Tullamore Farm: calving cows and hitting targets

It was a busy week on Tullamore Farm, with cows continuing to calve and preparations being put in place ahead of lambing.

Eleven cows have calved sine our last update, bringing the total to 51.

Last week brought the first stillbirth of the year, meaning there are 50 calves on the ground. Cows were just before the period of bad weather arrived. It was hoped to get these cows and calves back out to grass at the weekend, but further poor weather meant they have remained indoors.

Weanling bulls are now on 8kg of meal per day and will move to ad-lib feeding in the coming weeks. The first bulls in this group are set to be sent for slaughter before 1 June. They are currently on target, with most weighing over 500kg at 12 months of age. Weanling heifers continue to graze outdoors doing very little damage and working their way through some heavy covers.

Grass

The latest farm cover figures shows average cover at 1,190kg/DM/Ha. Cover is dropping slowly, but with cows and calves housed demand has also dropped. Shaun is contemplating not grazing some of the silage fields and instead sending animals straight to grazing paddocks. There is a good cover of grass on the silage fields after they were grazed by the sheep over the winter so quality should not be compromised.

Sheep

There was another abortion on the farm this week. The lambs involved were sent to Athlone regional vet lab for analysis.

Triplets are now on 1.1kg of meal per day, while twins are being fed .9kg/day. There were also a couple of cases of twin lamb disease which cropped up this week.

Open day

The farm will host over 300 secondary school students on Thursday as part of the Agri Aware open farms initiative. Students will learn all about beef farming, sheep farming, nutrition, grass, animal health, health and farm safety.