Farmer writes: Do you know your suckler cows' weight?

Since last Wednesday I have been in Canberra and Sydney in Australia for a Nuffield International contemporary scholars conference.

The group of Nuffield scholars is made up of a diverse bunch including livestock, tillage and fish farmers, vets to horticulturists, from countries such as Ireland, Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand and the UK. We have spent an intensive week attending presentations, workshops and farms.

We have been challenged in terms of our thinking as primary producers and encouraged to listen to the opinions of others, something farmers are generally poor at. At times we have been given topics that have polarised the group and have created intense debate.

My intention is to study different systems of worldwide suckler production and observe how suckler cows exist in a country dominated by dairy production. I also hope to observe how farmers have matched or adapted their cows to the environments they farm in and the amount of forage that land can produce.

My choice of topic was inspired by the fodder crisis of 2013. I began to question do we need suckler cows? Have we a suitable cow? How many farmers know their cow weight?

I had a salesperson in the yard a few months ago, a good judge of cattle, well able to point out what they required so I posed a question. What average weight would you put on the cows? After taking time to cast an eye over them I was shocked at he said.

450kg to 500kg was his estimate for my herd of continental cows who averaged 647kg when weighed in September. I responded saying a friend of mine has a herd of Jersey cross cows averaging 466kg and he tried to dismiss the facts saying average beef cows weigh the answer he gave and mine happened to be larger than average.

It left me questioning how many farmers know their cows’ weight? If you can't measure it you can't manage it. A bovine animal needs to eat 2% of its body weight in dry matter just to maintain itself.

Heavier stock have a higher feed demand and in times of challenging weather such as excessive rainfall or lack of growth this can have a detrimental effect financially if grass management isn't up to scratch.