The breeding season for the spring-calving herd started on 14 May. So far, breeding has been reasonably quiet, with just seven cows served in the first two weeks.

I would have like to have seen a bit more activity by this stage, but cows will come in their own time. There are 26 cows with calves at foot and they will all get a chance to go in-calf.

On top of this, I have nine replacement heifers, which are coming up on 15 months of age. The heifers are on a fixed-time AI programme this year.

The CIDRs were removed on Tuesday 26 May, with heifers being served two days later on Thursday.

Hopefully, there will be a good hit to the fixed-time AI, but I will keep a close eye for signs of heifers repeating. If heifers repeat, they will be served to AI again.

100% AI

All cows and replacements on-farm have been bred to AI for a number of years now. Therefore, heat detection and getting cows at the right time for insemination is crucial to get calves on the ground.

Heat detection

I usually watch cows every morning and evening for signs of animals in heat. When I get time, I will also observe animals during the day.

Normally, I will keep my distance from cows when watching for heats, as this avoids disturbing animals from their natural behaviour. But I will also take a walk through cows from time to time.

Separating cows

Once cows have been seen in heat, I usually inseminate animals that were on in the morning during the evening and vice versa.

Cows are grazed next to the yard during the breeding season, as this makes it handier to run them in and out for inseminating.

The laneway makes it easy to run cows into the handling race for inseminating

I use a reel and electric wire to split out the cows I want to inseminate in the field. As cattle are well used to electric fencing on the farm, they respect the wire and will move in the direction I want.

There is also a laneway that I make use of when separating out cows. The laneway makes it easy to run cows into the handling race for inseminating. Once a cow has been inseminated, she is returned to grass as soon as possible.

Sire choice

Cows are being served to a combination of Simmental, Limousin and Stabiliser bulls. I am mainly using Lisnacrann Fifty Cent, Clonagh Frosty King and Moondharrig Knell.

I have been using these bulls for a couple of years and find they click well with my cows. Heifers are being served to Angus and Salers bulls. Breeding will most likely run until mid-July.

Surplus stock

While there are 26 cows and nine heifers to be served, I am not planning on keeping this number should they all go in-calf.

I try to keep around 30 cows and replacements in the spring herd, with a similar number in the autumn herd.

Therefore, I will look to offload some in-calf cows towards the autumn time, or earlier if grass starts to get scarce.

Autumn herd

The autumn herd has been scanned and there is 25 cows and six heifers settled in-calf. These animals are set to calve from early August onwards.

There were three cows that scanned empty. I have separated these animals for finishing along with two cows that I did not want to breed.

I had 20 maiden heifers in the autumn herd to choose replacements from. I sold two heifers as in-calf replacements, plus another six animals live.

So I have to decide on whether to sell the heifers in the live ring at the end of the month

The rest of the heifers are currently at grass and doing well. I am now considering my options with these animals.

I would not have enough grass to carry them over the summer. So I have to decide on whether to sell the heifers in the live ring at the end of the month or house them for finishing by late June.

Bull beef coming fit for slaughter

The first draft of the 2019 spring-born bulls have been slaughtered. The group had an average carcase weight of 358kg.

The rest of the group is being offered silage on an ad-lib basis, plus high-quality silage.

There are nine bulls left to kill and these animals are becoming fit fairly quick.

I do not want them to exceed carcase weight limits, as this will result in a lower beef price

I would imagine the second draw of bulls will be sold in the next week, with the remainder sold over the coming weeks.

While the bulls are typically 14 to 15 months of age, I am keeping a close eye on liveweight. I do not want them to exceed carcase weight limits, as this will result in a lower beef price.

First-cut silage ready to harvest

I closed off 23ac of silage ground on 11 April. It received three bags per acre of 27:4:4 and slurry. Grass growth has been generally OK and my plan is to harvest silage this week.

After a quick grazing around the headlands, slurry will be applied as early as possible to aftermaths, before closing the same ground up for a second cut during the summer.

Grazing

I took out a couple of paddocks last week to control grass quality, as I felt some covers were getting a bit strong for grazing.

Grazing ground also got plenty of slurry

There have been a few fields where growth was slow, but, generally, grazing ground is doing OK and I can see covers starting to build ahead of cattle.

I sowed urea at a bag per acre in early April, before going out with silage fertiliser. Grazing ground also got plenty of slurry.

Thankfully, the higher application of urea gave growth rates a boost and helped to keep grass in front of the cattle.

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