All cattle have finally been released to grass, after some have were indoors for six long months. Autumn-calving cows and calves were housed on 8 November, with the last of the cows only getting to grass this week.

In a change from normal practice, I decided to wean the calves early this year. As the winter and poor spring dragged on, all the older bulls were weaned in the last week of March. This put them at between seven and eight months of age and an average weight of 280kg.

I am also starting to measure cow efficiency better this year and the range for bulls weaned was between 43% to 71% of the cow’s weight at weaning. Interestingly, the heaviest bull from the most efficient cow was a red Angus bull, weighing in at 304kg.

These bulls were let to grass along with a small group of younger bulls and their mothers. This helped keep the bulls settled and they seem to have done well since. They are due to be weighed again in the next week and hopefully the value of getting to grass early will show on the scales.

Weanling heifers were held a little longer with their dams and were weaned on 2 April. These heifers had free access to paddocks beside the shed, but were locked out from accessing their mothers for a suckle. Two weeks later, these heifers were moved to grass full time, away from the sheds.

The cow weaning efficiency range for the group of heifers weaned was from 41% to 59%. If these heifers continue to do anywhere around 1kg/head/day for the summer and autumn months, they will be fit for bulling at the end of October this year.

Beef heifers were released full time to grass on 24 March and have settled well at grazing. Although grass supplies have not been plentiful, I have kept the group small enough so that supply is matching demand. On the same area of grazing ground there is 35% less cattle grazing this year, in comparision with 2017, which shows how slow grass growth is.

Spanning over five grass measurements in April, growth started at 5kg DM/day in the week until 1 April. From there, growth rates rose steadily to 16kg, 26kg, 49kg and finally 54kg in the last week of April.

Silage ground has been closed, so hopefully I am on track to cut in the last week in May. If the crop is light, I intend to take extra second-cut silage and paddocks along the way where possibl,e to build up silage reserves for next winter.

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