On a number of the programme farms, finishing cattle are now coming fit for slaughter. These include autumn 2016-born bulls as well as 2016 spring-born cattle.

Once cattle reach a suitable fat cover, they are marketed, as there is little benefit in holding animals beyond this point.

Feed efficiency will be lower once cattle start to put on fat cover, meaning cattle will not be covering their daily feed costs.

Holding these cattle to try to increase carcase weight is uneconomic and can quickly erode any profit margin.

With changeable weather over the past month, there have been some instances of pneumonia on the programme farms.

With milder weather forecasted towards the weekend, it is important to be vigilant for early signs of pneumonia in young cattle.

Improving ventilation can help reduce the risk, but does not eliminate it, as mild temperatures and calm still weather will reduce airflow in sheds.

Clipping cattle along the back and neck can help to reduce sweating, which can also reduce the risk of pneumonia. If clipping cattle, clip an area at least 10in to 12in wide.

Soil sampling

December is a good time to draw up a fertiliser plan for next year and the starting point for any plan is to take soil samples.

This will highlight what fields to target with lime, slurry and FYM, with additional NPK applied through chemical fertiliser.

Week in review

  • Finishing cattle are coming fit for slaughter and marketed once they are reach adequate fat cover.
  • Pneumonia has been an issue on farms in recent weeks.
  • Silage budgets and winter feed plans are being altered where necessary.
  • Soil samples are now being taken to address soil fertility in spring.
  • Farmer focus: Fionbharr Hamill, Downpatrick, Co Down

    In a change to our wintering system, our spring-calving cows are currently being outwintered on forage rape (Stego) and a kale hybrid (Swift).

    Cows are split in two groups, with 38 cows grazing on 11 acres of Stego and 29 cows grazing on five acres of Swift.

    In the past, we would have outwintered cows on grazing ground and offered silage to keep cows settled. However, as well as deteriorating sward composition, it usually left us short of grass for early spring grazing, something which we intend making the most of with our young stock early next spring.

    The forage crops were planted in late July and cows were moved on to the Stego and Swift around seven weeks ago. At this stage of winter, I would estimate that just under half of the crop has been grazed off.

    The two fields used were chosen specifically because of free-draining soils and the provision of shelter. In spring, these fields will be planted with barley, then reseeded next autumn as part of an ongoing reseeding plan.

    As both crops are low in dry matter and fibre, cows are being supplemented with one bale of second-cut silage daily. Second-cut silage was analysed and feed value is 32.1% DM, 10.0 MJ energy, 9.5% protein and 63% D-value. Cows are very content, probably even more so than they were during summer months.

    Bales were placed around the field boundaries shortly after the crop was sown out.This was to avoid driving into the field during winter and causing ground damage. However, while there are sufficient silage bales in the 11 acres of Stego, I have had to place some extra bales in the field of Swift.

    All cows are being strip-grazed with a mains powered electric fence. Cows are given a fresh allocation to graze daily and utilisation is excellent. Bales are being fed in a ring feeder which is simply rolled from one bale to the next.

    I had started off moving the fence twice per day, but with cows in good body condition, we felt we could cut this back to a single move to try to maintain cows in an ideal body condition score ahead of calving.

    Minerals

    Forage rape and kale are also low in minerals, so we are supplementing cows with lick buckets to make sure they are properly covered.

    We will be taking blood samples from the cows being outwintered to establish if the buckets are providing adequate cover and to determine pre-calving mineral requirements.

    Gearing up for spring calving

    My plans are to keep the cows on the forage crops until a few weeks prior to calving. At this point, they will be housed to ease management at calving time.

    We had 92 animals scanned in-calf, but last week we had a cow retaining fluid and she had to be aborted to prevent her dying.

    At scanning time, we had one cow not in calf, along with three heifers. The heifers are still being fattened.

    The cow not in-calf has been culled, along with another five animals that were not put to the stock bulls.

    They averaged 387kg carcase weight on 10 October.

    The in-calf heifers are being wintered in a straw-bedded loose house and have access to a small paddock beside the shed. This will help to keep them fit ahead of calving.

    Spring-born weanlings

    Spring-born calves were weaned from 6 October to 1 November, with 42 heifers having an average 200-day weight of 276kg, giving a daily weight gain of 1.18kg/day from birth.

    There were 39 bull calves weaned over the same period at an average 200-day weight of 299kg, giving an average of 1.27kg/day from birth. Calves are mostly bred from our Aberdeen Angus and Charolais stock bulls.

    Weanlings are on first-cut silage, which has a feed value of 29.8% DM, 11.2 ME, 11.0% protein and 70% D-value.

    They are also getting 2.4kg/day of maize gluten.

    Grass covers have been building on the grazing block, so my plan is to try to get these cattle back to grass in early February should weather permit.

    Finishing cattle

    We had 70 cattle to finish this winter. So far, we have 18 animals killed, which are a mix of steers and heifers.

    Steers are mainly Angus-bred and had an average carcase weight of 371kg, with heifers averaging 354kg.

    The remaining 58 finishing cattle consist of 32 steers and 20 heifers.

    They are currently on first-cut silage and 6.4kg of barley mixed with 0.85kg of maize gluten.

    We are happy with the performance of beef cattle on the simple rations, with many achieving weight gains of 1.2kg to 1.5kg/day over the first six weeks after housing.