Weanling management

Weanlings performing poorly once housed is a serious drag on a beef system, with poor growth rates leading to reduced sale weights, delayed finishing and increased costs. This poor performance can be due to a variety of reasons. Incorrect feeding can be one of those reasons. Where silage quality is poor you will need to supplement diets with more concentrates to hit target live weight gain of 0.6-0.8kg/day. Table 1 outlines the supplementation levels required for different classes of stock.

Parasite burdens can also be an issue. Make sure you are dosing for the correct parasite and be careful around life stages and products used. Some products don’t kill all stages so time the dose appropriately.

Make sure animals have access to clean water and observe them eating to make sure feed barriers/rails are at the correct height. Weanlings should be housed in a well ventilated shed.

Lying space is the final piece of the jigsaw. Weanlings at 300kg housed in slatted pens should be allocated 2-2.2sq metres per animal.

Rodent control

As weather conditions deteriorate, rodent and vermin control can become an issue on farms. Typical signs of rodent infestation include rat or mouse droppings around feed stores, gnawing and chewing of materials in sheds, footprints in soft material, eg clay, or holes or burrows in soil around the yard. Infestation poses both an animal and human health risk.

Always wear gloves when handling poison bait and working in areas where rodents are present. If you are not using purpose-built bait boxes, bait should be covered in pipes, etc. to stop other animals from ingesting it. Remove dead rodents and replenish bait on a regular basis. Remember to record its usage in your Bord Bia quality assurance plan. Remember a rat can fit through a gap the width of your thumb (13mm) while a mouse can fit through a gap the width of a pencil (6mm). If vermin issues are persisting after 35 days, other control measures should be looked at.

BEEP

Participants in the Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot (BEEP) need to have all animals (cows and calves) weighed with weights submitted to the ICBF before 1 November. Payments will then issue once background checks are complete. The payment rate is €40/cow. For enquiries contact ICBF on 023-8832883.