Ricky Milligan runs 40 sucklers on 64ha at the village of Robertstown, Co Kildare.

The herd has a genetic base of Hereford crossed with Simmental and Limousin. A small number of his cows are first-cross from the dairy herd. The mature herd is at an average replacement index of €104 and quite well-balanced for both maternal and terminal traits.

Heavy cows

Ricky has the heaviest average spring-calving cow in the programme at 735kg, but his calves’ 200-day weight is fourth highest at 294kg.

Ricky also takes in 40 Hereford-Montbeliarde dairy-bred calves from one dairy farm for rearing annually and produces these as bullocks and heifers at or before two years of age in conjunction with his own suckler stock.

His 2015-born bullocks were slaughtered earlier this year at an average age of 22 months. Across both his suckler-bred stock and the bought-in calves, an average carcase weight of 344kg was achieved. His own animals weighed 357kg at slaughter, while the dairy-bred carcases were 318kg.

Ricky slaughters any Hereford-sired animals through the Hereford Prime programme, qualifying for a bonus provided they meet the required specifications.

Carcases must grade minimum O=, not exceed a fat score of 4= and weigh between 220kg and 380kg. Only animals less than 30 months of age qualify for the bonus payment.

48-hour rotations

Ricky is currently running his 2016-born beef cattle as one group of 60 head, grazing in 48-hour blocks. He plans to split these in the coming days, separating the more forward cattle with a view to supplementing at grass and slaughtering in November.

The focus on maintaining grass quality under cattle since he joined the BETTER farm beef programme at the beginning of 2017 means that his animal performance has improved. More of these cattle will now be slaughtered prior to a second winter.

“I reckon I will get half, maybe even 60%, of them away during November,” he said.

The second, third and fourth weeks of November is when the Hereford bonus is at its winter peak. Ricky must give Hereford Prime an idea of numbers by 9 October and cattle will be slaughtered in either Kepak or ABP factories.

Read about an interesting dosing trial carried out on Ricky’s farm in the Irish Farmers Journal this Thursday.

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All reports from the BETTER farm programme