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All spring calving cows were scanned on 17 September and the results were good. There are 125 cows in the herd, but 12 cows which were marked for culling earlier this year did not go to the bull.
This means we served 113 cows, which include 30 replacement heifers, and the scanning results indicate that 109 animals are in-calf.
The four animals which were empty will be finished this winter. These cows are older animals, so it is not too much of a disappointment to have to cull them. All 30 replacement heifers put to the bull are settled in-calf, which is really pleasing. These heifers will calve down next spring at 24 months of age and were served to an Angus stock bull for calving ease.
The other big positive that came from the scanning results is how tight the calving period will be. All 109 cows should be calved in less than 10 weeks, with at least 85% of animals calving inside the first six weeks.
Cattle housed for finishing on Armagh BETTER Farm.
The heifers are set to calve down inside a six-week period. Spring calving is due to get under way around 25 February based on the scanning results.
While the heifers were covered by an Angus stock bull, the cows were served by a Charolais and two Simmental stock bulls.
Pre-calving management
Around half of the cow herd has now been housed for winter. These cows all had bull calves at foot over the grazing season and werebrought inside for weaning, where they have remained ever since.
As the weather has become more variable, cows remained house to ease ground pressure and stretch grazing for the remaining cows and replacements until November.
The bull calves were weaned on 30 September and housed for intensive finishing. The cows are now on a maintenance diet of silage to manage body condition.
Cows are in great condition and, if anything, they need to lose some flesh. It is important to manage the winter diet so these animals avoid gaining condition in the runup to calving time.
Late autumn grazing
The remaining cows are still at grass and suckling heifer calves, along with the in-calf heifers. My plan is to hold these animals at grass into early November, weather permitting, as there is still plenty of grazing available on farm.
Cows are spread out in smaller batches to utilise grass and avoid ground damage. Their calves will be weaned once they are indoors as this is easier to manage.
Normally, I buy store lambs to graze during the autumn period. But this year, I decided against this as I felt that store lambs were too expensive relative to fat lamb prices and this has proved to be a good call.
With no lambs on farm, there is less grazing pressure meaning there is more grass available to carry cows and in-calf heifers in to late autumn.
There were 51 bull calves born this spring which are now weaned and housed for finishing next May.
The bulls were weighed at housing and averaged 272kg. As milk yield tails off in autumn, these calves are better off weaned and moved onto a concentrate diet to drive weight and get them to their target finishing weight next spring. The calves were being fed concentrates through creep feeders at grass in order to prepare them for the change in diet after housing.
With the bulls now indoors, they are being fed 3kg/day of a growing ration along with first-cut silage, which is some of the best fodder we have ever made on farm.
It was mowed on 13 May in ideal conditions and lifted 48 hours later. Analysis shows that first-cut silage has a feed value of 34.8% dry matter, 12.2 Mj ME (energy), 15% protein with a D-Value of 76%.
At the outlined feed value, first-cut silage will maintain high levels of weight gain in growing cattle and help to reduce the level of concentrate feeding required over winter.
Concentrate feeding
My plan is to weigh the bulls regularly and alter concentrate feeding depending on weight gains. Bulls will remain on 3kg/day of concentrate for at least another month, before moving up to 4kg/day and 5kg/day by Christmas.
All being well, the plan would be to increase concentrate levels by 1kg every month until March, when animals will move on to ad-lib.
Heifer calves
After the bull calves were housed, the creep feeders were placed in the fields where the heifer calves are grazing. Having access to concentrates will ease the weaning process in these animals once they come indoors. Once weaned, the plan will be to feed first-cut silage to heifer calves to drive weight gain over winter.
Beef heifers
There are nine beef heifers being fed for slaughter along with four cull cows which did not run with the bull. The other cows which did not run with the bull have now been slaughtered.
These heifers are now getting 4kg/day of concentrates and good silage. They should be ready for slaughter towards the end of this year.
Calves were wormed three weeks prior to housing and also got their first shot of a pneumonia vaccine, with the second shot due on 17 October. Calves have also been vaccinated for IBR.
Animals will be treated for fluke at a later date, as too many handlings around housing and weaning time can stress calves and bring on a pneumonia outbreak.
Now that the bull calves are settled, the next step will be to give them the booster shot and possibly clip their backs. Again, this is normally something I do, but delayed to avoid stressing animals from over-handling.
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