On the Twohig farm, all cows and heifers were Artificially Inseminated (AI’d) to Angus bulls and there have been very few repeats since breeding began back in early May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the recent dry spell, grass growth has slowed on the farm, like many other farms across the country and this has also taken a toll on grass quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Grass is getting stemmy and grazing management is becoming more tricky, but cows are still milking well despite this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John has not had to introduce silage or additional concentrates into the parlour yet, but if growth continues to slow, this could change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John recently sent his Angus stock bull to the factory and the bull which served the herd for almost six years killed out at 620kg carcass weight and graded U=. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He says that this bull “will be hard to replace seeing as his figures were so good”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bull was +18.9kg for carcass weight, but John is using high-quality Angus sires on the herd to continue breeding quality dairy-beef animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few of Johns calves were treated for coccidiosis in recent days. He noticed scours in the calves and took a faecal egg sample, which came back positive for coccidiosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He dosed the calves accordingly and he\u2019s already seeing an improvement in the animals that had an issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other than that, calves are performing well. They are currently being offered 2kg\/head\/day of ration as well as access to fresh straw ad-lib, as an additional source of roughage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The calves are being strip grazed on strong grass that hasn\u2019t recently received Nitrogen (N) fertiliser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second cut silage will hopefully be secured on the farm within the next month. Silage ground received 2,500g\/ac of slurry\/ac and 80 units\/ac of protected urea + sulphur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More information on the Advantage Beef Programme and the ABP Monitor Farms can be found by clicking here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/ehbterhthy-1024x590.png\")
<\/a>