Padraig O’Connor runs a herd of between 55 and 60 cows on his farm in Knockcroghery, Co Roscommon. He has a land base of 52ha, which is split into three land blocks of good-quality and free-draining soil.

Winter is running quite smoothly on the farm to date, with the results of silage samples coming back last week.

One pit showed up very good at 74% DMD, 23% DM, 14.5% crude protein and an energy value of 10.6.

Some of the bales were lower in quality, but had a high dry matter at 65% DMD, 33% DM, 11.7% crude protein and an energy value of 9.2.

When asked about silage stocks, Padraig said: “I should be ok if the spring isn’t too bad. Land is good and dry here and I’d always be hoping to get stock out by the end of February. I should be fine if that can happen.”

Padraig O'Connor

Bull weanlings

Padraig is a firm believer in the saying ‘don’t put all your eggs in the one basket’ when it comes to selling stock.

“When I was running a steer system, I used to find I was selling all my cattle in the back-end of the year when the beef price is usually the lowest. I’ve been trying to spread out my selling dates as best as I can.”

To do this, Padraig has opted to go down the under 16-month bull route with half of his weanlings.

“I’ve done it for the last couple of years and it has been working well.

"I pick off the heaviest and best-quality bulls for the under-16-month system,” he said.

These weanlings received creep feeding at grass to boost thrive.

They are now on 4kg/head/day of weanling ration and high-quality silage.

After a while, they will change over to a nut to minimise spoilage from birds.

On the move over to a bull finisher concentrate, Padraig said: “I’ll count back 100 days from when I want the bulls sold.

"They need to be on 12kg/head/day for those 100 days, so I’ll be sure to have them built up to 12kg before that point.”

For the weanlings not going down the under-16-month route, Padraig is still undecided.

“Last year, I banded them to target a steer-beef system, but I think they are hanging around on the farm too long then.

"I might look at getting them out early in the spring and selling them live as 12- to 14-month-old bulls off the grass next summer,” he said. Currently, these bulls are on a store diet of meal and silage.

Beef heifers

One group of stock that is being finished at the moment is a batch of spring 2017-born heifers.

About half of this group has been slaughtered already at around 20 to 21 months of age.

The group that is left are the calves born later in the spring and these will again go at 20 to 21 months of age in January.

They are being finished on 6kg/head/day of concentrates and good-quality silage.

Padraig said: “This year I have managed to get the heifers sold earlier and it has worked really well.

"Usually, they would be in for most of their second winter, but this year I’ve managed to get over half out the gate before December.”

For more on the farm’s progress, including a look ahead to next spring, see this week’s Irish Farmers Journal in print and online