Reducing stress on man and beast is priority for Justin Walsh, who runs a one-man operation and manages a herd of 95 beef cows and heifers at the foot of the Hill of Tara in Co. Meath.
Alongside his farming business, Justin also weighs cattle for ICBF and is a tillage contractor.
In answer to how he fits it all in, Justin said: “Managing stress on man and beast is crucial when you are a one-man operation.
“Pneumonia control is a key part of this, and I have protocols in place to prevent matters rather than firefight. About 10 years ago, we had issues with pneumonia on the farm. We worked closely with our vet at Patrick Farrelly & Partners to put a herd health plan in place and start vaccinating for RSV, Pi3 and IBR.
“I run a split-block calving herd with approximately 50 cows and heifers calving from February to April, and the remainder of the animals calving from July to the second week or September.”
Autumn calves are born in the shed and the cows come in two to three weeks beforehand.
“The shed was built about 15 years ago and is well ventilated. I also make sure not to get overstocked. I need to have February calving cows out by the end of February to manage stock density within the shed,” Justin added.
Young calves are kept warm in clean and dry straw bedding.
Reducing stress
Calves are vaccinated up the nose from nine-days-of-age with Rispoval RS+Pi3 IntraNasal and Rispoval IBR-Marker live at two-weeks-of-age.
From three-months-of-age, they get a single dose of Rispoval 2 and their Rispoval IBR live injection. Both can be given intramuscularly, which is convenient for this size of an animal.
Spring born calves are weaned October / November time. The autumn calving cows are kept on meal until January, and once they are scanned in calf, the meal goes from the cow to the calf, with the view to weaning the calves late March/ early April.
“Our bulls are sold at 12-months-of-age, weighing 440 kg and achieve up to 1.2kg daily liveweight gain (DLWG) on average.
“The heifers are making around 1kg DLWG and are sold at 18-months-of-age, so they don’t need a second winter in the shed,” Justin outlined.
The animals are sold in the yard and have gone to the same buyer for the last 10 or so years, only travelling for 45 minutes to their final home.
“I aim to calve heifers at two-years-of-age, as I don’t believe in carrying passengers. If they are a bit small, I will breed them to the Angus.
“Otherwise, for the first four to give weeks of the breeding season, we AI to a maternal bull, after that we use a terminal sire, such as a Limousin or a Charolais.
“I don’t want big, massive cows, no more than 750-800kg. Our cows are Simmentals and Limousin cross,” the Meath farmer continued.
An important part of disease control is stress-free weaning management. Gradual weaning management reduces stress on both cows and calves, lowering issues with pneumonia in the calves and mastitis in cows.
“We split bulls and heifers and start weaning the bulls first. Calves are creep fed up to 1kg per day for at least two weeks prior to weaning.
“So, after one week of creep feeding, I close the creep area for 24 hours, then the calves can go back with the cows for a couple of days before locking them out altogether, whilst remaining next to each other.
“After weaning, meal is increased up to 2kg for bulls and 1.5kg for heifers and depending on the weather the calves may go out again,” he explained.
Veterinary manager with Zoetis, Aurelie Moralis, said: “It is clear from speaking to Justin that he takes pride and joy from managing his herd. He started just over 20 years ago and is running a very nice herd of animals indeed.
“I am pleased to see how well the Rispoval protocol is working for him. The new Rispoval 2 claim makes it very straight forward for farmers to control pneumonia.
“With a single shot booster 3 months after the Rispoval RS+Pi3 IntraNasal you get up to nine months RSV and six months Pi3 virus protection, reducing stress on man and beast.”
Rispoval® IBR-Marker live contains Bovine Herpes Virus type 1 (BHV-1), strain Difivac (gE-negative), modified live (attenuated) virus. Rispoval® RS+Pi3 IntraNasal contains modified live Bovine Pi3 virus and BRSV. Rispoval® 2 contains modified live Bovine Pi3 virus (strain RLB 103) and BRSV (strain 375). POM (E). For further information please contact your veterinary surgeon or Zoetis, www.zoetis.ie. Use medicines responsibly (www.apha.ie). ZT/24/17/01
