ABP Monitor Farms: Why this farmer is adding rolled oats to calf ration (2025)

The recent spell of dry weather is being welcomed on John Twohigs dairy and beef farm in Bandon, Co. Cork. The farm is one of the eight ABP Monitor Farms.

These monitor farms are finishing cattle in a variety of systems and are based across the country on a range of different land types.

Advantage Beef Programme farm liaison officer Aideen Bates said the majority of the spring-2023-born dairy-beef cattle on the farm have now been slaughtered, and John is delighted with both the performance of the cattle and the prices received in recent weeks.

The farm is involved in ABP Food Group’s Advantage Beef Programme and receives a 20c/kg Sustainability Bonus on all eligible cattle slaughtered trough the scheme.

The oldest calves born on the farm will be weaned in the coming weeks, with calf performance good and no major health or performance issues so far.

All calves received their pneumonia Intranasal vaccine at 10-days-old and their booster three weeks later.

This year, John is trialling something different when feeding his calves concentrates – he is adding rolled oats to the calf ration in an effort toreduce incidences of summer scour.

Summer scour in calves is the biggest problem John faces with his calves year-on-year.

As a trial this year, the concentrate ration fed to the calves is now 25% oats rather than 18% oats, and John will monitor its impact on calf performance this summer.

Yearling cattle on the ABP Monitor Farm

Yearling bullocks have been at grass for over a month now and they had an average body weight of 320kg at turnout.

Yearling heifers are also turned out and had an average weight of 270kg going to grass.

The milk cows have been out at grass day and night for the past six weeks. Cows are milking well and the dry ground conditions are allowing for excellent graze-outs.

The good spring weather this year has been a great benefit on the farm, as opposed to last spring when conditions were much more challenging.

The first grazing rotation will be finished this week. Regrowths were slow at the start, but have come on in the last few days.

Paddocks that have been reseeded in the last two years are regrowing very well in comparison to older pasture.

John intends to reseed 10ac of ground this year but he is mindful not to take too much ground out of the grazing platform.

Ground has been sprayed off and is ready to be disced in the coming days. John will be sowing a white clover and ryegrass mix for grazing.

Breeding will commence on John’s farm on May 1 and all cows will be served using artificial insemination (AI) to high carcass weight Angus bulls.

When selecting bulls, John balances easy-calving with high beef genetic merit and appears to be managing this effectively with no assisted calvings required this year.

No Friesian calves are bred on John’s farm – instead, suitable Friesian heifer calves are bought-in and reared as replacements for the herd.