Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
beef farm walk
-
08-09-2013 9:41pm#1
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
bob charles wrote: »No, but I hope every other fellow buying cattle does.
You'll want to find a fine day then too Bob
Grange seems to have gotten very little press this year after all the fanfare when it was launched.0 -
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
That drainage manual is available to download from teagasc website
http://t-stor.teagasc.ie/handle/11019/417
That's the one
There you go JDI.
What made a few good points re drainage which contradicted what I always thought.... ie that chips should be brought to the top. Your man on the stand reckoned water tables and surface water should be dealt with separately. Ie subsoiling and mole draining for surface water and chipped and piped drains @20m centres to drain away water at a lower level (water table). Drains should be over 1m deep (according to them).
AHI were giving out a lot of leaflets in the yard, but I didn't take any as they can all be downloaded on PDF too Ah the beauty of the electronic age :pac: 0 -
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
I am in the process of uploading some pics and notes from the day. A lot of stuff so bear with me.
To answer your question JDI, I learned a lot. There hasn't been a farm walk that I've gone to yet that I've regretted going to. Even if it is just confirming what you are already doing or are aiming for, it is worth going to as a confidence boost.
You have to give them their due, they are running a tidy ship there. The best of land with grass growing out over the hedges, all well fenced and every field full of quality stock. But saying all that on my small little wet west of Ireland farm, I had better quality silage than them last winter and had cattle out only a week or so later than them. They also bought in 300TONNES!
I found it strange that they don't forward creep graze their calves. I did like that they aren't mealing them either! But their cows were as fat as pigs. They most definitely should be creep grazing the calves ahead and restricting the cows.
Breeding is almost exclusively all by stock bulls, save for the maternal cows they want to mate to maternal bulls for replacements.
Justin Mc was asking the tough questions as to why they peared cows numbers back significantly and how they still claimed to be showing a half decent profit monitor despite this and the small matter of having to buy in a large tonnage of silage. Young Alan Kelly was there also with pen and paper, so I'm sure he'I have an article on it all too.0 -
-
-
-
I am in the process of uploading some pics and notes from the day. A lot of stuff so bear with me.
To answer your question JDI, I learned a lot. There hasn't been a farm walk that I've gone to yet that I've regretted going to. Even if it is just confirming what you are already doing or are aiming for, it is worth going to as a confidence boost.
You have to give them their due, they are running a tidy ship there. The best of land with grass growing out over the hedges, all well fenced and every field full of quality stock. But saying all that on my small little wet west of Ireland farm, I had better quality silage than them last winter and had cattle out only a week or so later than them. They also bought in 300TONNES!
I found it strange that they don't forward creep graze their calves. I did like that they aren't mealing them either! But their cows were as fat as pigs. They most definitely should be creep grazing the calves ahead and restricting the cows.
Breeding is almost exclusively all by stock bulls, save for the maternal cows they want to mate to maternal bulls for replacements.
Justin Mc was asking the tough questions as to why they peared cows numbers back significantly and how they still claimed to be showing a half decent profit monitor despite this and the small matter of having to buy in a large tonnage of silage. Young Alan Kelly was there also with pen and paper, so I'm sure he'I have an article on it all too.
Were you in the first group out muckit? I was in that one and Justin was asking a lot of questions. I didn't realise the other lad was from the journal as well. The fella on the second stand wasn't too keen on their questions.0 -
Jeez I'd get a weeks grazing out of the gap between those two fences in the first pic!
What's the idea of the bells on the cows in the second pic?0 -
Advertisement
-
-
Yeah I'd have loved to have gone but I just don't seem to have the time. There have been a few farm walks this summer that I've thought "I'll try to get to that" but work or family has to take precedence:rolleyes: (I was going to say gets in the way!). Got to my discussion group meetings though so that is 5 more visits made than in previous years.I am in the process of uploading some pics and notes from the day. A lot of stuff so bear with me.
To answer your question JDI, I learned a lot. There hasn't been a farm walk that I've gone to yet that I've regretted going to. Even if it is just confirming what you are already doing or are aiming for, it is worth going to as a confidence boost.
You have to give them their due, they are running a tidy ship there. The best of land with grass growing out over the hedges, all well fenced and every field full of quality stock. But saying all that on my small little wet west of Ireland farm, I had better quality silage than them last winter and had cattle out only a week or so later than them. They also bought in 300TONNES!
I found it strange that they don't forward creep graze their calves. I did like that they aren't mealing them either! But their cows were as fat as pigs. They most definitely should be creep grazing the calves ahead and restricting the cows.
Breeding is almost exclusively all by stock bulls, save for the maternal cows they want to mate to maternal bulls for replacements.
Justin Mc was asking the tough questions as to why they peared cows numbers back significantly and how they still claimed to be showing a half decent profit monitor despite this and the small matter of having to buy in a large tonnage of silage. Young Alan Kelly was there also with pen and paper, so I'm sure he'I have an article on it all too.
Interesting they're not creep grazing ahead, especially as they seem to be grazing out paddocks tightly. Given the full time staffing they're in the ideal position to do this and experiment with it to give the rest of us tips/options as to how to do it. They started off with all AI but had disastorous results, hence the move to stock bulls. The one thing I've always liked about Derrypatrick though is they've been upfront about their faults and failings.
Good to hear JMcC got stuck in and should hopefully make for interesting reading next week. Maybe the point is maxing out on SR doesn't necessarily translate into a higher profit margin. There is a sweet spot to be found which is quite possibly unique to each farm. I for one am hoping grass measuring will help me to make a reasonable questimate as to what my optimal SR should be.0 -
towzer2010 wrote: »..... the data shows that calves from Lm x fr cows weigh the best and kill out heavier....
That is something that I couldn't really compute. How could a calf from a 3/4 bred continental/Friesian X outperform a calf from a full continental X.
I can understand that milk is the driving force at the beginning and that this is why the weanlings would weigh heavier, but after weaning, why doesn't genetics kick in? Shouldn't the Friesian influence negate against them?
But then I thought about it a bit more and I suppose perhaps a heavier weanling will be eating more and perhaps even though the smaller full continental cross weanling has better beef breeding, genetics cannot compete with weight for age....??? I still find it very hard to grasp...
The gain equated to a 10-15kg heavier carcase for the LM/Fr vs the LM/CH, which I suppose would be around half a hundred weight more liveweight. The figures don't sit easy with me... I'm sorry.0 -
-
-
Advertisement
-
Ah Muckit, you're killing me with all the pics. I planned to go to bed half an hour ago!!!
The first one hear, do you know what the timber panel on the gate in the background is for? And the second one - is it a gate for humans or calves? Looks a bit narrow for cows.
Great to get the photos by the way, much appreciated.0 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
God they'd a few charolais and Simmental cows there that were as big as elephants, I reckon they were pedigree. Anyways here are the few pics I did take.....
Advertisement