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Growing cattle at Abbey Farm are weighed on a regular basis to monitor performance. The latest weight records show that 2020-born calves have performed exceptionally well on the cow this year.
Male calves achieved the highest daily liveweight gain from birth to 200 days of age for the three years that the suckler herd at Abbey Farm has been involved in the BETTER Farm NI programme.
Male calves are still entire and will be taken through to slaughter in late spring. These calves were weighed on 6 October and had an average liveweight of 312kg across 43 animals.
Bull calves had an average daily liveweight gain of 1.46kg/day on the cow. Correcting calf age to a standard 200 days of age would give the group an estimated liveweight of 331kg, an increase of 15kg at 200 days on last year.
Weight gain
For an efficient bull beef system, a good target to aim for is a daily gain of 1.3kg/day from birth until 200 days old, and in the case of the Abbey herd, this target is being met.
However, individual daily liveweight gain ranges from 1.13kg/day to 1.97kg/day. It is also worth noting the 2020-born male calves had the lowest birth weights over the last three years at 39.8kg.
Calves were grouped at housing according to the weights recorded in October. Bulls will remain in the same housing group until slaughter, reducing stress.
Bull calves are on track to achieve a lifetime carcase gain of 0.9kg/day. Anything less would be a disappointment, considering lifetime carcase gains of 0.89kg/day have been achieved in previous years from lower weaning weights.
Winter diet
Bulls are now being fed first-cut silage that was harvested on 14 May. It was analysed and has a D-value of 78%. Bulls will be fed silage and gradually built up to a maximum concentrate level of 8kg/day.
Heifer calves
Heifer calves have also performed well on the cow, with a daily gain of 1.2kg/day and a corrected 200-day weight of 277kg.
This means that heifers selected for breeding require an average liveweight gain of 0.6kg/day to reach the minimum target breeding weight of 420kg at 15 months of age.
Finishing heifers
The 2019-born heifer calves which were not retained for breeding are being intensively finished on first-cut silage and 4kg/day of concentrate.
This group averaged 551kg when weighed on 4 November and have a target carcase weight of 330kg.
Assuming a liveweight gain of 1.2kg/day during the finishing phase, the group should have an average slaughter age of 21 months.
Cattle housed
All cattle at the Abbey Farm have been housed since October. Grass covers and growth had been OK for the time of year. However, utilisation was becoming increasingly difficult.
All cows and calves were housed in October and it was decided to let these animals adjust to the change of environment for three to four weeks before weaning.
Weaning
Apart from six of the lightest animals, the bull calves were weaned using nose paddles, with access to bedded creep areas.
The paddles prevented calves suckling the cows. After five days, the paddles were removed and the calves locked into creeps away from cows. The bulls were then moved to separate pens away from the cow shed.
Heifer calves and their cows are housed in a separate shed. Once weaned, replacements will be identified and housed separately, then fed a superior diet to ensure target breeding weights are met by May 2021.
Cow management
After weaning, cows are grouped according to body condition score and managed to prevent fit animals from gaining condition that could increase calving difficulty.
Where cows are in strong condition, this will be adjusted over the next two months by restricting silage intakes.
Prior to housing, all calves received vaccinations against pneumonia and IBR. There has been some coughing, but only one calf has been treated for pneumonia to date.
They were also dosed to clear lungworm burdens and minimise the risk of respiratory problems after housing.
All calves were treated for rumen fluke in late August, after it was identified as a problem.
All cattle will receive a further fluke dose around six to eight weeks post-housing.
Cows have been clipped and treated for external parasites.
Scanning results were disappointing this year and, based on the outcome, there are 97 females due to calve down during the spring.
The target for the herd is to have 100 live calves on the ground each year.
There were 91 cows bred and scanning results show 77 animals are settled in-calf. This equates to a scanning percentage of 85% for mature cows.
Cows were bred in three groups. One group was bred to a stock bull, with the remaining two groups bred to a fixed-time AI protocol, with stock bulls introduced after AI.
Along with the cows, there were 24 replacement heifers bred in 2020. Heifers were also served to a fixed-time AI (FTAI) protocol. Heifers that repeated were also served to AI, with follow-up heats covered by a stock bull. Early scanning showed that 10 (42%) of the heifers held to the FTAI protocol. A further four animals held to AI on second service and six heifers held to the sweeper bull. Overall, 97 animals were scanned in-calf from 114, which equates to 85% of all females submitted for breeding.
While there is no logical reason for the lower conception rates, one possible explanation is that fixed-time AI and second service coincided with a prolonged dry and warm period, although all cows did run with the stock bulls at some stage.
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