When housing bull weanlings that are destined for slaughter this winter, they should be penned based on their final liveweight.
Bulls on ad-lib diets will be gaining from 1.3kg to 2kg/day, so over a 120-day feeding period they will have gained 156kg to 240kg of liveweight.
Assuming a group of eight bulls are housed together now at an average of 450kg liveweight and gaining 1.5kg/day for 120 days, there will be an extra 1,440kg of liveweight in the pen by the time they are ready for slaughter – the equivalent of having three extra bulls in the pen at the start of the feeding period.
Space will be limited and animal performance can suffer due to overcrowding. As these bulls get older they will become more aggressive.
Removing bulls for regrouping can result in fighting, injury and can be a real health and safety issue unless facilities are very good.
The lying space on slats that should be allowed for finishing bulls, steers and heifers is 2.4m2. On straw, it should increase to 5m2 for bulls and 4m2 for finishing steers and heifers.