The only animals remaining at grass in Newford Farm are 107 weanlings and 10 dry cows. Two of these are cull cows that will be housed in the coming days, while the remaining eight cows will remain outdoors for another week, weather depending.

At this stage, more finishing animals will have been drafted which will free up penning space, while the remaining paddocks in Cones block will have been grazed off at this stage.

The 107 weanlings are grazing in three groups. Two of these are on the Newford block where there is the best grass supply and an average farm cover of 900kg DM/ha. The remaining batch is grazing the final paddocks on Tuohy’s block.

Utilisation

Grass utilisation has varied over the last week and has been helped during periods of rainfall by temporarily splitting paddocks and splitting the large batch of weanlings on the Newford block into two grazing blocks.

Weanlings continue to receive 2kg of an 18% crude protein ration. Farm manager Iarlaith Collins expects there is 10 days to two weeks grass supplies remaining at current levels of grass utilisation or possibly longer if the forecast for lower volumes of rainfall rings true.

Winter diets

Silage has been tested by Michael Fagan, Teagasc. The results of the six different crops harvested in 2019 are detailed in Table 1 along with the results of silage carried over from 2018.

This 2018-harvested silage makes up about 300t of the overall supply of 1,200t. It is currently being fed to dry cows and while it is lower in dry matter than desired Iarlaith says cows are generally satisfied with intake unaffected.

Cows remain in their pens since housing. They will be body condition scored next week and penned accordingly. There are in the region of 10 to 12 cows that are significantly below target body condition score. These cows will be fed better-quality silage and 1kg to 2kg soya hulls daily to address condition before cows enter late pregnancy.

This feeding programme worked well in recent years, with feeding in the final months of pregnancy having a direct influence on performance and resumption to cyclicity post-calving.

Silage

Once this silage has been consumed, cows will move on to the pit of silage harvested on the Newford block in August. Finishing animals are a priority on the farm as they are taking up pen space that will be required for a percentage of weanlings.

Steers and heifers are being fed ad-lib baled silage with a dry matter digestibility of 77%. Heifers are being supplemented with 5kg concentrates daily with steers receiving 6kg. The composition of the ration is detailed in Table 2.

Once housed, weanlings will also receive high-quality baled silage with a DMD of 75% to 77%. Meal feeding will also be front-loaded to the first period of winter housing at a rate of 2kg per day. Supplementation levels will be reviewed if the best quality silage is replaced with 71 to 72 DMD silage. Weanling will also be weighed at regular intervals to monitor performance with the 2018-born batch of cattle performing well behind target last winter.