Johnny Paterson and his son John Paterson farm 64ha of free-draining land in the Clyde Valley, in Forth and Clyde. Having originally started out in dairy before moving to vegetable growing, the father and son duo now have a beef finishing enterprise.

In recent years the farm has undergone a number of key management decisions that enable them to drive the output they have with minimum inputs.

Going native

Up until 2014, the farm finished all continental breeds of cattle. However, in the last three years they have switched to all native cattle breeds. They now fatten a combination of Shorthorn, Angus, Hereford and Luing cattle with the majority of stock finished off grass.

Johnny Paterson explained some of the thinking around that decision.

“Well, we found that finishing the continentals off grass required a lot of concentrate feeding. With the native breeds they just seem to thrive far better off a grass diet with a small amount of concentrates.”

In the last 365 days the Patersons have produced 40.3 tonnes of beef which equates to 628kg/ha. To date this year they have sold 60 animals with the first sale made on 19 April.

Johnny elaborates more on the decision to switch to native breeds.

“The continental animals are too heavy on the land. We try to get animals to grass as soon as possible and if we had a wet spring the continentals did a lot of damage through poaching.”

The system

The farm operates a simple but effective system for these native cattle. Steers are bought usually at 14 to 18 months of age and at an average weight of 450kg.

“The batch I bought last week were 403kg,” says Johnny, “but I do most of our buying in the September and October sales.”

When buying cattle, Johnny tries to select those that look likely to achieve an R4L finish come slaughter. While he has years of experience of looking at cattle, it is not an easy task.

Given there are a large amount of cattle purchased every year there are strict health protocols in place for cattle that arrive on farm.

Each animal receives an Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) vaccine, a fluke dose and pour-on wormer. They are then given a management tag so their progress can be monitored throughout their stay on the farm.

The cattle will be kept for 10 to 11 months before they are finished at a weight of 550kg to 650kg. The aim is to sell as many as possible off a mostly grass only diet and before the Christmas period. The only concentrates most animals will see is two and a half weeks before slaughter.

Shorthorn animals are sold to Woodheads and the Angus’ will go to Highland Meats. Johnny and John also has a special market for the Hereford, Luing and some Galloway cattle that are under 350kg deadweight.

“We’re members of the Macduff wholesaler group. They’ll sell the cattle to restaurants and butchers where they are in high demand,” Johnny says.

There are several key elements that combine to make this system possible, namely, top-level grassland management and top-quality silage.

Growing grass

To facilitate the high levels of output from grass the Patersons have moved to a rotational paddock grazing system. Having given up 65ac of rented ground they have been making the most from their remaining 165ac.

“Ten years ago I went on a four-day trip with the Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). We visited both Northern and [the Republic of] Ireland where we looked at beef systems finishing cattle off grass. What I realised then,” Johnny stressed, “is that whether we are in Europe or not, subsidies were going to be significantly reduced and we needed to increase output.”

On their farm, 26.25 hectares have been divided up in 10 paddocks that average just over two hectares in size. All this ground was reseeded with white clover and perennial ryegrass 14 years ago after it has been used to grow barley for three years. The remainder of the farm is used to grow silage with 25 acres of old grass set-stocked.

This set-stocked area holds 50 cattle while the rotational grazing area holds 140. As cattle are sold from there they are replenished from the set-stocked area to maintain the stocking rate and keep control of the grass.

The average rotation at Garrionhaugh Farm is 21 days. Cattle enter paddocks that have a grass height of 11cm to 12cm and are left there for two days till they graze it to four centimetres.

By doing so the grass that grows back is leafy material high in energy. It gives the Patersons spring grass even in summer.

One key management tool Johnny uses on the farm to increase grass utilisation in the paddocks is to top them 12 hours before cattle leave them. This removes the stemmy seed heads that cattle would not eat and makes the top material extremely palatable

Johnny was keen to emphasize just how easy it was to set up the paddocks. “All of ours are fenced with temporary stakes and wire with wooden stobs as the anchor posts. I can take down all the paddocks on the farm in a day. That makes it very easy to carry out jobs like the umbilical slurry spreading that we use here.”

Every paddock receives 20 units of nitrogen (N) once a month to replenish lost nitrogen. From the paddocks alone the farm has taken 169 surplus bales. This is another important management tool to maintain grass quality.

From the remaining 44 acres of silage ground three cuts will be taken. Last year they were 73% Dry matter digestibility (DMD), 70% DMD and 68% DMD respectively. This highly digestible feed will be fed to the cattle housed over winter to maintain growth weights.

Fact box

Name: Johnny and John Paterson

Address: Garrionhaugh Farm, Clyde Valley

Area: Forth & Clyde

Land Type: 64 hectares of free draining land

System: 200 finishing steers

Buys steers: Likely to grade R4L when finished

Sells livestock: Woodhead, Highland Meats and Macduff group

Contractor: For silage and slurry

Labour: Father and son duo and a casual labourer

Scheme membership: Formerly QMS grazing group

Strength: Has a low feed bill while maintaining a high output

Most versatile paddock: Three and a half acre paddock beside the yard known as the sacrifice paddock. Has been used to grow veg, barley and as an out-wintering area for cattle.