General Detail
Newford farm tested the waters by drafting the first of its beef heifers on the 6th of August. 5 in-spec heifers were selected. Summary as follows:
- Average live wgt : 509 Kgs
- Average carcass wgt : 276 Kgs
- Average grade : R = 3 –
- Average price : € 1282.73
- Average price per Kg : €4.64
- Average age 18 months ( 543 days)
- The heifers were 159 days at grass since turnout (February 27th) before slaughter
- All Fiston heifers
- These heifers were fed concentrates at grass for 11 days before drafting (3 Kgs per day)
At the moment there is 42 heifers being fed concentrates at grass 3.5 Kgs/ day costing 30.5 cent/ Kg and the next draft will be in mid to late September.
Troughs have been set up in the yard to prevent paddock damage.
All of Newford suckler calves are thriving well with no health issues to report. All the calves and their mothers were weighted on the 28th of July as part of their BEEP-s scheme.
Meal feeding is fully in progress with all the calves to prepare them for weaning and also part of the BEEP-s scheme. The calves are encourage to creep graze forward ahead of the cows by simple raising the electric wire in one section of the paddock with two horse PVC plastic posts
- The creep feeding is being offered to the calves in troughs and they are on average consuming 0.5 Kg of creep per day
As part of the BEEP-s scheme all the suckler cows were weighted along with their calves and the average
weight of the Newford suckler cow is 618 Kg on the 28th of July ( Summary as follows)
Grassland
Soil temperature on Newford Farm on Monday the 23rd of August was 20oC at 10 cm soil depth
Cover carried out on the 23rd August
