January is a quiet time of year on the farm with the day-to-day routine mostly revolving around feeding cows and weanlings.
All management tasks are up to date in terms of weighing, dosing and vaccinating. So the focus is now on getting sheds cleaned and ready for spring calving, which will get under way in early March.
We started feeding pre-calving minerals to in-calf cows in the past week. I am using a powdered mineral, which is high in iodine and is dusted over silage.
I like this option as it is a good chance to observe cows coming forward to feed. Cows were blood-sampled to determine mineral status with the aim of getting minerals tailored to the herd’s requirement.
Silage feeding
My cows were housed in good body condition, and if anything, they were carrying more flesh than I would like.
Therefore, silage fed to cows has been restricted over the winter period. Cows are split between the indoor shed and an outdoor tank.
There are 12 cows on the outdoor tank and they have not had silage restricted, as they have a higher maintenance requirement than the animals indoors.
The 12 cows outdoors are eating the same volume of silage as a pen of 17 cows indoors. All cows are being fed second-cut silage which was analysed and has a feed value of 68 D-value.
Building cows up to ad-lib
From now until calving, cows will be built up on to ad-lib silage levels. This will help to meet the animals’ growing requirement for energy in late gestation.
Body condition has altered and is just right for calving, with cows looking much fitter than when they were housed. Hopefully, this will help the calving period to go smoothly.
Cows were blood-sampled to determine mineral status with the aim of getting minerals tailored to the herd’s requirement
Tightening the calving pattern
There are currently 76 cows set to calve down this spring, with the bulk of animals scanned for March and April, although a few will slip into May.
Last year, we calved cows over a 16-week period which was the direct result of an injury to the stock bull during the breeding period in summer 2018.
However, we have managed to pull cows forward this year. Scanning results show that all cows will calve down inside 12 weeks this spring, which will be a big positive in terms of managing cattle throughout the year.
My target was to have 75 cows calving this spring with at least 70 live calves weaned in autumn. So far, we are on course to hit this target, although we had one cow pitch her calf back in December.
Cull cows
This animal was immediately separated and put into the fattening pen, along with 13 beef heifers born in late spring 2018.
The group is getting 70kg of concentrate daily, which works out at 5kg/head.The ration is an 18.5% protein growing ration, as I have found that my heifers tend to hit fat class 4L too early, so the extra protein content is to try and keep animals from becoming over-fat.
The group averaged 500kg liveweight in early January and have averaged 1.3kg/day since housing on 1 October. My plan is to feed these cows until they reach 580kg liveweight before selling for slaughter.
Pneumonia causes a
setback in young bulls
There are 33 young bulls on farm which were born last spring. These animals are housed in two groups, each with 17 and 16 animals respectively.
Weanling heifers are getting 1.5kg/day of concentrate and high quality silage, with the aim of selecting the best 15 animals from the group for breeding this summer.
Although calves were weaned in early autumn, and properly wormed, we have had problems with pneumonia in this group. We seem to have it under control now, after blanket treating both groups at Christmas, but cattle performance has taken a hit.
Bulls were weighed in late December and across all animals in the two groups, liveweight averaged 320kg. Last year, all bulls averaged 350kg.
While pneumonia ultimately had an impact on weight gains, it is also worth noting that the average date of birth in the bulls is one month later than the previous year.
The March-born bulls in the group were typically 490kg to 500kg, whereas the calves born during May and June were down at 300kg.
The heaviest bulls are also Simmental cross Limousin, while the lighter bulls are pure-bred Limousin, so there will also be a benefit from hybrid vigour in these animals.
Feeding
March-born bulls are currently on 6kg/day of the growing ration and first-cut silage (71 D-Value).
These animals are on track to reach a target slaughter weight of 650kg in early to mid-April if they continue to gain 1.5kg/day of liveweight gain.
The later-born calves are still on 4kg/day of concentrate. While performance appears to have improved in recent weeks, unfortunately, these animals will be on farm until late June.
With a much tighter calving period this year, this should mean that all bulls will be killed by late May next year.
Although calves were weaned in early autumn, and properly wormed, we have had problems with pneumonia in this group
Weanling heifers
Along with the bull calves, we have 40 weanling heifers on farm. These animals have performed well over winter and as they were housed separate from the bulls, they had no issues with pneumonia.
These animals can creep outside to the yard during the day, where they are also fed 1.5kg/day of concentrate along with silage.
The plan with this group is to select the best 15 heifers for breeding this summer. The lightest 12 animals in the group will be grazed on farm over the summer, then housed next autumn for finishing.
The remaining animals in this group will be sold live this spring, as there is insufficient grass on farm to carry all weanling heifers over the summer.
NB: A correction to last week’s feature on Oliver McKenna is that bulls were finished on 0.8t of concentrate during the housing period.
Read more
Five tips to managing cows pre-calving
Northern Ireland tops EU R3 heifer price
January is a quiet time of year on the farm with the day-to-day routine mostly revolving around feeding cows and weanlings.
All management tasks are up to date in terms of weighing, dosing and vaccinating. So the focus is now on getting sheds cleaned and ready for spring calving, which will get under way in early March.
We started feeding pre-calving minerals to in-calf cows in the past week. I am using a powdered mineral, which is high in iodine and is dusted over silage.
I like this option as it is a good chance to observe cows coming forward to feed. Cows were blood-sampled to determine mineral status with the aim of getting minerals tailored to the herd’s requirement.
Silage feeding
My cows were housed in good body condition, and if anything, they were carrying more flesh than I would like.
Therefore, silage fed to cows has been restricted over the winter period. Cows are split between the indoor shed and an outdoor tank.
There are 12 cows on the outdoor tank and they have not had silage restricted, as they have a higher maintenance requirement than the animals indoors.
The 12 cows outdoors are eating the same volume of silage as a pen of 17 cows indoors. All cows are being fed second-cut silage which was analysed and has a feed value of 68 D-value.
Building cows up to ad-lib
From now until calving, cows will be built up on to ad-lib silage levels. This will help to meet the animals’ growing requirement for energy in late gestation.
Body condition has altered and is just right for calving, with cows looking much fitter than when they were housed. Hopefully, this will help the calving period to go smoothly.
Cows were blood-sampled to determine mineral status with the aim of getting minerals tailored to the herd’s requirement
Tightening the calving pattern
There are currently 76 cows set to calve down this spring, with the bulk of animals scanned for March and April, although a few will slip into May.
Last year, we calved cows over a 16-week period which was the direct result of an injury to the stock bull during the breeding period in summer 2018.
However, we have managed to pull cows forward this year. Scanning results show that all cows will calve down inside 12 weeks this spring, which will be a big positive in terms of managing cattle throughout the year.
My target was to have 75 cows calving this spring with at least 70 live calves weaned in autumn. So far, we are on course to hit this target, although we had one cow pitch her calf back in December.
Cull cows
This animal was immediately separated and put into the fattening pen, along with 13 beef heifers born in late spring 2018.
The group is getting 70kg of concentrate daily, which works out at 5kg/head.The ration is an 18.5% protein growing ration, as I have found that my heifers tend to hit fat class 4L too early, so the extra protein content is to try and keep animals from becoming over-fat.
The group averaged 500kg liveweight in early January and have averaged 1.3kg/day since housing on 1 October. My plan is to feed these cows until they reach 580kg liveweight before selling for slaughter.
Pneumonia causes a
setback in young bulls
There are 33 young bulls on farm which were born last spring. These animals are housed in two groups, each with 17 and 16 animals respectively.
Weanling heifers are getting 1.5kg/day of concentrate and high quality silage, with the aim of selecting the best 15 animals from the group for breeding this summer.
Although calves were weaned in early autumn, and properly wormed, we have had problems with pneumonia in this group. We seem to have it under control now, after blanket treating both groups at Christmas, but cattle performance has taken a hit.
Bulls were weighed in late December and across all animals in the two groups, liveweight averaged 320kg. Last year, all bulls averaged 350kg.
While pneumonia ultimately had an impact on weight gains, it is also worth noting that the average date of birth in the bulls is one month later than the previous year.
The March-born bulls in the group were typically 490kg to 500kg, whereas the calves born during May and June were down at 300kg.
The heaviest bulls are also Simmental cross Limousin, while the lighter bulls are pure-bred Limousin, so there will also be a benefit from hybrid vigour in these animals.
Feeding
March-born bulls are currently on 6kg/day of the growing ration and first-cut silage (71 D-Value).
These animals are on track to reach a target slaughter weight of 650kg in early to mid-April if they continue to gain 1.5kg/day of liveweight gain.
The later-born calves are still on 4kg/day of concentrate. While performance appears to have improved in recent weeks, unfortunately, these animals will be on farm until late June.
With a much tighter calving period this year, this should mean that all bulls will be killed by late May next year.
Although calves were weaned in early autumn, and properly wormed, we have had problems with pneumonia in this group
Weanling heifers
Along with the bull calves, we have 40 weanling heifers on farm. These animals have performed well over winter and as they were housed separate from the bulls, they had no issues with pneumonia.
These animals can creep outside to the yard during the day, where they are also fed 1.5kg/day of concentrate along with silage.
The plan with this group is to select the best 15 heifers for breeding this summer. The lightest 12 animals in the group will be grazed on farm over the summer, then housed next autumn for finishing.
The remaining animals in this group will be sold live this spring, as there is insufficient grass on farm to carry all weanling heifers over the summer.
NB: A correction to last week’s feature on Oliver McKenna is that bulls were finished on 0.8t of concentrate during the housing period.
Read more
Five tips to managing cows pre-calving
Northern Ireland tops EU R3 heifer price
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