The Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER farm beef challenge is now in its third year. Unfortunately, much of the hard work in year one was undone by the very difficult conditions during 2018.

Wicklow BETTER farmer Brian Doran will openly admit that the spring of 2018 was one of the toughest periods he has ever experienced. No doubt the same can be said about so many farmers throughout the country.

“We couldn’t get a bit of luck at all,” he said. “The weather was terrible. We seemed to get every problem imaginable during calving; feeding was tight – it was a horrible time.”

But it is the manner in which you react and learn to deal with those experiences that make the real difference. In Brian's case, he was determined not to go through the same hardship once again.

Capacity

Overcrowding proved to be a significant problem in sheds last year. There simply wasn’t enough space to calve 45 cows and hold over 50 store cattle. This led to several cases of health problems in calves with scour and pneumonia being the main culprits.

During the summer, a four-bay, 16’6’’ slatted shed was constructed, which has capacity for 64 store cattle.

The ease at which Brian was able to feed and handle cattle for the winter was great, but the main benefit has come through freeing up a large straw-bedded shed purely for use now by cows and newborn calves.

Some of the stores that had to be re-housed at the weekend into the new slatted shed.

Vaccination and feed

Furthermore, a rigorous vaccination programme has been introduced to offset what can only be described as "fire-fighting" in the event of a disease outbreak. Cows received lepto, IBR and scour vaccines, while all calves are treated against clostridial disease and pneumonia.

The dry-cow diet has also received a big overhaul with the addition of straw and soya meal making a huge difference in Brian’s eyes.

Cows get ad-lib access to straw, restricted access to silage, 0.5kg of soya bean meal and access to pre-calver licks prior to calving. “I think it’s made a big difference,” said Brian. “Cows don’t seem nearly as fat for calving and they definitely seem to have slightly fuller udders.”

Results

With many lessons learned, the results have been significant. To date, there are 30 cows calved with 32 live calves on the ground. This is after just 30 days. There are 17 left to calve and they are all due before the end of this month.

So far, health has been exceptional with no treatments having to be administered to calves so far. A cow putting out the calf-bed has been the only hiccup.

Cows and calves spend two to three days bonding before going into the larger dry-bedded shed to be grouped.

Up until last weekend, there were 15 cows and calves at grass, but six were housed on Sunday due to the weather.

Cows and calves have access to good shelter when turned out.

As soon as the weather allows, these six, along with another 11 cows and calves, will be let back out once again.

For more, watch the video above and see this week's Irish Farmers Journal in print or online where we look at how early turn-out has benefited the farm.