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Preparing to wean in Tullamore
Grass continued a strong growth this week on Tullamore farm with farm manager Ger O’Dwyer recording a growth of 68kg/ha over the past seven days.
With reseeded paddocks coming back into the rotation this week for measuring this means that demand has dropped to 40kg/DM/ha/day.
There are currently 23 days ahead of cows and calves at the moment and the farm is stocked at 2.84LU/ha.
The last spread of nitrogen is going out to today at a rate of 23 units/urea/acre across 35 acres. Closing-up of paddocks will start from the beginning of October. A small amount of slurry is left in one tank and this will be spread on grazed paddocks this week.
Supplementation and scanning
Cows are being supplemented with magnesium via lick buckets and via water drinkers. Hay is also being provided during periods of severe weather.
Scanning was completed and we have 26 cows empty out of a possible 118 cows bred.
The 22% empty rate is being attributed to an infertile bull, a sub-fertile bull and tightening the calving interval to 12 weeks.
These cows will be the first to be weaned this week and will be housed for a few days and turned back out when they will start the finishing phase outdoors being offered 3kg/concentrates/day.
If poor weather and grazing conditions persist, this group will be housed and fed intensively.
Weight gain
Suckler calves were weighed on 31 August and male calves were 270kg and gained 1.29kg/day since birth.
The average date of birth for the male calves is 9 March. The heaviest bull calf in the group is 355kg born on 8 February 2017 and the lightest calf in the group is 165kg born on 3 April 2017.
Heifer calves weighed 256kg and gained 1.23kg/day since birth. The heaviest heifer calf was 375kg and born on 10 February 2017 and the lightest heifer calf was 175kg born on 5 April 2017.
Dairy calf-to-beef calves were also weighed on 29 August and weighed 163kg and have gained .72kg/day since birth.
These calves continue to graze reseeded pastures and are being fed 0.8kg/day of concentrates. Both suckler and dairy calves have received their first shots of pneumonia vaccine and will receive the second shot in advance of weaning.
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