The 2022-born heifers on the ABP Demo Farm were housed for finishing on August 11.
The average weight of these heifers at housing was 450kg which is 10kg below the average weight of last year’s batch.
However, commenting on the performance of the heifers, ABP’s Sean Maher said: “Given the wet weather conditions experienced this spring and subsequently later in the summer, performance is not as bad as we had initially expected.”
Heifers are currently being fed 3kg/head/day of a 14% protein high-energy nut and this will be gradually increased to 5kg/head/day.
“Some of the heifers could have been finished off grass with concentrates, however one of the main purposes of the ABP Demo Farm is sire evaluation so each grouping of cattle of the same age must be treated the same,” Maher said.
“As well as this, feeding large numbers of cattle brings its own risks especially for farmers when feeding them.
“Safety is paramount and so we agreed the shed was the safest and most feasible option.”
In 2022, the heifers which were finished had an average daily gain (ADG) of 1.47kg/day with an average finishing period of 47 days.
The bullocks will stay at grass for another couple of weeks and will begin the finishing process then.
Calves
Calves were weighed and dosed on July 28. The average weight of the calves was 155kg and the heaviest calf was an AA7821-sired bull calf that weighed 228kg.
Calves remain at grass and are receiving 1kg/head/day of a 16% protein nut and have access to straw feed to reduce any risk of summer scour.
Commenting on the calf performance, Maher said: “Our average calf weight is back on last year’s. From a weather perspective, I can’t think of worse summer for calf performance.
“They went from a tough spring to eating stemmy, coarse grass in the dry spell and then prolonged rainfall when grass swards were very wet resulting in much faster passage through the calves.
“Hopefully weather conditions will improve in the back end to the year which will help end the grazing season on a more positive note from a weather perspective.”
Store lambs
Store lambs, 400 in total, have just arrived on the ABP Demo farm. These lambs were bought at an average weight of 30kg and will be weighed, dosed and mineral drenched over the coming days.
A further 200 store lambs will be purchased bringing the total number to approximately 600 head of store lambs.
“The store lamb operation fits in very well in our calf-to-beef system as when the finishing cattle are housed, our demand for grass reduces significantly,” Maher said.
These lambs will sweep off any excess grass and will thicken the sward for the coming year.
Multi-species sward
The multi-species sward (MSS) reseed on the ABP Demo Farm has gone from strength to strength in the last couple of weeks, Maher said.
“As of Friday, August 11, the MSS had a cover of 1000kg dry matter (DM)/ha. Our priority now is to get it cleaned off by grazing it as soon as possible,” headded.
The MSS reseed is divided with temporary fences. One section is being grazed off by the store lambs and the other section is being grazed off by the 2022-born bullocks.
These cattle were removed from the reseed ahead of the heavy rain which was forecast on August 18. It was noted that cattle took a few days to adjust to grazing the MSS.
“We would have liked to graze it sooner however ground conditions did not allow this and the last thing we wanted was to damage the newly established sward,” Maher said.
GreenFeed comment
“There has been steady data and animal usage from the GreenFeed over the last couple of months,” Maher said.
“One of these Green Feeds will be moved and installed in the shed for the 2022-born cattles’ finishing period. The other GreenFeed will be with the calves to begin gathering information from this group.”