average weight of 608kg. This translates to a daily liveweight gain of 1.54kg/day since their last weighing on 7 March.

The results show that Simmental bulls had the highest average weight of 624kg, with the Charolais bulls coming close behind at an average weight of 623kg.

The Limousin bulls settled at an average weight of 615kg, with the Salers bulls having an average weight of 550kg.

'Happy with results'

Tullamore Farm manager Shaun Diver said: "Overall, I’m very happy with the weighing results, as bulls are meeting well above their target at 1.5kg/day.

"It’s clear the younger April 2021-born bulls have been performing better on average weight per day, with many gaining more than 2.00kg/day.

"It’s important that we keep a close eye on the heavier bulls' liveweight gain these next two weeks to draft any bulls that are beginning to slow down in average weight per day."

Grass cover

The average farm cover this week is 971kg DM/ha, which has increased by 125kg DM/ha from last week’s cover.

The average growth rate per day has remained at 71kg DM/ha/day, with the daily demand settling at 49kg DM/ha/day.

Shaun said: "This week, we took the opportunity to take out two paddocks, which had gone too strong for grazing, to be baled for silage.

"We currently have 60 acres closed off for silage. In addition, we have a paddock with a cover of 2,600kg, which will probably come in with the first-cut silage due to the current weather conditions.”

Cows

Breeding is continuing on the farm, with 32 out of 41 heifers and 63 out of 80 cows served so far.

This week, the Salers stock bull was introduced to the remaining breeding heifers after a solid 30 days of AI.

Shaun said: “The farm is very busy at the moment and the stock bull should pick up the remaining heifers to be bred. It’s important to note that the cows will remain being AI’d for the next 10 weeks.”

Sheep

It was also busy on the sheep side of the house, with the lambs' 40-day weights being recorded, as well as receiving their clostridial vaccination and ran through the footbath.

Shaun added: "Weighing went well this week, with the results showing the lambs gaining 320g/day on average, so I am happy with that.

"All the data provided from the weighing has been recorded to measure performance for the Sheep Ireland LambPlus programme.”