Philip Keville is in the midst of calving at the moment. Since the beginning of the BETTER farm programme he has managed to cut his calving spread from 10 months back to four.

“We were very fond of calving here before and too nice to our cows. Our break from it was just about long enough to take a holiday,” Philip said.

Philip Keville in the field.

Tighter calving

Currently, there are six cows left to calve out of 21.

Philip aims to be calve 25 cows in eight weeks from late-December by the end of the programme.

Philip successfully used a PRID-based synchronisation protocol to reign is his calving spread in 2017 and plans to do the same again this year.

“I want to have everything bred before they go to grass and I’ll start with AI in the coming weeks,” Philip said.

Breeding is 100% AI-based. Simmental is Philip’s breed of choice, though his father Joe is a passionate Angus breeder. Some Limousin and Belgian Blue is also used.

AI bulls

Sires picked so far for 2018 include Curaheen Gunshot, Seafort Gill (SI), Keltic Handsome (LM) and Du Stordeur Flaneur (BB).

“I’ll scan at the end of March before they go to grass and hopefully the sync will be successful – it was last year,” he said.

In terms of fodder and slurry, Philip is content. He was able to empty his three-bay, eight foot slatted tank a fortnight ago.

Slurry

“We got one dry day and my contractor John Gerard McLoughlin came in with an umbilical system and was able to take the pressure off. He did minimal damage too thankfully.”

Philip is waiting for temperatures to rise before putting out fertiliser. Going early last year allowed him to make a first cut with 69% DMD and 15% crude protein on 20 May.

Finishing bulls

There are seven beef bulls currently being fattened in the yard, four of which were bought in. They are currently gaining 1.9kg daily and weigh 645kg. All are Simmental-sired.

“The Simmental seems to be easier fleshed than other continentals. I’m conscious that it’s important to hit the fat score to get on to the grid and get your quality assurance bonus,” Philip commented.

Philip's set-up for finishing shows how simple a successful system can be. Bulls are fed ad-lib from an old bathtub and a homemade water trough has been fashioned from an old barrel. Water supply is vital in high-concentrate feeding regimes.

Read more

Philip's introductory article and video

All BETTER beef articles and videos

Is synchronisatin an option in beef herds?