Farmers in our programme have seen their gross margin per hectare for the cattle enterprise rise from £368/ha to £458/ha. This has been achieved through pushing cattle stocking rates from 0.83LU/ha to 1.14LU/ha while keeping costs in check.

The programme has been running for three years which includes the massively expensive winter of 2018-2019, when bales of straw were selling for £25/bale out of the field.

To illustrate the impact of the on-farm changes this week, we are comparing the average cow on the farms in 2016 to what is being used today

These farms have also invested heavily in lime and culled their cows hard to improve performance.

To illustrate the impact of the on-farm changes this week, we are comparing the average cow on the farms in 2016 to what is being used today.

These figures do not include Andrew Gammie’s farm as he was a new entrant and as such didn’t have an initial benchmark to compare with 2019.

It also omits Andrew Duffus’s new hill herd of Shorthorns and Highlanders at Tomintoul.

Sales of £818/cow to the bull

Across all the farms, the output has risen from £356/cow to £368/cow. While the £12/head increase seems modest, it masks the fact that significant numbers of heifers are being retained to increase the long-term performance of the herds. The average age of cows in the herds has been reduced.

The number of cows across the farms has dropped from 652 to the bull in 2016 to 625 in 2019.

The replacement rates for the herd rose to 13% in year two from a typical rate of 10% at the start

However, the number of calves sold has risen from 535 in 2016 to 543 in 2019. Further, these figures do not include Andrew Duffus’s new hill herd of Highlanders and Shorthorns.

Calf value has remained completely static at £942/head from 2016 to 2019.

However, calf sales per cow have risen from £771/head to £818/head thanks to the increased weaning rate and heavier calves.

The replacement rates for the herd rose to 13% in year two from a typical rate of 10% at the start. It is now sitting at 8% as the herds are closer to where the farmers want them. The cost of replacements has remained fairly static at between £82/head in year one to £86/head in 2019. This figure roughly matches the value of the beef calf scheme on a per-cow basis which sits at £84.87.

These results will continue to improve as the younger and fitter herds see increased efficiency in the coming years

As a result, the total output per cow has risen £61.50/head when comparing 2016 with 2019 across five of the programme farms.

But these results will continue to improve as the younger and fitter herds see increased efficiency in the coming years.

Keeping a lid on costs

The cost of keeping a cow on the six farms rose dramatically over the three years from £396/head to £445/head. A big part of this was the spike in straw prices in the winter of 2018-2019, which saw the cost of bedding per cow go from £22/head to £57/head.

Similarly, the cost of concentrates on the farm per cow has risen from £109/head to £138/head despite the amount consumed per cow falling 43kg from 832kg to 789kg.

The amount of home-produced concentrates rose from 539kg/head to 694kg/head, with bought-in concentrate falling from 293kg/head to 94kg/head between the first the third year. Bought-in and self-produced concentrate are priced the same as it is treated as an opportunity cost as the farmer could sell it.

Increased stocking rates and rotational grazing have dropped the cost of grazing from £57.50/head to £32.80/head

A number of the farms have been switching to ammonia straw, which has resulted in the other feed costs rising from £25/head to £52/head. However, this will reduce the area required for silage and the associated contractor costs.

This has contributed to the cost of silage dropping from £39/head to £37/head on average across the farms as silage quality has risen and increased the amount of straw in the diet prior to calving.

Meanwhile, increased stocking rates and rotational grazing have dropped the cost of grazing from £57.50/head to £32.80/head.

This is despite the fact there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of lime spread on fields and continued reseeds in the rotation.

Spending less on vets

Across the five farms, we have seen the average spend on vets and medication fall from £76/head to £45/head. This has been through better condition-management of cows at calving, while culling problem cows has reduced medical attention. A reduced calving spread has had an impact on calf diseases, particularly on the later-born offspring.

Increasing daily liveweight gain

In the first year, the farms were typically seeing a daily liveweight gain of 0.86kg/day, which rose to 0.95kg/day in 2019. Calves are being sold at heavier weights at 428kg in 2019 compared to 407kg at the start of the programme.

For every cow which goes to the bull, there was 60kg more produced in 2019 compared to 2016. This was de to more calves per cow and heavier calves. The average value over the three years of £947/head compares with £942/head in 2016. This is despite the liveweight market price falling from £2.33/kg to £2.21/kg.

Shorter calving period

The calving spread was identified as an issue early on in the project and across the five farm’s figures the calving period has dropped from 24 weeks to 15 weeks.

The number of barren females has remained the same at 8%, as has the number of calves born alive at 90%.

The number of cow deaths has also dropped from 5% to 3% which could be attributed to the harder culling on age and underperformance.

Using less nitrogen fertiliser

Rotational grazing, increased soil sampling, fine tuning inputs and more spreading of lime has meant across the six farms the kg of nitrogen used per cow has fallen from 103kg/ha to 89.44kg/ha. This is while stocking rates have increased on farm from 0.83LU/ha to 1.14LU/ha.

You can watch more HERE.