Newford Farm Open Day - 23 May 2023
Newford Suckler Demonstration Farm open day took place on Tuesday, 23rd May. There was a large attendance and strong take home messages regarding weaning management strategy, grassland management and early spring turnout, winter finishing regime, sustainability initiatives and calving heifers at 24 months.
Grassland Management
To maintain optimum pre grazing covers (1200-1500kg/DM/Ha), paddocks over 1600kg/DM/Ha are being cut and removed as surplus bales.
Buddy white clover has been over sown at 2.5kgs/acre on paddocks removed as surplus bales and within 48 hours after paddocks been grazed.
Farm Cover
2023 Breeding
- Artificial insemination began 24th April and will continue until 4th July (10 weeks)
- Bull selection criteria is outlined in table 2 and selected sires and mating policy is outlined in table 3.
- Repeats after 15 days into the 2nd cycle is as follows:
- Cows 19/80
- Maiden heifers 7/25
Sire Selection Criteria
List of Bulls and Their Details
Sustainability Initiatives
The 2022 born beef progeny have been introduced to the GreenFeed (C-Lock) which measures enteric emissions – methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2). “Bait feed” is used to entice the animal to stay at the GreenFeed system for a minimum of 3 minutes. The data is then uploaded every hour to an online server which calculates emissions and will quantify how much emissions is emitted by Newford livestock
