The new BETTER Farm Beef Challenge NI will see the 10 programme farms follow and build on the same principles of the previous NI Suckler Beef Programme.

At the core of this will be grassland management, cattle breeding, cattle nutrition and herd health.

Grazing is undoubtedly an area where considerable gains were made in the previous programme. May and June are the two most important months for grassland management.

Grass growth is now starting to push ahead of grazing demand, which leads to a surplus of grass building on farms.

Grazing rotation lengths should be reduced from 20 to 24 days to 14 to 16 days over the next month to make sure cattle are on the best possible grass.

The focus on the new farms will be to keep grazing rotations under control by closing off paddocks that have become too strong for grazing.

The farms then have two options. The first option is to take these paddocks out as baled .

These bales can be marked and stored for winter feeding. Quality will be high, so they can be targeted at finishing cattle or autumn-calving cows that are in milk.

The second option is to close the paddock and cut along with the main silage crop.

This option will depend on the number of grazing days ahead and cutting the main silage crop inside one week to 10 days from closing date.

Leaving paddocks for any longer before cutting them will slow regrowth and delay them from rejoining the main rotation, which can leave a grazing shortage.

Week in review

Alastair McNeilly: Muckamore, Antrim, Co Antrim

Planning to tighten the calving pattern

Spring calving started in mid-March and I have 48 cows calved so far. There are still another 22 cows to calve yet, so hopefully they will be finished up inside the next six weeks.

Freshly calved cows are out at grass and the current spell of warm weather is making it easy to slip them out as they calve. The in-calf cows are split in two groups. The cows that are closest to calving are inside for ease of management, while the later-calving cows are at grass.

They are being checked regularly and will be brought back to the yard as they get closer to their due date. The cows in the shed are getting round baled silage and pre-calving minerals.

Breeding

The breeding season normally starts in mid-June, but I am thinking about maybe letting the bull out a week earlier this year.

I am definitely planning on taking the bulls away from the cows earlier to tighten up the number of later-calving cows. I would like to have all cows finished calving by the end of May next year and then maybe pull it forward to mid-May the year after.

A gradual tightening of the calving pattern will be the best option so that there are not too many empty cows at scanning time.

I have just bought a new Angus stock bull to run with maiden heifers this year. The new bull was bred by Woodvale Kool Jaguar and he is good on calving ease, which is an important trait for me. I have three stock bulls to serve cows this year, with one Limousin and two Angus bulls.

Heifers

Along with the freshly calved cows, there are 32 yearling heifers at grass and 38 steers. I am planning to pick through the heifers and select 15 to 18 animals to keep for replacements.

I have bought in a few additional heifers in previous years and will probably source half a dozen heifers for breeding to help build cow numbers for next year. I would like to push cow numbers towards 80 to 85.

Any heifer not kept for breeding will be finished later this year along with the steers.

Splitting fields into paddocks

I have been busy splitting fields into paddocks over the past few weeks. I have some larger grazing fields beside the main farmyard, with one field now split into smaller divisions using permanent sheep fencing.

This has divided the field into four equal paddocks of 1.7ha (4 acres). The plan is to put mains electric wire around the farm, so that I can then sub-divide these paddocks using temporary wire and plastic posts. This will give greater flexibility in controlling grass growth during the year and allow me to increase or decrease the size of the grazing group also.

Water troughs have yet to be installed, so that is next point of action. I am planning on putting in seven troughs that can be accessed from multiple paddocks when split with temporary wire.

The field was fenced with octagon posts coated in creosote. They are dearer than conventional round posts, but they are longer-lasting.

There was 500m of sheep and barb wire used also, so it was a sizeable investment, but it is a long-term investment that will simplify cattle and grazing management.

Surplus grass

I cut 11 acres of silage on the grazing block last week and made 39 bales, which will be kept for winter finishing steers or heifers.

The grass had gotten too far ahead of cattle at this stage of the year, so I made the decision to take this block of grass out of the rotation now.

It was mowed last Wednesday and wilted, then baled up on Friday. I would have taken a few grazing fields out in previous years, so I was confident to cut without the fear of running short on grass should the weather turn.

Silage

The main silage ground is due to be cut around the end of May. There is 50 acres of grass closed up, with most of the ground to be cut beside the home yard and 14 acres on an outfarm.

Silage ground was closed up early and got slurry and three bags of 22:3.5:10.

The main grazing block has been fertilised with 25% nitrogen plus selenium. Grass growth has really picked up in the past fortnight, with 67kg DM/ha being recorded last week.

Depending on grass growth, I would like to take a few more bales from the grazing ground to boost fodder reserves and for use at times like this when limited cattle numbers are indoors.