Almost all of the Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm beef challenge participants highlighted that if calf prices did not reduce considerably on last spring they would not be purchasing .

John Dunne was one of those to hold this view, but in mid-March he felt that prices were at a level where heavy purchasing was a worthwhile activity.

“The plan here is for over 100 sucklers and around 100 dairy calves on just under 110ha”, John explained. “I’d like to be selling close to 200-head each year as steer and heifer beef. The problem is, if I don’t buy dairy calves now, how am I going to stock the farm for the next two years and then I’m looking at halving my cattle sales at the end of 2020 and early 2021.”

One-hundred and four calves have been purchased this spring; roughly 70 bulls and 30 heifers, all either Angus X or Hereford X.

The Angus crosses averaged €175/head, with the Hereford crosses coming in at about €215/head.

Feeding

At present all calves are still being fed milk twice per day, two feeds of just under 2.5l/head. All calves are getting 0.5-1kg/head of ration (depending on age) each day too.

The first calves came in on 15 March at three weeks of age. These are almost two months of age now and will be cut back to once-a-day milk feeding this week.

“Generally I’d wean calves back to once-a-day from between six and eight weeks of age, depending on size, thrive and labour”, John said. "They will be fully weaned off milk before 12 weeks of age.”

After full weaning, calves will go to grass and will be allocated 1kg/head of concentrates for the summer months. The pasture will be mainly lighter covers of after-grass either behind suckler cows or after silage crops.

Vaccines

John will not hold the spring of 2018 in fond memory. Challenging weather conditions led to an outbreak of pneumonia in the sheds which significantly impacted on calf mortality rates. Determined not to let the same problem cause damage once again, a rigorous vaccination plan has been put in place.

All calves receive an IBR and RSV, Pi3 and Pasturella vaccine on arrival. This week calves are due to get their booster, as well as a primary vaccine against clostridial disease.

For a full report on preparations for breeding within John's suckler herd, see this week’s Irish Farmers Journal in print or online.