Our 2018 spring-born bullocks were housed for finishing on 25 September. There are 57 animals, which are a mix of Charolais, Limousin and Angus breeding.

The bullocks were clipped as they went into the shed to keep animals from over-heating, as well as improving cleanliness.

Cattle have been dosed for fluke, worms and lice. On Friday, they were weighed and averaged 558kg liveweight.

I decided to treat animals for internal parasites early.

It’s a more cost-effective option for heavier cattle on higher levels of concentrates, compared with waiting for six to seven weeks until fluke have matured.

Some cattle will be ready to kill in December, so withdrawal dates can be a problem with a later treatment.

We have our own weigh bridge on-farm, so monitoring weight gains will be a good indicator if the earlier dose has been effective.

If necessary, we can take dung samples later this winter to check if a second dose is required.

Diet

Bullocks will be finished on high-quality first-cut silage which was harvested on 20 May.

The silage was analysed and results were 75% D-Value, 12 ME (energy), 14% crude protein and 25.3% dry matter.

Along with silage, bullocks are being offered home-grown barley and maize gluten. Meal levels are currently around 5kg/head and will be increased in line with liveweight.

The Angus bullocks should be ready for slaughter by December, with the continental animals more likely to be ready early next year.

Heifers

There are 23 beef heifers to be slaughtered later this year. These animals are still at grass, as there is still plenty of grazing ahead of them.

With that said, I imagine that they will most likely be housed in another two to three weeks for intensive feeding.

Heifers are getting 2kg of concentrates daily, which is a blend of barley and maize gluten. The blend consists of one part barley to two parts gluten.

Once breeding females are scanned, all heifers which are not in-calf will join these animals for intensive finishing.

Scanning cows and preparing for weaning

This year’s spring-born calves are now creep grazing ahead of cows. To encourage them, I started feeding concentrates in calf troughs at the start of September.

These animals were identified for culling early

Calves were wormed on 17 September with a pour-on to target lungworm. They have also been vaccinated for pneumonia.

There are 95 spring-born calves and 14 animals have now been weaned, as their mothers are being culled for a number of reasons.

These animals were identified for culling early. Calves are well developed and eating higher levels of concentrates, and as a result, they have experienced very little set-back from weaning.

Weaning

The remainder of the herd will be weaned in stages, rather than removing all calves from cows on the same day, as this spreads the risk of animals getting pneumonia once weaned.

Weather permitting, I would like to hold cows and calves at grass until late October before weaning the remaining calves.

If weather conditions become increasingly wet, stronger calves will be weaned by slipping cows out of the field in small groups

Calves will be weaned using a number of techniques. We invested in nose flaps last year which worked well and will be used on a portion of the herd.

If weather conditions become increasingly wet, stronger calves will be weaned by slipping cows out of the field in small groups.

This means calves are still in the same environment and by removing cows from the group, it will take the pressure off grazing and reduce sward damage.

Scanning

Cows were scanned on Saturday 28 September. There were 113 cows scanned with 102 in-calf and 11 animals empty. I was disappointed with scanning as I would have liked to have around 110 in-calf.

Empty cows will be fattened after weaning. Calving will get underway in February.

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