The home stretch – this week sees the final instalment in our €150/cow challenge. The aim of this series has been to demonstrate how improvements in efficiency and management inside the farm gate could generate an additional €150/cow of net profit to a suckler farmer on a 40ha farm. So, how have we done so far?

In week one, grassland was on the agenda – an area in which there is big potential for the average Irish suckler farmer. Grass is by far the cheapest livestock feed out there and the reality on the ground is that the typical Irish beef farm has scope to double its output from grass. In week one, we demonstrated how utilising an extra 2t of grass dry matter in a year represented an increased net profit of €186/cow.

Week two focused on heifers, the typical Irish beef heifer calves down at 31.5 months, though both research and progressive beef farmers show that 24-month calving is readily achievable. Our analysis showed that €250 extra in direct costs alone were required to calve at 36 versus 24 months. Teagasc cost analysis puts the ‘net profit per cow increase’ figure, moving from 36- to 24-month calving, at €84 on a 40ha farm operating at 170kg organic N/ha when all benefits are factored in.

Last week we talked reproductive targets, the focus being on reducing both calving interval and mortality. Moving from industry averages of 399 days and 6.4% to 365 and 4% for calving interval and mortality respectively represented a cumulative gain of €96 per suckler cow.

Weight gain

Whether selling live or slaughter cattle, weight is the name of the game. Our collective goal as beef farmers is to get as much weight out the gate as cheaply as possible. For suckler farmers, the cow should do half the job. At weaning time, we should be targeting a suckler cow delivering 45-50% of her body weight in the form of a weaned calf. On a recent trip to America, I learned how anything below 50% of weaning weight is not tolerated and that the cow/calf weaning weight ratio is a big influencer in their culling decisions. We need to think more like these ranchers. This is not a call for suckler farmers to switch to a smaller cow, though for many this mightn’t be the worst choice in the world. Yes, you can keep your 750kg cow, provided she weans a 350kg calf.

The four Simmys

Milk accounts for two-thirds of the pre-weaning weight gain of a suckler calf. Only after around 100 days of age does grass make up half of a calf’s food intake. The tables below give examples of milk in motion in a Co Meath suckler beef herd. In table 1, the mature cows are from top Simmental AI sires, Hillcrest King (HKG) and Seepa Tee Jay (IS4). The calves in question are 2016 spring-born heifers by the Charolais bull LGL. They were born within three days of each other, weaned in late-November on the same day and offered 70% DMD silage and 1.5kg of a 16% weanling concentrate in the same pen for six weeks before weighing. While both calves have done very well, IS4-sired cow 300 is assigned almost twice the milk index figure of cow 137, and her calf has grown 190g faster daily (right). In Table 2, both cows are by HKG but one (344) has a higher maternal index stemming from her dam. Her milk index figure is over twice that of the 271 cow. The calves here are bulls, sired by Limousin all-rounder Ozeus (OZS), born within five days of each other and again treated the same up to weighing a few weeks ago. 344’s calf has grown 90g faster daily than that of 271.

The benefits

On the above farm, an average of 140g extra daily weight gain has been achieved in calves from the milkier cows. The only difference between the calves in both scenarios is the dam and, even at that, our dams are genetically similar save for their indices – within which the milk figures are contrasting. If we assume a weanling price per kg of €2.60 in November (bull and heifer average), having the milkier cows is worth an extra 34kg of calf liveweight at eight months of age, which equates to €88.50 per cow.

This is consistent with Teagasc Grange research where first-cross Limousin (Holstein-cross) weaned calves 31kg heavier than three beef-cross cow types (LIM x SIM, LIM x CH, SIM x CH). These types of first-cross cows produce around 50% more milk than a typical continental cow type. While many farmers are hesitant to opt for this type of cow for fear of suffering on the QPS grid, the reality is that there are many farmers across the country producing U-grade bulls out of first-cross cows. Also, remember that a weighty R+ grade from a first-cross is likely more lucrative than a U-grade calf who weaned lighter and needed more feeding. Coincidentally, the progeny in these Teagasc trials were taken to slaughter as bulls, where an 8kg carcase weight difference remained in favour of the first-cross cow.

What the €150/cow challenge has shown is that there is big scope for Irish suckler farmers.

In 2016, Irish beef prices were back around 20c/kg consistently on 2015, the equivalent of €75 on a typical suckler carcase. On the ground, there are very few suckler farmers in Ireland who could not find at least €75 per cow by making a few changes within their walls.

Indeed, as the first of the profit monitor results for 2016 come out, it is evident that some farmers actually recorded better margins last year than in 2015, when slaughter price was higher.

Grassland is the glaring one. A kilo gained on grass is a cheap one and some of the best grass farmers in the country are growing three times as much of it as the average drystock farmer.

The vast majority of successful livestock farms on Ireland are built on the principles of optimal grassland management. Nine times out of ten, a good grass manager with average-quality stock will be much better off than a poor grass manager with the best stock around.

On the stock themselves, the challenge has demonstrated how shifting oneself from the average to top-performer bracket can reap big dividends. These figures for heifer calving age, calving interval and mortality are not a stretch by any means, but in fact are very realistic. The milk figures show what can be achieved with the right cow model.

Sometimes it is difficult to see these “what I could be achieving” figures as money lost – a function of the “happy with what I have” philosophy, perhaps. But, as farmers we are all business managers and a business manager’s job is to return as big a profit as possible and keep everyone above and below him happy. We, however, are the only business managers who get weekly access to and knowledge of exactly what their successful competitors are doing. Farm walks, the Irish Farmers Journal, conferences, newsletters; there is a wealth of information at our fingertips, should we choose to use it. The message is clear: measure, measure, measure – it is only then that we can benchmark ourselves against the best and begin to reel them in.

In closing, let it be clear that the €150/cow series is not a call to stop worrying about beef price pressure: it is a very concerning issue for all in the industry. What can we do about this? Very little. However, we pay levies on every animal we sell to groups whose job it is to lobby for better prices on our behalf. That is their job. Ours is to produce beef and when they need our help, we will give it.