Food for thought on fodder on Tullamore Farm

The last of the cull cows were sold off the farm this week, lightening the load on labour around the yard for Christmas.

These were some of the lightest cows that were put in for fattening with the majority being first cross from the dairy herd. This draft averaged 343kg carcase weight and achieved an average price of €1,800/head.

R grade cows were sold for €5.35/kg and O+ cows were sold for €5.20/kg. Of the 13 cows drafted two weeks ago, three graded R with an average weight of 420kg coming into €2,226/head.

There were four U grade cows on the load which averaged 458kg. These were homebred Limousin and Simmental cross cows averaging 67 months of age, having had their first calf at 24 months.

The remaining six cows in this draft were predominantly older first-cross cows with an O grade coming in at €5.10/kg. They averaged a carcase weight of 362kg at €1,849/head.

With almost 100kg in the difference in carcase weight of the first-cross O grade cows and top-end U grade second cross cows, it highlights the variation in cow weight through the herd.

The introduction of more homebred heifers this year and into the future is likely to push average cow weight up a little but leave us with a more uniform herd.

A variation in killout percentage was also observed, with one U grading cow weighing 476kg carcase, killing out at 57% of her liveweight. At the other end of the scale, the lightest O grading cow weighed 335kg carcase and killed out at 49%.

The final draft of lambs was slaughtered last week also, with 15 sold. These were the poorest lambs of the 2024 crop consisting of later-born lambs and any lambs that may have encountered health issues at a younger age.

Lambs were sold through the Offaly Lamb producer group at a flat price of €8.43/kg with one underweight O grade lamb killing 14.6kg being paid out at €7.53/kg.

Despite these lambs killing out at 19.6kg average carcase weight, 1.2kg lighter than the average for 2024 so far, they achieved a price of €164/head, €11 more than the average price achieved for our lambs this year. This highlights the positivity in the sheep trade at present and how much prices have gone up in recent weeks.

Taking stock

With sales wrapped up for 2024 and more space in sheds cows were rearranged and batched up, according to calving dates this week, having previously been batched by body condition score (BCS). This also seemed like a good time to take stock of remaining fodder supplies coming into spring.

The farm generally has no issues gathering enough fodder to see us through winter and have a surplus. But being no different to the majority of farms, the second cut was much lighter this year due to poor grass growth in June and July. This second cut had been fed to dry cows up until now and has been fully used up a little quicker than expected despite cows being offered some straw to restrict silage intakes in the month post-weaning.

However, given the cost of straw this year (€30/bale), it is hard to justify feeding it to dry cows but we are lucky to have a surplus of 2023 second-cut silage available to offer to cows pre-calving. So pits were measured up and Table 1 outlines fodder reserves available.

The calculations show the farm has a total of 600t of feed available in the yard. The fodder calculator on farmersjournal.ie says the farm will need 580t of silage to carry all stock through into 1 April 2025, leaving us with a surplus of 20t, or 3.5%.

The farm hopes to have a number of stock turned back to grass one month to six weeks before what we budgeted for it anyway.

It’s important to factor a longer housing period than expected into fodder budgets in case of delayed turnout.

Should stock not get back to grass when expected, the farm looks to have a smaller surplus left over than in previous years, but this highlights the importance of the 125t of silage carried over from 2023. Had the farm not had this silage in the yard we would be looking at a 100t deficit in the budget if stock couldn’t return to grass before 1 April and higher levels of expensive meal or straw would have to be fed to try carry us through. But, thankfully, we look set to get out OK if spring 2025 is a kind one.

We will try to buy ourselves some room by restricting March-calving cows for the next four to six weeks.

These cows have now been built back up to a BCS of 3 to 3.5 and can afford to be carried through on a maintenance diet to the point of calving.

Pre-calver minerals will be added to the diet of in-calf heifers and February calving cows over the Christmas period at a rate of 150g/head/day.

Weanling heifers have been housed for a week at this stage and settled well indoors. Half of these heifers are being returned outside to graze forage rape but were housed last week to get them used to eating silage before being put back to rape.

Proper management of forage rape demands that 30% of the animal’s diet must come from a forage source fed alongside the rape. Good-quality baled silage will be fed in a ring feeder.

The top headland of the paddock runs parallel to a farm roadway. Bales will be able to be dropped in over the fence, as required. This eliminates having to enter the field with the tractor avoiding damage to the paddock.

In an ideal situation, these bales would have been left out in the paddock at the time of sowing but we were unsure at the time if the crop was going to be grazed by cattle or sheep. These cattle will be introduced gradually to the rape by grazing for a few hours and returning to grass to avoid any dietary upsets.

Once the heifers have settled on the rape, the crop will be measured to calculate the yield in DM/ha terms, allowing us to calculate how far to move the fence daily.

The lighter half of the heifers were to be returned to rape but we took the decision to return the stronger heifers back to the crop. The stronger heifers would be better able to manage the crop in terms of their capacity to eat and also to withstand any wet or cold weather.

The heifers will be brought in next week and given a high iodine bolus, due to brassica’s low iodine content.

It is important also that cattle grazing forage crops are vaccinated against clostridial diseases due to soil contamination of the leaves, which can lead to issues with clostridia disease.

The lightest 20 weanling heifers have remained indoors and are being fed good-quality pit silage, along with a wholecrop silage mix of barley, oats and peas. This is being topped up with 1.5kg of a 16% weanling ration. The remaining 17 bull weanlings have also been put on to wholecrop silage this week and are being offered 3kg of meal also.