Drafting cattle for slaughter off grass continues on the Thrive demonstration farm in Cashel, Co Tipperary, this week, with 14 heifers and 11 bullocks fit to go. This follows the first draft of nine heifers two weeks ago.
Drafting cattle for slaughter off grass continues on the Thrive demonstration farm in Cashel, Co Tipperary, this week, with 14 heifers and 11 bullocks fit to go. This follows the first draft of nine heifers two weeks ago.
Heifers are currently getting 3kg/day meal at grass, while bullocks are on 4kg/day. The meal being fed is a simple four-way mix of barley, maize, soya hulls and distillers at 12.5% protein and 0.95 UFL/kg fed.
With this type of animal, drafting needs to be done quite regularly, as cattle can go over-fat quite quickly, especially on this high-energy diet.
Further finishing
There has been no Belgian Blue drafted for slaughter yet in either heifers or bullocks. The decision has been made to house them for further finishing, as they are a good bit behind in terms of fat cover compared with the Angus, Hereford and even the Limousins.
This brings total slaughtered this year to 34 out of the 140 in total – just under one quarter.
This may be a little behind where we would like to be as we head for mid-October. However, there will be another significant draft again in 10 days’ time which will reduce numbers greatly.
A full slaughter report from the first 11 bullocks will be in next week’s Irish Farmers Journal.
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