Grazing has ended for a lot of beef farms already, but some are still managing to keep youngstock at grass, owing to the mild and dry conditions. It’s been especially useful to those purchasing weanlings in marts, to be able turn them out to grass, as opposed to housing immediately on arrival - greatly reducing the risk of viral pneumonia.

Where there are some paddocks left to graze, it’s important to take stock of grass supplies on farms. Ideally, farm cover should not dip below 500kg DM/ha for this time of year, with a closing cover of 550-650kg DM/ha by 1 December. Where there is merit in dipping below, this is seen in what Niall O’Meara is doing, where high clover swards are being grazed off before closing up the farm.

Be cautious where cattle are being housed in the current mild weather. Poorly ventilated sheds and long coats on cattle can cause sweating, panting and sickness. Clipping the backs of cattle will help them regulate their body temperature more easily, and ventilation (both inlet and outlet space) should be improved where needed.

Stephen Frend, Newford Herd, Co Roscommon

Ground is still in unbelievable shape for the time of year. We housed half of the cows on Saturday to hold grass for weanlings, with the remainder of the cows, in-calf heifers and all the weanlings still at grass. Cows will likely be housed at the weekend. At the minute we are allocating a 48-hour break of grass to weanlings, who are also getting 2kg/head/day of concentrates; 15 older cows are cleaning out paddocks after the weanlings, with some first- and second-calving cows getting some more preferential grass. If the weather plays ball, we should be at grass for another three weeks with weanlings. The first of the finishing heifers (25) will be drafted for slaughter this week, with a draft of bullocks to go next week.

System: Suckler to beef

Soil type: Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha): 830

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day): 22

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day): 22

Joe Day, Teagasc Kildalton, Co Kilkenny

We have housed 15 cows and 24 steers for practical classes, along with 31 2024-born dairy beef calves. Recently, ICBF has chosen Kildalton College to use as a commercial farm, to run a trial on methane emissions using a Greenfeed to capture the suckler cow methane emissions. The aim of the trial is to see if there’s a link to high/low methane emissions from cows to their progeny. This work is also being carried out in other centres, such as Grange and the ICBF Tully farm in Kildare. The Greenfeed works off solar panels, to allow cows to feed small amount of nuts numerous times a day, the total intake is a kilo/day. Once housing takes place, the plan is to move the Greenfeed indoors with the stock.

System: Suckler to beef

Soil type: Free draining

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha): 856

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day): 30

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day): 12

Niall O’Meara, Killimor, Co Galway

Although the cover is low, there are still some paddocks with a heavy cover that I want to graze out before I close up the farm for grazing in 2024. With so much clover in the sward, leaving a cover on these would be detrimental to the clover.

Ground conditions are excellent, and bar a few paddocks that were grazed down to 5.5-6cm when weather got tricky, cattle have grazed out paddocks well.

Cattle are going in for three to four hours a day on silage and 1kg of meal, to transition them ahead of full-time housing, with this likely to happen by the weekend.

The aim is always to get cattle housed by 1 November, as breeding is set to commence on 7 November.

System : Suckler to weanling

Soil type: Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha): 495

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day): 16

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day): 20