Page 57 - Farm Programmes News Today

Finishing cattle at grass in August last year. These heifers were receiving 3kg/d concentrates. It is often said that there is as much variation within a breed as there is across breeds, and looking at the production data from the Thrive demonstration farm for the 2019-born stock this certainly holds true. With all the 2019-born animals now slaughtered, we are able to look at some of the facts and figures from the group. We must remember that this is a relatively small sample size and therefor...

SHARING OPTIONS: Holding off concentrate supplementation until early- to mid-September resulted in fewer cattle being slaughtered off grass. In the previous pages we have outlined what needs to be done to remain on target up to the final phase. Here we outline finishing targets for stock 19-month system For cattle on target to be slaughtered at the end of the second grazing season, concentrate supplementation will more than likely need to be introduced from...

SHARING OPTIONS: Calves are penned in groups of six or seven on arrival to the Thrive demo farm. \ Philip Doyle When it comes to calf rearing, it really comes down to attention to detail and getting the basics right. Ensuring a good start to life for the calf will set them up for the rest of the production system. Here we take a look at some of the main points to consider when starting out with a dairy-beef system. 1 Sourcing calves One thing that has reall...

SHARING OPTIONS: There are over 40 paddocks on the demo farm and each of these can be sub-divided to help increase the grazing pressure when required. \ Philip Doyle Top-quality grassland management is a must on dairy-calf-to-beef farms. Grazing these animals is very different to grazing suckler cows. They are unforgiving if grass is not kept correct in front of them at all times. From looking at the performance of the programme farmers, it is clear to see...

SHARING OPTIONS: Cows have been tail painted as an aid to monitor activity. This will be an important aid throughout the breeding season. Breeding is due to commence on Newford Farm on Wednesday 21 April and 100% AI will be used again in 2021. The farm has recently finalised its sire selection for this season and details of sires selected can be found in Table 1. A number of sires return to the team in 2021, with Fiston and Hideal used the most in 2020. ...

Brian Geraghty, Dysart, Co Roscommon Brian operates a dairy-calf-to-beef system on a 52ha leased farm in Dysart in south Co Roscommon. Of this, about 20ha of it would be rough grazing, with the remainder good grass growing ground. In 2020, Brian reared 92 Angus heifers. Taking advantage of the good weather conditions last spring, Brian reared most of the calves at grass and achieved a daily liveweight gain of 0.9kg/day over the rearing phase. This spring, high calf prices have meant Brian has ...

× Close This content is copyright protected! However, if you would like to share the information in this article, you may use the headline, summary and link below: Title: Thrive weekly roundup: yearling grazing targets and rearing 150 calves In this weeks Thrive roundup, Declan Marren outlines grazing targets for yearling cattle over the next few weeks and provides an update on rearing 150 calves on the demonstration farm.

The latest batch of cows and calves turned out to grass onTullamore Farm. With over 80 cows and their calves and 200 ewes and lambs at grass at this stage, demand for grass is rapidly increasing on Tullamore Farm. The past 10 days to two weeks has seen grass growth curtailed, initially due to wet weather and more recently due to low temperatures. This leaves the average farm cover at a little over 500kg DM/ha at the moment. While this is still acceptable, the worry is that grass demand is cur...

SHARING OPTIONS: The increasing use of beef AI and increasing use of high-Dairy-Beef-Index sires will help to improve the beef value of dairy beef calves.\ Philip Doyle Of the 1.5m or so dairy cows that calve in spring, less than half (46%) are to a beef sire. Most of these beef sires are Aberdeen Angus and Hereford. Between 2019 and 2020, there was an 11% increase in beef-sired calves from dairy cows. At the same time, the number of dairy female calves f...

Alan Smith farms with his parents and brother at Gladhill near Garmouth in Morayshire. They run 180 suckler cows and 350 ewes and grow around 800 acres of spring barley on the tenanted unit. “Initially we heard about the programme from Robert, one of the advisors who asked if we would be interested in joining the groups,” said Alan. “I found the meetings both informative and a good social experience.” “Every meeting I went to I came away with a fresh idea for the farm. Even if the ...