Achieving better weight gain - Martin Connolly - Teagasc Green Acres Farmer Participant

All grazing season Martin has been using Pasturebase to keep better control of the pre and post grazing heights on the grazing ground. He has been targeting a pre grazing yield of 1400kgDM/ha and a post grazing height of 4cm for all of his stock and achieving this consistently. He finds that the grass measuring has allowed him to make better decisions in terms of grassland management and improve his farm substantially in this regard. A high value is placed on the surplus bales he has harvested off of his grazing ground and is currently using them as part of his bull finishing diet due to their very high feeding quality. Martin has also found that the additional splitting of fields he has done is helping him to make grassland management easier. In total there are now over 40 grazing divisions on the farm.
As part of the Green Acres programme all stock are weighed 3 time during the year. These weighings are timed to coincide with housing, turnout and mid grazing season. This allows us to track how the cattle are doing relative to the targets we set for them. On Martin’s farm we have identified that the calves are achieving a satisfactory level of thrive over the rearing stage and first grazing season. In order to achieve better weights we are going to target a better weight gain during the first winter and second grazing season. Improved silage quality and accurate meal supplementation will be central to achieving an average daily gain (ADG) of 0.75kg for the first winter. Good grassland management and herd health will be central to achieving an ADG of 1.1kg over the second grazing season resulting in a housing for finishing weight of 500kg. Over the course of the following 120 days the bulls will be built up to 8-9kg of concentrates as part of a TMR and will be slaughtered at an average carcass weight of 335kg