My Farming Week – Jeremy Mc Gonigle – 18/06/2012

My Farming Week – Jeremy Mc Gonigle – 18/06/2012

 My name is Jeremy Mc Gonigle, and together with my wife, Valerie, I farm 24 acres at Cashel, Rossnowlagh in Co. Donegal. We run a 9 cow Pedigree Charolais/Angus  known as the Whinfort & Roose herd.

Calving commenced in late September of 2011 and continued until the end of November 2011, with the exception of one cow which calved at the end of March 2012. All cows that calved from September to November 2011 were scanned in February 2012 and all were found to be in calf.

Cows when housed are fed first cut quality silage ad-lib plus 2kgs of good protein and energy suckler cow diet when cows are calved for a period of 12 weeks until all cows are back in calf and then back to ad-lib silage until going to grass.

We cut silage on the 4^th of June with 13 round bales per acre of good grass silage.
Slurry spreading commenced on the fields cut for silage, on Monday the 11^th of June. We will not take a second cut of silage.
All paddocks are grazed on an 18 day rotation and will be topped after every second grazing and fertilized with 50 kgs pasture sward per acre.
The herd is a complete closed herd with no cattle bought in.
No meal will be fed to weanlings while weather stays good and warm.
All calves were vaccinated with 10 -1 in the 4 weeks after calving and got
their booster 6 weeks later.
All calves are dosed. They receive their first dose 4 weeks after turn out, second dose at 6 weeks and third dose at 8 weeks.