Question mark over winter feeding of weanling bulls

There’s a question mark over the economics of feeding weanling bulls to gain more than 0.6-0.7kg liveweight/ head/day in the winter, if they are destined to return to pasture for a second grazing season.

That’s the conclusion of two recent studies at Teagasc, Grange, Dunsany, Co Meath, using spring-born weanling bulls. It’s no surprise, with previous research at Grange suggesting an optimum winter daily gain of 0.4-0.7kg, and showing animals with higher winter gains had proportionately lower gains at pasture.

Animals that grew less for the winter had the best gains at pasture, showing an ability to compensate.