Things have quietened down considerably in recent weeks on the farm. The main focus now is dealing with a problematic reseed that has left us scratching our heads.

In previous years we finished our males as 18-20 month bulls using the Teagasc blueprint: 100 days at pasture followed by a 100 day intensive finishing period. However at the end of 2013, alarm bells started ringing as factory specifications began to tighten. The writing seemed to be on the wall for heavy bulls. Like many others we switched to a 16 month bull system, which worked well for us.

It threw up an opportunity too. With a group less coming outdoors for a second grazing season, we saw a chance to reseed at an “ideal” time of year. Surely a predominantly perennial ryegrass reseed in the first week of June would be thundering along at this stage? Mother Nature unfortunately, had other ideas. Seven weeks without decent rainfall has left us with an uneven sward alive with weeds that are beginning to form a canopy over the weaker grass plants; threatening to sabotage them completely.

Topping

The last few evenings have been spent topping the plot to achieve some uniformity. One hundred and twenty sheep will take care of the rest whilst encouraging tillering and when they are done a blast of 18:6:12 will hopefully kick start things. Sometimes even with the best intentions, you can’t win.

Breeding has thankfully come to an end. Funnily, my relief is not attributed to disastrous conception rates or renegade stock bulls. On a farm with a 100% AI philosophy, the legs do be glad of the rest. Oh how I long for a quad bike!

Instead of scanning the animals, maintaining a meticulous three-time-daily heat detection strategy in the week’s following the end of breeding works well for us in terms of confirming whether or not animals are pregnant.

Closed herd

Save for some Blonde-Friesian crosses purchased from a cousin nearly a decade ago, our cow herd consists primarily of animals born on the farm. We have run a closed herd for the past eight years and have been 100% AI for the last 13 years.

This allows us to pick and choose our replacements based on genetic potential. We try to take heifers from primarily Simmental and Limousin sires. We have found that replacements sired by Simmental bulls like HKG, from one of the Blonde crosses make mighty cows.

With HKG straws now becoming scarce, APZ is flying the flag for Simmentals in 2014. Here is hoping he produces a nice crop. On the Limousin side of things, animals such as HCA and OZS have done consistently well for us in terms of producing apt and able replacements. They are both easy calvers with good maternal traits.

Charolais

For beef, Charolais bulls like PTE and HWN performed exceptionally in our inaugural 16 month system this Summer. However, as is the case with the Simmentals, these boys have been since retired. This year we’ve got a number of spring LGL (CH) calves beginning to power on nicely towards weaning in a couple of months.

At the end of breeding, easy calving Belgian Blues (there is such a thing) are used on any stragglers to try and reel them back in somewhat. This has been practised for some years and we haven’t had a monster yet, touch wood.

It looks like we will stay with the continental for now. Though big players like Tesco seem to have nailed their colours to the early-maturing mast, decisions now won’t come to the fore until 2016. Who is to say what they’ll be looking for then?!

*Ciarán Lenehan is currently completing a PhD in suckler bull beef finishing systems at Teagasc Grange, as well as being actively involved in his family’s suckler calf-to-beef enterprise,. He graduated from UCD in 2013 with a degree in Animal Science and has a keen interest in all types of sports. You can follow him on Twitter at @ciaranlen.