50 of the 2022-born heifers on the ABP Demo Farm have been sent to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) Tully Progeny Test centre for performance trials
Data on methane emissions as well as food conversion efficiency (FCR) and liveweight gain will also be collected on the 50 heifers.
The average weight of the group of heifers going to Tully was 416kg, the heaviest being a heifer sired by AA6331 (Deelish Shotgun) at 490kg.
There was a mix of breeds in the Tully batch including Angus, Hereford, Limousin, Aubrac and Belgian Blue.
A similar-sized batch of bullocks will be identified for Tully in September/October time.
The plan for the remaining heifers will be to leave them at grass until mid to late August when feeding for their finishing period will commence.
Post drought management
Advantage Beef Programme team member Sean Maher explained The ABP Demo Farm managed to keep grazed grass in the diet of the cattle without the need to supplement with silage, but higher levels of concentrates were being fed to calves at grass.
The yearling cattle also had to graze paddocks with grass covers of over 2,000kg. These covers would normally be taken out for silage but were grazed this time as grass was scarce.
2023-born steers at grass on the ABP Demo Farm
All 2023 born calves are now at grass with the final few late March-born calves turned out in the last two weeks.
All cattle will be weighed next week and it will be interesting to see the impact of the weather on animal performance in the last month.
Calf management on ABP Demo Farm
Now is a critical period for the 2023-born calves to ensure optimum performance.
Having been seven weeks without rain and now with the large amount after falling in a short space of time, a huge burst in grass growth has been seen.
This week’s grass walk showed a growth rate of 98kg DM/ha with a farm cover of 865kg DM/ha accounting for ground locked up for second-cut silage.
This nitrogen-rich, highly digestible grass is a major risk to calves developing summer scour syndrome.
To prevent summer scour, ensure adequate fibre remains in the calf diet. This can be achieved through feeding straw.
Secondly, Sean emphasised it is important to ensure calves are not grazing very lush pasture with high level of nitrogen applied.
“It’s very important to monitor calves over the next few weeks and if you suspect an issue contact your vet or nutritionist.
2023-born calves at grass on the ABP Demo Farm:
“With summer sour, action needs to be taken quickly. On the ABP Demo if we suspect a calf has this problem, we will check the calf for a temperature and look for sign of a drool in the mouth.
“Any suspect case will be housed for a few days and fed concentrate and forage and their condition will be closely monitored.”
Calves are now eating 1.5kg of concentrates/day on the farm and this level will be reduced gradually to 1kg/day over the next few weeks.
The percentage protein in the feed has also decreased from 18% protein to 16% protein. All calves received their second round of vaccinations recently.
Over the coming month, worm burdens will be monitored in all batches of cattle through dung sampling.
There is a high population of flies at present which could lead to issues with sore eyes, especially with calves grazing heavy covers of grass or eating from troughs. If this becomes an issue on the farm, a fly treatment will be applied to calves.