Beef management: selling weanlings, tetany, BEEP weighing and pneumonia

Beef editor Adam Woods takes a look at whether to sell weanlings, how to prevent tetany and pneumonia and the final few days of BEEP weighing.

Adam Woods

30 October 2019

Selling weanlingsThere seems to be a wide price differential opening up between light and heavy weanlings. I was in one mart last week where I saw 450kg struggling into €900 while 350kg calves were hitting €800 no problem. You would have to question keeping calves to heavier weights if you are not getting paid for keeping them.

Selling weanlings

There seems to be a wide price differential opening up between light and heavy weanlings. I was in one mart last week where I saw 450kg struggling into €900 while 350kg calves were hitting €800 no problem. You would have to question keeping calves to heavier weights if you are not getting paid for keeping them.

According to mart managers it seems to be a knock-on effect on meat processors being unable to guarantee a route to market for under-16-month-old bulls or older bulls. Exporters are underpinning the trade for lighter calves.

The advice is not to incur huge costs pushing bulls into heavier weights. A 350kg weanling indoors getting fed 4kg of concentrates and 3kg of silage will cost in the region of €1.50/day to feed without counting any other costs. If we take a liveweight gain of 0.8kg/day at an average price of €2.20/kg, that’s a financial gain of €1.76/day. At €2/kg of sale price, it’s a gain of €1.60/day, leaving a margin over feed at €0.10/day or €10 for a 100 day winter.

Do the sums and if you think it makes sense to sell, try some in the mart to see how you get on. Have a price in your head that you are willing to sell for and don’t sell below it.

Tetany

With the onset of cold weather, grass tetany has reared its head again, especially in the south and midlands were cows are still out grazing.

Make sure you are taking precautions to prevent it. Offering a forage source such as hay or silage is one of the best ways to guard against it. Licks, boluses and feeding calmag can all be used to guard against it. If you are feeding calmag along with meal, you need to include up to 60g of calmag/head per day. Cows suckling strong calves are most at risk. In some cases you may be better to wean these cows, house them and leave weanlings outside to finish off grazing. Stress can be a trigger so avoid handling animals too much for long periods around weaning.

Pneumonia

I’ve heard a couple of reports of bad outbreaks of pneumonia in purchased cattle over the last few days. Managing cattle correctly after purchase is critical to reducing stress and outbreaks of disease.

When purchased, animals should be put into a well-ventilated bedded shed for a few days to settle. Wait a week or two to handle again for clipping, dosing etc. If housing grazing cattle, try to house on a dry day if at all possible.

If there have been problems with pneumonia on your farm in the past, vaccination should be looked at as an aid to prevention. Vaccinating a healthy animal will always achieve better results Our pneumonia video series with Tommy Heffernan which has over 20 short videos can be accessed here.

BEEP

Don’t forget to load any weights taken in the last week to the ICBF database by Friday 1 November to ensure payment takes place before the end of the year. Weights from cows and calves need to be taken on the same day to be eligible for payment.