Calving commences on Tullamore Farm

This week on Tullamore Farm has been busy with the first of the calves starting to make an appearance.

There has been a total of 10 calves born so far this week. Nine of the 10 calved so far have been first-calving heifers.

These heifers were all part of the synchronised heifer breeding programme that was trialed this year on the heifers.

The programme has worked well so far, allowing the heifers to calve just before the mature cows and allowing them to get that slight headstart.

There is a large portion of both the heifers and mature cows due to calve in the coming week.

This year a large portion of the semen used was sexed semen and the results have been good so far, with a total of eight of the 10 calves born being heifers.

Different sires

The calves have been born from a range of different sires that were carefully selected by farm manager Shaun Diver earlier in the year.

Pre-calving, both the mature cows and heifers are receiving 160g per cow per day of pre-calver minerals alongside ad-lib grass silage.

The first-calving heifers have also been receiving 1.5kg per heifer per day of weanling ration from about a fortnight pre-calving up until calving.

This is to help improve the supply of colostrum that is so important to give calves that well-needed start in life.

Grazing rape

The field of rape on Tullamore Farm has now been completely finished and the 20 weanling heifers have now been housed.

The heifers have settled in well to a diet of whole crop and grass silage. In addition to this, they are also getting 2kg of weanling ration per head per day.

The 17 remaining weanling bulls have been gradually increased up to 3kg of meal per head per day over the last few weeks.

They have also been on ad-lib whole crop and grass silage. Farm manager Shaun Diver will soon begin weighing up the possible future options for these bull weanlings.

Slurry storage

Tanks have begun to fill up well now on Tullamore Farm, so Shaun is looking at the possibility of getting some slurry out this week.

Ground conditions on the outfarm are trafficable, so the slurry will be spread there first, as the home farm ground conditions are still untrafficable at the minute.

Housing ewes

All of the mature ewes have now been housed and winter sheared on Tullamore Farm, with the exception of the easy care ewes.

The easy care ewes are still out at grass, as they don’t require shearing and this then allows them to remain outside for longer.

The ewes scanned carrying triplets have now been increased slightly to 300g per ewe per day of an 18% pre-lamber ration, alongside the concentrates they are receiving ad-lib grass silage.

The mature ewes scanned carrying twins and singles are still on a diet of just ad-lib silage at the minute, but Shaun is continuing to monitor their body condition score and due dates and will start to introduce concentrates when needed.

The ewe lambs have not been housed yet and remain outdoors. They are also receiving 400g per head of 18% ewe nuts.