General detail
- All the bull calves (40) were castrated last week by the vet and no health issues were reported after the castration
- All the calves were treated for worms with a moxidectin based product, which will give them a five week residual cover
- Due to favourable weather conditions and high levels of grass utilisation all the calves have been thriving well. Their average performance is detailed below
- Over half of the suckler herd has been move out to Cones farm and 22 acres on the Newford home farm has been closed for second cut pit silage
- All of the beef animals have been weighted in recent days. The heifers were 113 days at grass at weighing on the 14th July and their performance is summarised below:
- All the beef heifers are performing well at the moment , with over 36 % of the heifers weighing over 500 kg @ 17 months of age
- Newford Farm drafted two finished Gamin (ZGM) beef heifers for slaughter this week off grass with no meals. Both heifers were 17 months old
- Both heifers were 17 months old
- Received no meals at grass
- KO at 54 %
- ADG from birth to slaughter 0.94 Kg
- Sale price € 1,119
Grass performance
- Soil temperature on Newford Farm on Monday the 13th of July was 16 ° degrees at 10cm soil depth.
- Grass growth on the home farm this week is 57 Kg DM/Ha and on Tuohy’s farm it was 43 Kgs with a demand of 53 Kgs.
- Second cut round bales of silage 10 acres will be taken out next week on Tuohy’s farm and this will released the pressure for grass supplies when those paddocks fall back into the grazing ground
- A sugar sample will be carried out next Monday and Newford will be aiming for a sugar content of 3 ½ to 4 % for those silage bales to allow for a good preservation of the crop
- A half bag of protected urea (38N + 7% S) per acre is being spread after each grazing at the moment.
Newford produced a video on its grassland management for Teagasc Virtual Beef Week and the link is provide below;
Key recommendations for this week
- Monitor grass growth closely
- Watch out for any summer mastitis
- Watch bull calves after castration
- Keep mineral buckets out in paddocks with the cows
- Prepared for second cut round bales silage