Signpost: Drought forces tough calls as grass growth grinds to a halt
Denis Hickey on his Dairy Beef farm near Midleton in Co Cork. Picture Chani Anderson
The last month has been quite challenging here on the farm. We have had no rain of any significance for the last five or six weeks. Grass growth has as good as stopped. The farm is very dry and the grass covers are more or less gone.
Currently, we are trying to keep the best of the grass for the calves, which are being fed more than 2kg of concentrates to keep them going. Calves are moved every three days to a different paddock, not necessarily for new grass, but rather to ensure that grazed paddocks are not grazed too tightly, which might affect subsequent regrowth when the rain does eventually come.
All of this year’s calves were weighed on July 19. Similar to other years, there is a huge range in weights, from 110kg up to 211kg, with the group of 102 bulls and heifers averaging 165kg.
Overall, I am happy enough with how the calves are doing. They have achieved an average daily gain of 0.8kg from birth, with the top performers doing up to 1.1kg per day.
The calves were dosed a number of weeks ago with a white drench. They are starting to cough again, so I will give them another dose now to protect against lungworm.
The 45 heifers were weighed on July 13. They are currently averaging 473kg and have done very well since their last weighing, having achieved an average daily gain of 1.11kg.
The main purpose of this weighing was to see if they were still thriving, but I have also decided to sell some live. With the current drought conditions here, I feel it is the right thing to do, as it will alleviate pressure on the grazing platform, giving grass a chance to respond when, hopefully, rain arrives in the near future.
It is also a good boost to cashflow at this time of year when bills have to be paid.
There are 23 heifers over 480kg and I will keep these to finish. They are a good weight for age. Currently, I have housed 14 of these and they are on silage and concentrates. I will build up to 6kg of concentrates and feed for approximately 60 days to finish around the end of September.
This group will be gone before winter housing is required for the weanlings. The remaining nine of this group will be housed shortly if this drought continues!
The other 22 heifers are between 420kg and 478kg. There are also a lot of strong heifers in this group and I will have to decide which 10–12 I will sell live.
The steers were all weighed a month earlier, on June 13. At that stage, they too were averaging 473kg, having achieved an average daily gain of 1.15kg since their last weighing on April 18.
There is quite a range within the group, with the lightest steer at 411kg and the heaviest at 537kg. All yearling steers and heifers that are still outdoors are getting silage in round feeders in the paddocks.
Regular weighing, managing grass and dealing with health issues all contribute to good thrive and reducing the finishing age of these animals. The sooner they are finished, the fewer greenhouse gas emissions are associated with them.
I also have slurry to spread, but will hold off for a while, as with the very dry weather I don’t want it to cake on the grass.
The grass reseed sown on May 26 established very well and was sprayed with Pro Clova to hit seedling docks and other weeds early, while protecting the clover.
It has also been grazed, initially with the calves. I also had to bring in a group of heifers to help them clean it out well, as the cover was starting to get too strong for the calves.
It could now do with a good day’s rain to get it going again. A number of thistles have established in the reseed, especially around the headlands, and I will have to try and deal with these before they get too firmly established.
- Denis Hickey runs a calf-to-beef operation outside Midelton, Co Cork. His Teagasc DairyBeef500 advisor is Gordon Peppard.
