228  | OVERSEAS
Herefords thrive in Irish project Re-produced by kind permission of
been set for the steers.
Irish Farmers Journal
To date, 64 animals have been
Sixty four cattle have been slaughtered off grass on the Irish Farmers Journal Thrive demo farm to date. Declan Marren looks at the slaughter performance.
slaughtered off grass this back
The Thrive programme aims to demonstrate best practice for dairy calf-to-beef systems through the use of higher-genetic merit AI-sired beef calves, combined with a high level of technical efficiency in terms of nutrition and animal health. The Irish Farmers Journal Thrive demonstration farm, located on the farm of John Hally in Cashel, Co Tipperary, sees 140 calves reared each year and brought through to slaughter at between 18 and 21 months of age. The aim on the farm is to draft as many animals off grass at the end of the second grazing season as possible, in order to eliminate what can be a costly indoor winter finishing period. Currently, 2019born stock are being drafted for slaughter. The target for the heifers is to achieve an average carcase weight of 275kg at 19 months, while a target of 300kg at the same age has
end. However, the majority of the remaining animals have now been housed for a short finishing period. Table 1 outlines the slaughter
performance of the animals drafted so far from the farm. While the project is more focused on what individual sires can deliver rather than simply a breed average, with relatively small numbers slaughtered to-date it is too soon to draw any conclusions on individual sire performance.
Tips for finishing indoors The remainder of cattle will be finished out of the shed over the coming weeks. Housing stock and changing the diet is not ideal, as it takes the animal time to adjust to the new environment and nutrition. It can delay slaughter by a week to 10 days. In saying that, assessing the level of finish currently on stock, the majority of animals will be slaughtered in the next four to six weeks. They are currently on first-cut silage, which is 76 DMD, and meal feeding has been maintained at the same level as at grass for all stock apart from the British Blue steers, who have moved up to 5kg concentrate/day. Knowing the feed value of your silage is critical in order to know what level of supplementation is required to maintain performance. Get a representative sample of your silage analysed immediately if you have not yet done so.
Animals need a good environment to be able to thrive. When feeding meal, ensure you have sufficient head space for all stock so they can feed at the same time. Keep silage fresh and clean out old or stale feed at least twice a week. Access to fresh, clean water is critical, especially when feeding concentrates and dry silage. Monitor cattle drinking over the next few days to assess if your supply and infrastructure is satisfactory. If you see animals queueing up at the drinker, waiting for drinkers to fill or pushing each other out of the way to get access to the trough, then there is an issue. Finally, weigh and handle cattle regularly. Early-maturing dairycross animals especially can go over fat in a very short period of time. Regular handling and drafting of animals is important to avoid getting penalised for fat cover in the factory.