Watch: spring-calving cows back in-calf in Fermanagh

Since joining the programme, I have been concentrating on getting cows grouped into two defined calving periods.

The main cow herd calves from August to October, with the spring herd starting to calve in late December and finishing up by the end of February.

The reason our spring herd calves so early is down to land fragmentation. Our farm consists of multiple land parcels, with cows grazing in small groups to make best use of heavier, fragmented land.

Therefore, with so many land blocks, it is not feasible to breed spring-calving cows at grass because of the number of stock bulls that would be required.

Also, the bulk of the cows are bred to AI, and there is no practical way to inseminate cows at grass.

Breeding indoors

So when I joined the programme, the decision was made to calve cows early and have all breeding females settled back in-calf before they go out to grass.

Breeding for the spring herd started in early March. All cows were given two chances to conceive to AI, after which any repeats were allowed to run with a Charolais stock bull.

Most cows held to AI based on scanning results. Out of 24 cows served, there are 19 animals scanned in-calf, which consists of 16 cows and three heifers. The other five cows were running with the Charolais stock bull until this week.

The bull is being removed by this weekend, so this should see spring-calving in 2020 finishing up by the end of February. This suits my system well, as the breeding period is usually finishing just as ground conditions are improving, to allow spring-calving cows out to grass.

Cows were inseminated to the Charolais bull, Fiston. I have used this bull for a couple of years now and I’m very happy with the calves born into the herd.

Fiston calves are born with little trouble and quick to get going. They also have great conformation and good liveweight gain, which is crucial for our farm, as we are selling cattle as strong weanlings or light stores.

Therefore, we have a short window to maximise weight gains and produce as heavy a calf as possible.

Heat detection

I inseminate the cows myself and all animals are served to natural heats. Cows were generally showing good heats, but I did notice that the spring animals were slower to come back in heat compared with autumn cows.

I would put this down to the spring-calving cows moving onto second-cut silage just prior to the start of breeding.

Second-cut silage was analysed and feed quality was above average, but a long way off the quality of the first-cut silage fed to autumn cows to increase milk production over winter.

The second-cut silage was 35.5% dry matter, 10.7 ME, 13.6% protein and 67% D-Value, while the first cut was 42.8% dry matter, 11.2 ME, 13.2% protein and 70% D-Value.

First-cut silage gets underway

Along with focussing on tightening cows into two defined calving blocks, I have also moved onto making high-quality silage on-farm.

Silage harvesting got underway on Tuesday of this week, with 23 acres cut at the home yard in Garrison.

I have my own equipment for mowing and baling grass and in this part of the world, where the window of opportunity for cutting silage in May is extremely short, having your own silage machinery is invaluable.

Grass was mowed and allowed to wilt for 24 hours before baling on Wednesday. Silage is being made on reseeded swards, so feed quality should be high. This grass will be targeted to autumn-calving cows and store cattle over winter.

Time to cut

Yields were pleasing given the time of year. I did a quick walk around swards on Monday to assess if they were ready for cutting.

The base of the swards was turning white and starting to die back, so there is little benefit in leaving grass for another fortnight in order to increase yields. Cutting now will allow me to slurry and fertilise aftermaths, then close up the same area for cutting again in mid-July. There are another 24 acres of first-cut silage on our main out-farm. Again, this is reseeded grass, but as it is on higher ground, grass growth was slower to come this spring. I will give this ground another fortnight before cutting, then slurry, fertilise and close it off for second cut. All silage ground got slurry in February and 2.5 bags/acre of 24-6-12 plus sulphur in early April. For second cut, I will probably spread 27-4-4 along with slurry.

Summer grazing stores for the first time

For the first time on our farm, we will be grazing store cattle over the summer. I have 17 animals born last autumn on a paddock system, which has been set up on the main outfarm that is also used for silage and winter housing.

This is a real change for us. In the past, autumn calves were traditionally sold at this time of year as we didn’t really have the ground to carry these animals, but in recent years we have invested in draining and improving grassland.

Since joining the programme, we have gradually moved to selling cattle at heavier weights to increase sale value.

It has been working well, so we decided to try and graze the lightest of the autumn calves until September to make them more saleable.

Selling stores

While we are holding some autumn-born stores, we did sell the strongest animals as we cannot carry them all during summer. There were 28 cattle sold this spring. Seven bullocks were sold a few weeks back and averaged 316kg in the ring. They made 278p/kg, or £879/head. The last of the spring-born yearlings were also sold. They averaged 420kg and made £1,070, so we are getting a return on holding these animals for longer.

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