Brian Reidy: Your farm's end-of-year review - here's what you should be asking
Close up image of hands holding animal feed at a stock yard
What are your plans for 2023?
The same questions regarding your business need to be asked each year. A review of your herd performance over the last year will help you to make changes for the coming season.
If you are on herd plus, a lot of the below information will be easily accessed.
- Yield per cow
- Kilos of solids per cow
- Fertility performance
- Meal fed per cow
- Silage quality and its impact on costs and performance.
- Mastitis cases and recovery percentage
- Incidence of metabolic disorders around calving.
Assess heifer growth from birth
Are youngstock hitting targets, so they are entering the herd fit for purpose?
- Calves born per cow in the herd
- Mortality rates at birth and in the first month
- The number of vet calls for sick animals - and what were calls for?
- Empty cows
- Carryovers
- Did the calving season go to plan in 2022?
- What was calf survival like, and if you lost calves, at what stage did deaths occur?
- Did cows clean easily after calving, or were there some dirty cows needing attention? In most cases, feeding, environment and mineral status influence the incidence of held cleanings.
- Were calves of desired quality?
- Did your bull(s) produce consistent quality calves?
- Did you use A.I.?
- Was heat detection successful when using A.I.?
- How well did first-calving heifers perform?
- Did they go back in-calf?
- Had they grown sufficiently before calving?
- Did they have enough milk?
- Will they develop into the kind of cow you want in your herd?
- Are you on target for four and five-star females?
- Is the scheme delivering results for you?
- Review weanlings' liveweight gain per day
- Are weanlings' frames grown well before finishing?
- Review grades, fat covers, and kill-out performance
- Are you reaching targets for all stock in the timeframe appropriate for the genetics you have?
- Is the finishing system the correct one for you and your farm?
- Consider the merits of bulls vs bullocks vs heifers. What is the cost per kilo of liveweight gain for your system?
- Have you calculated your production cost for finishing stock?
- Bought-in stock performance.
- How well did bought-in stock perform on the farm?
- Were there any losses?
- What were the losses caused by? Stress? Disease?
- What is your protocol for introducing purchased stock to the farm? Do you use a transition diet to settle cattle into the farm?
- Are you vaccinating purchased stock at entry to the farm?
- Animal Health Was your parasite control strategy effective in 2022? Even though we had a drought in 2022, Ireland is a wet country. It seems that the parasite burden has been high again this year.
- Were there any new disease outbreaks?
- What should you be vaccinating for if anything?
- Have you discussed getting your Vet involved to formulate a vaccination programme based on bloods, etc.?
- Are you using the right products? Fertiliser technology is moving on, look at new methods being used internationally to great effect - such as liquid application for greater efficiency, accuracy and reduction of total N inputs.
- How much grass was grown per hectare?
- Are you measuring grass growth?
- Is utilisation at an optimum level?
- How is soil fertility?
- What is your Nitrogen utilisation?
- How can you strategically use your slurry?
- Not many will have been happy with either in 2022 due to the weather. An early cut every year always pays off, target to cut early in 2023, you won't be disappointed.
- Was the home-grown forage quality good enough? Many silages made this year are not fit for the intended purpose.
- Are you using appropriate products for your stock?
- Are diets balanced for optimum performance?
- Is the meal you are buying good enough to match your forages?
- Are you buying based on protein content rather than energy?
- Was sufficient meal fed to achieve performance targets and genetic potential in 2022?
