Increased demand and prices on offer over the last decade for heavily muscled bulls and heifers for live export to Italy, in particular, have attracted many producers down this breeding route.

A number of producers have achieved good results but others have learnt the hard way that while breeding a top-quality animal will attract the higher prices, the system is highly specialised and comes with a degree of risk. This was one of the key messages delivered by Offaly farmer Tom Groome at a recent farm walk held on his farm in Clonmore, Edenderry, by Teagasc and Dovea Genetics.

Farming system

Tom’s farming system is focused on breeding top-quality weanlings for the live export market.

He runs 31 suckler cows and herd replacements on 36ha. Only 2ha is owned, with 34ha farmed on a combination of yearly rental (conacre) agreements and longer-term arrangements. Tom paid thanks to land owner Matt Dempsey for allowing the event to take place on his farm.

Tom’s farm faces many similar difficulties to a high percentage of other suckler farms, with lands fragmented and soil type varying from dry lands to heavier peat soils.

Tom has developed a defined breeding policy that is working for him. Each year, a number of Belgian Blue cross heifers, bred from a dairy herd in Kerry, are purchased and bucket-reared. These replacements are bred to an easy-calving Limousin sire for a couple of years, with sire selection and calving difficulty gradually increased depending on every animal’s calving ability.

Sire selection

Tom has advantages in sire selection, working part-time on the farm and also employed as an AI technician with Dovea Genetics. 100% AI is used and sires are selected on maternal and terminal traits, with the focus on complementing individual cow type and bringing out the best traits in the sire/dam mix.

Limousin and, occasionally, Simmental sires with good replacement indices are bred to first-calvers and cows in the herd with good maternal traits and in particular milk yield.

Suitable replacement heifers from this cross are also selected, with Tom finding that the second cross delivers more consistency in calf quality compared with first-cross dairy crossbreds.

Saying this, by using AI and monitoring progeny performance and calving ability, he is able to match terminal or maternal sires to cows that are not delivering on any particular traits (for example, he can select a maternal sire for dairy crossbreds with a good milk yield or sires with higher predicted carcase conformation and weight gain for dairy crossbreds not suited to maternal breeding).

The breeding policy is delivering for Tom. In general, about 80% of weanlings fall into the E and U grade category, with 15% to 16% grading R and the remainder grading O, with milk yield driving weaning weight cheaply.

Tom finds that Blue breeding in cows, even as first or second crosses, is helping to put greater muscle and better conformation into progeny from sires that generally do not possess muscling traits.

Management of cows in the run up to calving is described by Tom as the greatest contributor to preventing calving difficulties. “I find that if cows are not managed correctly, even cows served with an easy-calving bull can have problems. Feeding is critical. I cannot expect to let cows eat what they want and then get a calf out easily, it just doesn’t happen,” he says.

Cows are restricted in the runup to calving, with autumn-calving cows used to clean out paddocks and spring-calving cows given a limited silage intake. This is carried out well in advance of calving, with Tom pointing out that it is counterproductive to let cows gain excessive condition and then hope that starving for the final few weeks of calving will prevent problems.

“It is important to monitor cows regularly and take action. I got caught out with the good silage over the winter and should have pulled out one cow earlier for lower feeding.

‘‘She went overfat and it led to a caesarean – the other was in a heifer with poor calving ability,” Tom says.

Areas for improvement

While breeding policy is delivering, the farm is at a crossroads on what direction to take in the coming years.

According to Teagasc adviser Mark Coyne, a review of the farming system has identified a number of areas where improvements can be made to make the system more efficient and to improve the farm’s gross margin.

At present, the calving spread is nine months (September to June), with Tom in the past preferring calves to be ready for sale at different stages to aid cashflow. Mark says that, in theory, the concept is fine but, in reality, it creates numerous problems and significantly complicates the system.

“The only way to efficiently calve cows is to do it over a 10- to 12-week period. It might make for a busy few weeks but with a longer calving spread, the focus can often be lost and result in problems occurring.

‘‘The most important reason for a tight calving spread is a uniform group of stock, which will allow more straightforward management. Grass is key to profitable farming and you won’t be able to make maximum use if calving all year round. Tightening the calving interval will also allow better planning of health treatments.”

Increasing farm output

Increasing the farm’s output is also a major area identified for improvement. The current performance on the farm and how it compares to average performance from suckler producers in the Teagasc/Irish Farmers Journal BETTER Farm programme is detailed in Table 1.

Mark says that the aim in the next three years is to marginally increase output per livestock unit and significantly increase output per hectare through a higher stocking rate. “Tom is doing a fantastic job, he is producing the goods but unfortunately he doesn’t have enough of them,” according to Mark.

A three-year farm plan has been developed and is detailed in Table 2. Increasing cow numbers from 31 to 50 and increasing output per livestock unit from 322kg to a target of 350kg will increase output per hectare from 489kg to 650kg/ha. At current market prices, this will increase the farm’s output value per hectare from €992/ha to €1,397/ha. A rise in variable costs, from €540/ha to €657/ha, has been factored in to deal with the higher stocking rate.

About 50% of the farm has been reseeded in the last five years and this is helping to sustain an increasing stocking rate.

Mark says that a compact calving spread will help to increase grass utilisation and, in turn, keep a lid on variable costs. Achieving the targets set out will increase the gross margin per hectare from €452/ha to €740/ha. Increasing the stocking rate further is not seen as a realistic target at present with the stocking rate capacity lower on more marginal soils.

The farm is well on its way to increasing cow numbers, with over 10 extra replacements calving into the herd in 2014/15. A point to note when increasing cow numbers is that there may be extra pressure on cashflow in the short term.

Plans should be put in place to allow stock numbers to increase gradually and in line with the ability of the farm to cover associated costs.

Cautions with the system

Ger Ryan, Dovea Genetics general manager, advised farmers to assess what breeding policy best suits their farm and their system and to avoid trying to breed animals that will satisfy a number of markets.

“If you are working part-time off the farm and are not around to supervise calving, or want an easy life, then you should go for easy calving. If you want more muscle and weight you will have to push harder but, remember, you need to have the expertise to deal with harder calvings and, even with this, be prepared to accept some problems.

‘‘If the necessary capabilities aren’t in place to deal with harder-calving sires, stay away, as you will only end up having higher mortality, a high replacement of cows or big veterinary bills,” Ger says.

On cow type for the live export market, he says: “Cow type needs to be consistent. You can’t have a liquorice herd and hope to breed all good Blues.”

On sire selection, John Lynch advises to only select animals with high reliability figures when choosing sires with harder calving difficulties or sires for first-calf heifers.

“The risk with these animals is high. It is better to select a sire that will deliver an average-sized live calf that will come on with time rather than run the risk of selecting a sire that may end up being very hard-calving,” Lynch says.

Marketing weanlings

Live exporter James Mallon, of Viastar Ltd, told farmers that demand for well-muscled weanlings is strong with lower feed costs in Italy increasing demand.

He said that market demand was strongest for weanling bulls and heifers weighing between 350kg and 430kg and he advised farmers not to retain animals beyond this weight. He said prices being paid for top quality E and U grade weanlings are averaging about €2.60/kg to €2.70/kg.

Tom’s weanlings sold last week to Viastar for €2.70/kg and averaged 410kg liveweight at nine to 11 months of age.

In the past, calves were supplemented in a creep feeder but the focus is now changing. No meal was fed to autumn weanlings this year given higher grass quality available. The plan is to reduce feed costs by supplementing spring-born calves 1kg to 2kg meals for four weeks pre-weaning in troughs.

With weaning beginning in spring-calving herds, Teagasc’s Paul Fox told farmers that now is the perfect time to take a hard look at the cows in your herd and select the underperformers.

“There is no room in the herd for cows that are not producing a good-quality calf or, likewise, for the cows that may be producing a good-quality calf but are not doing it consistently every year,” Paul says.

The calving interval in Tom’s herd is 376 days, which compares favourably to the national average of over 400 days.

Paul says that, on close review of breeding performance, the calving interval is being increased by a number of repeat offenders that are consistently calving in excess of 400 days.

The financial impact of this was shown with a number of cows grouped together.

Excellence

All cows were producing excellent quality calves but the best looking cow (tag number ‘‘155’’ in Table 3) was taking longer to go back into calf and, each year, it was costing Tom in terms of lower production.

David Kenny, a Teagasc researcher in Grange, says that the key determinant of the length it takes for cows to resume cycling activity is cow condition at calving. He says that thin cows will take, on average, a month longer to resume cycling no matter what management practices are in place.

Efficient breeding

He says the aim for efficient breeding is to have cows in adequate condition and not overfat at calving and then transfer onto a rising plane of nutrition. This, he says, will go a long way in getting all cows back cycling six to seven weeks after calving.

This is the approach taken on the Groome farm, with cow condition constantly monitored and cow nutrition seen as critically important.

Tom also views access to mineral licks before and after calving as hugely important. Vaccinations used on the farm are BVD and Lepto, which are administered one week after calving.

Breeding performance in the autumn herd is aided by cows being supplemented with 2kg meals indoors until they are back in calf and also restricted suckling (can advance cycling activity by three weeks by breaking cow/calf bond).