All cattle have settled into their winter accommodation well. Some changes have been made to ventilation on one of the dry-bedded sheds on the farm.

Eight feet of sheeting has been taken off a back wall to increase air flow.

This sheeting will be replaced by netting which will allow more air into the shed. Weanlings have all been vaccinated for pneumonia prior to housing.

Weanlings were also dosed on 6 October for worms. There has been some coughing noticed in the past few days and faecal samples were taken last week to determine the cause.

Dosing

Weanlings may have picked up worms prior to housing and may require a further worm dose this week depending on the results.

If a dose is required, it will likely be a pour on that will treat for lice as well. Weanling bulls have been stepped up to 5kg/head/day across two feeds and weanling heifers continue to be fed 2kg/head/day.

Cull cows are currently being fed 6kgs/head/day of a finishing ration across two feeds.

Sixty-eight animals were genomically tagged last week as part of the BDGP programme.

Injury

Unfortunately a bull calf slipped outside the cattle crush and broke his back leg just above the knee.

The vet was called straight away, however once the break was above the knee, a cast wouldn’t work and the animal had to be euthanised on the farm.

As is often the case this didn’t happen to the worst calf in the group, instead the victim was a limousin bull weighing 350kg.

The area outside the crush is quite smooth and we will look at getting it concrete grooved to try and prevent any further slips or falls.

The last few days cold weather has meant the kale fence isn’t moved until mid-day to make sure it has thawed out.

Very low temperatures and snow has meant the kale fence is being moved at midday over the past few days to allow leaves to thaw out.

An extra bale of silage was also fed on Sunday as the fence was unable to be moved.

After a few teething problems with a couple of rouge weanlings who kept going under the fence causing problems, kale feeding has settled well with the fence being moved 1m each day.

Cows will continue to graze the kale until mid-January. The plan is to keep weanlings on kale until mid -March.

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Watch: munching kale and housing continues at Tullamore Farm

BETTER farm: Kerrymen grazing by day in December