The Duguids farm in a family partnership at North Cranna, on the outskirts of Aberchirder in Banffshire. The running of the farm is a real family affair, with husband and wife team Arthur and Muriel and son Scott looking after the day to day work and daughters Gemma and Amy and Arthur’s uncle Charlie helping during busy periods.

The farm extends to 164ha and is quite steep-running – from 160m up to 800m above sea level. It is a mainly grass farm, with some barley grown for feeding and bedding. There is also about 7ha of swedes grown for feeding to the cows, with some left in the ground for finishing later lambs. The herd of 150 cows is split with 90 spring calvers and 60 autumn calvers. Cow type is mainly Simmental cross, with a few Saler crosses. Bulls used are mainly Charolais, with a Simmental for replacements and first-calving heifers going to a Limousin. Stock not kept for breeding is sold as stores at 12 to 14 months at Thainstone.

There is also a flock of 240 Scotch and Cheviot mule ewes. These go mainly to Texel tups, although there are a couple of Suffolk and Beltex tups. Lambs are mostly sold prime through the mart.

The farm is currently well-stocked.

Over the next few years of the programme, the Duguid’s aim to retain a similar number of cows on the farm but, by changing grassland management, plan to increase sale weights and improve overall output per cow. Autumn calving also needs to be tightened, with a long-term view toward a strict 10-week period, to make management easier.

On the sheep side, the plan is to increase the number of lambs weaned per ewe and increase lamb performance from grass. This will also help improve output and will reduce sale age. Getting lambs out of the system earlier, will allow ewe numbers to increase over the next few years.

Oceans of grass

Kind weather and a few recent management changes mean that there is oceans of grass this year. The Duguid’s started a month earlier with some of the grazing fertiliser this year, and have been really pleased with the results. At the last update, there was 139 ewes and lambs on rotation on the seven hectares that were treated early. Numbers are now up to 149 ewes with lambs on the same rotation and they are now keeping pace with the grass growth.

Scott and Amy were giving the ewe lambs a chlostridial vaccination a few days ago and took the opportunity to put the lambs across the scales.

The Duguid’s were really pleased with the results, with lamb weights averaging 26.5 kg at 70-days-old. That gives an average growth rate of nearly 310g/day. The 10 largest lambs are heading for the fat ring at Thainstone this week. This is around seven weeks earlier than normal. With the way prices have been lately, they should be worth around £20/head more than last year.

Improvements

These improvements have come from a range of reasons. For one, the early fertiliser really got the grass growing and it has kept on growing all the way through. Secondly, getting lambs on to clean grazing has really helped cut out worm challenge for the lambs. Finally, keeping the quality in the grass ahead of the ewes and lambs has kept them growing.

At the time of the last update, the Duguids were about to cut out a quarter of the rotational grazing field. That is now done, with 26 bales of really good quality silage being cut.

Some of the grass on the rest of the field and another field that the sheep have been grazing had some seed head coming up, so they topped just after the sheep had left,with another 85 kg of nitrogen applied to keep the grass going.

Swedes have been sowed and there was a bit of cabbage root fly floating around, but they are now dealt with.

Neeps have always been grown on the farm, and they are used for both the sheep and cattle. In years past, a good bit would be used for feeding the autumn cows and the stores, with the lambs that were still to fatten running on the rest. This year, the aim is to get the lambs out of the system much sooner and use the remainder of the neeps to graze the ewes over winter. This will take pressure off the grass and give more cover coming into next spring.

Cattle were turned out about a week earlier than last year. It might not sound like a lot, but with 160 cows and calves, it works out to be a saving of over £2,000 on feeding and bedding. With a planned approach to closing up fields this back end and the ewes on the swedes for a period over winter, the Duguids are hoping to turnout even earlier next year – if conditions will allow. A saving of £2,000 a week is not to be sniffed at!

The autumn cows went in for the vet to PD them, with very disappointing results. Of the 58 cows checked, 13 were empty.

The family had a very bad go with autumn calving last year, with three caesareans and each of those now empty. The rest are being put down to the Simmental bull, who went lame during bulling last year. This year, he has been checked by vet and has a clean bill of health. Having said that, a close eye will be kept on him and cows will be scanned much earlier to try and catch any problems.

Armed with the weaning weights, the cows were put across the scales to get weaning percentages. A summary of the results is in table 1.

Looking at these numbers, there is a difference of nearly £100 per cow in feed costs to produce calves that are 40kg lighter between the high and low performers.

These numbers will be analysed to find the cows that are really performing and the data wil be used to help when making culling decisions.

Both groups of cattle were put together when going out to get more grazing pressure on the grass, as some of the fields were starting to get ahead. Again, like the sheep paddocks, once the cattle are off each section and on to the next it is topped to get rid of the seed heads.

The main silage cut has also been started, but the weather is proving to be pretty frustrating, with slow progress being made.

Having said that, a good week next week should see it fairly well tidied up. Yields certainly look to be well up on last year.