Advantage Beef Programme
He said that the dry weather conditions into October are keeping grazing conditions positive for the over 400 spring-2025-born dairy-beef calves and 660 store lambs currently grazing on the farm.
He said: "We have been getting our dairy-beef weanlings winter ready by carrying out their Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) and (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) RSV and PI3 vaccination boosters.
"It is important to have these carried out early to ensure the optimum uptake of the vaccine and to prevent pneumonia outbreaks over the winter months.
"These weanlings will be dung sampled and monitored to see when they’ll get their final dose either pre- or post-housing.
"This years' weanlings are currently averaging 220kg and are well settled out on the land with grass in plentiful supply."
The farm manager said that when the decision is made to begin housing these cattle, the lightest are housed first with both weather and shed space dictating when they are housed.
"Like every other year, we will have to slaughter the finishing cattle to make room for this year’s weanlings in the shed."
Heifer kill out
The first 49 heifers from the ABP Demo Farm were slaughtered out of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) Tully Progeny Test Centre in Co. Kildare on September 22.
Every year, 150 cattle from the ABP Demo Farm in Co. Carlow are sent to ICBF Tully for performance recording.
These averaged 271kg carcass weight, with the heaviest being an Angus heifer sired by AA8718 with a carcass weight of 296kg that graded R-4.
An additional 30 heifers have also been slaughtered from the ABP Demo Farm at the start of October.
Maher said: "These were the first draft from the farm and performed very well with an average carcass weight of 282kg for this batch.
"The highest performer in this batch was another Angus heifer sired by AA8508. She had a carcass weight of 321kg and graded 'R-4-'.
"The heifers ranged from 321kg down to 231kg carcass-weight and the grades ranged from 'R-' to 'O=' with fat covers ranging from '4+' to '3-'. These heifers had an average kill out percentage of 51%."
This batch of heifers on the farm were getting fed for 60 days, consuming 5kg concentrates/head/day along with good quality grass silage and some straw in the diet also.
The heifers had an average daily liveweight gain of of 1.33kg/day for the 60-day period.
The farm manager noted that another batch of heifers will be drafted for slaughter in the coming week.