Weather conditions

With heavy rainfall over the last few days in some parts of the country, grazing conditions have become difficult. Where excessive damage is being done, housing is the best option. Where cows have to be weaned, try and complete on a phased basis on dry days if you can.

Finishing cattle won’t do a lot standing at the backs of hedges sheltering from rain. Feed the best quality silage and up the meal levels to maintain performance once housed. Continental steers should go onto 5-6 kg of meal, along with silage to get the desired level of finish.

Finishing rations are coming in at €270-€350/tonne, so aim for a short sharp finish. Look for a high cereal content in finishing rations. Cattle will benefit from a dose once housed. Check the withdrawal dates, especially if animals aren’t that far off coming fit for slaughter.

Dairy Beef weight gains

Given the very tight margins that exist in beef farming at the moment, it has never been more important to make sure that all animals on the farm are putting on weight if you are incurring costs feeding them.

There have been some new ventures down the dairy beef route, and these weanlings need minding over the next few months to make sure they hit target weights.

Keeping these animals for long store periods will rise costs and reduce your margin. Dairy beef weanling bulls should be coming at around 250kg at this stage, with heifers at 20-30kg behind at 225kg. Aiming for a 100 day winter and a target weight gain of 0.7kg/day over this period, animals should be turning back out at 300-320kg early next spring.

Make sure that all dosing is up-to-date for fluke and worms. If there have been pneumonia issues in the past, vaccination should be looked at, ideally before housing – but it’s not too late if already housed.

These weanlings should be fed the best quality silage on the farm, along with a 14% protein ration with good ingredients like barley, maize distillers or beet pulp.

They should be fed 2kg/head/day for the next two months. Aim to reduce meal feeding in late January in advance of turnout in Feb/March to achieve some compensatory growth. Make sure they have adequate space to lie and feed.

Sheep Grazing

This week’s rainfall has meant housing is coming close on some farms. There is some grass still to be grazed, and some farmers are looking at options to clean off paddocks.

While grazing later with weanlings will be an option on some farms, where weanlings are sold this won’t be an option. There is always good demand from sheep farmers looking for winter grazing.

Good fences are important and make sure the required movement dockets are completed to ensure both parties are cross compliant.

Having a written agreement in place around payment and movement dates is also important to avoid any confusion. Some farms are seeing payments of €0.10 -€0.12/ewe/day ,and this could be a nice cash injection over the winter months.

Make sure you still stick to the closing plan and don’t leave yourself with a bare farm on 1 March 2025.