The Thrive dairy calf-to-beef programme is hosting a national open day on Tuesday 9 August on the Irish Farmers Journal demonstration farm located outside Cashel, Co Tipperary.

The day kicks off at 10.30am with groups starting every 15 minutes thereafter until 1.30pm.

There will be multiple stops along the farm walk covering all aspects of diary beef systems.

Talks

  • System financials.
  • Calf genetics and calf sourcing.
  • Grassland, clover and soils.
  • Calf rearing and animal health.
  • Live demo on drafting stock for slaughter.
  • Forum on the future of dairy beef in Ireland.

    • It is a day not to be missed for dairy beef farmers or those thinking of incorporating a dairy beef system on their farm in the future. Registration is free and can be completed below.

    Demo farm update

    Grass supply is still quite tight on the demo farm, although grazing some second-cut silage ground has taken the pressure off and allowed the grazing platform to recover somewhat.

    The rest of the second-cut ground was harvested this week, so that area will now come back available for grazing in the weeks to come.

    The finishing cattle were weighed recently, with the bullocks averaging 496kg, while the heifers were 453kg.

    The bullocks are on target for where they need to be, while the heifers are slightly behind target weight for the time of year.

    While grass supply is tight, stock are content and are moving to fresh grass every three to four days.

    The calves continue to be offered the best-quality grass available on farm. They are also being fed 1kg/day of concentrate, which is a 16% protein ration.