Irish Independent - Farming

WINNER ALRIGHT

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PHOTO: ALF HARVEY late September and put about 20 of them on Once A Day (OAD) milking.

He also separated and housed the empty cows on 4kg of meal plus silage.

That group are being milked OAD and already you can see them improving and they will be presentabl­e when we sell them next month or early December.

This has reduced our stocking rate to 3.4 cows/ha and soon we will reduce it further by drying off the February calving first calvers and move them to one of the out farms.

All these actions when combined should allow us to milk the main herd off grass till early December.

We weighed the incalf heifers and while their weights varied from 375kg to 475kg, body condition score was excellent and breed type was deemed to be the reason.

We have been more proactive with the calves this year and for the most part I am satisfied that they are on target.

The lightest 10 were separated and housed two weeks ago on 3kg of meal. We kept the rest of the group on second cut aftergrass plus 1 kg of meal.

They were treated with a pour-on for worms and I am happy they are thriving. There is grass for about another month and all calves will be housed at that stage.

Henry and Patricia Walsh farm in Oranmore, Co Galway, along with their son, Enda, and neighbour and out-farm owner John Moran

 ??  ?? Shane Dunne, Clonad, Co Laois, winner of a Honda Quad in the FarmIrelan­d App download competitio­n receives the keys from Margaret Donnelly, editor FarmIrelan­d.ie and Colin Lynch, Honda Ireland.
Shane Dunne, Clonad, Co Laois, winner of a Honda Quad in the FarmIrelan­d App download competitio­n receives the keys from Margaret Donnelly, editor FarmIrelan­d.ie and Colin Lynch, Honda Ireland.

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