Four weeks into breeding for the cows and it is "so far so good" with 85% of the cow herd artificially inseminated at this stage.
The plan is to scan the remainder of cows to see if there are any issues as to why they are not cycling.
Any cow that has not been bred at this stage will be scanned to see if there are any issues early next week.
There could be a number of reasons for some cows are not bulling – it could simply be late calvers, if cows had a more difficult calving they will be slower to cycle, some cows may have a cyst on their ovaries or some may have picked up an infection post-calving and need attention. The point is that the breeding scan will pick up a lot of these problems and allow corrective action to be taken.
The Salers bull is now running with the 48 breeding heifers to mop up any repeats.
Farm manager Shaun Diver also plans to scan the heifers to be able to identify the heifers that have held to AI. The Salers stock bull is now running with the batch of 48 breeding heifers since the beginning of last week.
Grass growth
While Shaun was somewhat worried about grass supply on the farm earlier in the week, between getting some rain Monday, Wednesday and Thursday night into Friday he is more confident that things are going to be OK grass wise.
Lambs received their first dose last week. \ CJ Nash
Sheep
The lambs were all footbathed last week as there was a number of lambs with scald. The majority of lambs have improved since, but there are some that are still showing signs.
The plan is to footbath again next week, although if ground gets some rain it will also help to alleviate the problem.
A ewe was lost to suspected tetany during the week. All groups of ewes have lick buckets out with them but it wasn’t enough to prevent it in this instance.
Bulls
Under 16-month young bulls continue to be drafted from the finishing shed. A further six bulls were slaughtered on Monday 18 May.
They were 14 months old and achieved an average carcase weight of 366kg with two grading U-, one R+, two R= and an R-. In terms of carcase fat score, four were either 2+ or 3- while the remaining two bulls graded 2= for fatness.
Under 16-month young bulls continue to be drafted from the finishing shed
However, the growth rate of these two bulls had slowed down over the last couple of weeks and Shaun felt they needed to go as there was little point feeding high levels of meal for little return in terms of daily liveweight gain.
The remaining 11 bulls will be fed on for another two to three weeks.
They still have time on their side as they are just over the 14-month mark and commenting on the remaining bulls Shaun said that they are mostly Limousin bulls that would benefit from a further few weeks' feeding.
With beef price on the rise, it makes sense to maximise the value of these animals.
Four weeks into breeding for the cows and it is "so far so good" with 85% of the cow herd artificially inseminated at this stage.
The plan is to scan the remainder of cows to see if there are any issues as to why they are not cycling.
Any cow that has not been bred at this stage will be scanned to see if there are any issues early next week.
There could be a number of reasons for some cows are not bulling – it could simply be late calvers, if cows had a more difficult calving they will be slower to cycle, some cows may have a cyst on their ovaries or some may have picked up an infection post-calving and need attention. The point is that the breeding scan will pick up a lot of these problems and allow corrective action to be taken.
The Salers bull is now running with the 48 breeding heifers to mop up any repeats.
Farm manager Shaun Diver also plans to scan the heifers to be able to identify the heifers that have held to AI. The Salers stock bull is now running with the batch of 48 breeding heifers since the beginning of last week.
Grass growth
While Shaun was somewhat worried about grass supply on the farm earlier in the week, between getting some rain Monday, Wednesday and Thursday night into Friday he is more confident that things are going to be OK grass wise.
Lambs received their first dose last week. \ CJ Nash
Sheep
The lambs were all footbathed last week as there was a number of lambs with scald. The majority of lambs have improved since, but there are some that are still showing signs.
The plan is to footbath again next week, although if ground gets some rain it will also help to alleviate the problem.
A ewe was lost to suspected tetany during the week. All groups of ewes have lick buckets out with them but it wasn’t enough to prevent it in this instance.
Bulls
Under 16-month young bulls continue to be drafted from the finishing shed. A further six bulls were slaughtered on Monday 18 May.
They were 14 months old and achieved an average carcase weight of 366kg with two grading U-, one R+, two R= and an R-. In terms of carcase fat score, four were either 2+ or 3- while the remaining two bulls graded 2= for fatness.
Under 16-month young bulls continue to be drafted from the finishing shed
However, the growth rate of these two bulls had slowed down over the last couple of weeks and Shaun felt they needed to go as there was little point feeding high levels of meal for little return in terms of daily liveweight gain.
The remaining 11 bulls will be fed on for another two to three weeks.
They still have time on their side as they are just over the 14-month mark and commenting on the remaining bulls Shaun said that they are mostly Limousin bulls that would benefit from a further few weeks' feeding.
With beef price on the rise, it makes sense to maximise the value of these animals.
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