The breeding period for the autumn calving cows started on 15 October and things have been progressing well over the past five weeks.

The aim on the farm is to breed all cows to AI, and to date, 39 out of 46 autumn calving cows have been served.

The 46 breeding females are made up of 38 mature cows and eight homebred Limousin heifers. There are also two cows which will not be bred this year.

One cow is an older animal and the second cow has an issue with temperament, so it is the right move to cull them.

Breeding period

Since joining the programme and getting the herd into a planned system, management tasks have become much easier.

One of the biggest changes has been getting the herd into a defined breeding and calving period, so that I know when calving starts and ends.

With breeding set to finish after nine weeks, any cow which was not served or is not settled-in calf by Christmas will be sold

Breeding will stop just before Christmas, which means that next year cows will calve down during August and September. This year, calving finished during the first week of October.

With breeding set to finish after nine weeks, any cow which was not served or is not settled-in calf by Christmas will be sold. Having no stragglers in the herd makes things so much easier to manage.

Sire choice

Over the last few years, I have mainly used the Charolais sire Fiston (FSZ) when inseminating cows. He has clicked well with my cows and produced excellent calves which have sold well through the mart.

However, this year, I am trying a few different Charolais sires as Fiston straws are becoming more difficult to source. The bulls used include Firoda Jason, who is a son of Fiston along with Cavelands Fenian (LZF).

Normally I carry out all inseminations myself

The heifers are being bred to easy-calving Limousin (Moondharrid Knell) and Angus sires (Intelagari Maverick).

Normally I carry out all inseminations myself. However, at the minute I have someone else inseminating cows for me as I am recovering from hip surgery.

Heat detection

A huge benefit from moving to compact calving is that heat detection is much easier to carry out. Multiple cows come back into heat at the same time, which increases breeding activity indoors.

I am able to monitor cows on the cameras, and as there is no disturbing animals by going in and out of sheds, cows are showing strong heats.

Restricted suckling

I have found that restricting the calves from suckling their dams has also been a great way to bring cows back in heat and showing stronger breeding activity.

The earliest-calving cows are housed in our new cattle house. Calf creeps have stockboard fixed on gates, so that cows cannot see calves once they are locked off the cow.

Calves only get to suckle the cow for a short period in the morning and again at night. The cows in this shed were very quick to come back into heat.

Restricting calves from suckling their dam has been an effective way to bring cows into heat earlier and show stronger signs of breeding activity.

The calves born towards the end of the calving period were not restricted in suckling, as there were a few within this group that were not performing as well as I would have liked.

There has been a noticeable difference in how much longer it took these cows to come back into heat again.

Winter feeding and gearing up for spring calving

The autumn-calving cows are on ad-lib silage plus 1.5kg/day of a general-purpose ration at 16% protein.

My plan is to keep them on this diet until breeding is finished and cows are settled in calf. Changing the diet too soon could affect conception rates.

Once breeding is finished, cows will no longer get concentrates as the silage is of excellent quality and will be sufficient to keep cows milking.

Silage

First-cut silage was analysed in the summer. Dry matter ranges from 27% to 40%, with crude protein of 14.6%, energy of 11.8 ME and D-Value of 73%.

Silage was cut on 21 May and baled using our own equipment, which is a huge benefit in this part of the province as the windows for making silage in ideal conditions are brief.

Spring calving

There are 21 cows in the spring-calving herd, which now calves from late December through to early February.

There are three heifers within this group of 21. Two of these heifers calved this week and while they are out of sync at the minute, they will slip to join the spring-calving cows.

Cows are on average-quality silage to maintain body condition

The extra few weeks will help them cope with early lactation before fitting into the breeding period in March.

Cows are on average-quality silage to maintain body condition and pre-calving minerals offered via lick buckets.

Store cattle weights increasing

We have gradually moved to selling our calves as strong yearling stores over the last three years and this has proved to be a good move.

Cattle weights are increasing year on year. We weaned 26 spring-born calves back in late August, just prior to hosting the farm walk.

Calves averaged 282kg at a standard 200 days of age and gained 1.2kg/day on the cow. The cows weighed 622kg at weaning, meaning they weaned 46% of body weight. This is an increase from 40.5% last year.

Weight gains in 26 spring-born weanlings have been excellent with calves over 40kg heavier when compared to the same period last year.

Since weaning, calves have continued to thrive. The 15 bullocks averaged 368kg on 8 October, which is a gain of 1.16kg/day from weaning.

On the same date last year, the spring-born bullocks averaged 320kg, so this year’s calves are 48kg heavier.

Bull calves are on first cut silage and 2kg/day of ration

It is really pleasing to see cattle performance is progressing with all the changes made to the system.

The 11 spring-born heifers averaged 361kg on 8 October, up from 295kg on the same date last year.

Bull calves are on first cut silage and 2kg/day of ration. The heifers were getting 1.5kg/day, but this has been halved to stop them getting fat.

All calves are AI Charolais bred and will be sold live in late January.