Poor grazing conditions, particularly in the west, have resulted in a lot of cows being housed in recent weeks. It has resulted in many farmers taking the option of selling off culls and weaning the calf, rather than having to house both animals together.
However, as evident from the farm of Andrew Gardiner, featured below, the wet summer has meant cow body condition score and weight are well back on previous years on many farms. Some farmers could get a surprise when they actually see the weights of their cows once the animal has emptied out and goes through the ring in a local mart. What might have been considered a 700kg cow could actually be a 600kg cow on the day. With plentiful numbers of plainer types and under-finished animals passing through the rings, it is a buyers’ market at present.
Therefore, it is important to get cows weighed before a potential sale to assess just what might be the best route for these culls. A dry suckler cow is one of the easiest to fatten, as long as the animal is in good physical heath. A 60-day feeding period can potentially add 100kg and leave the cow in fat class 3 or 4 – much more attractive to buyers. A 700kg cow can potentially kill into £950 if properly finished.
Part-time farming
The other issue highlighted below is the challenge posed by part-time farming, particularly in a wet year, when reacting quickly to the weather is sometimes critical.
Where labour is limiting, it is vital to have a good infrastructure in place across the farm, which allows cattle to be moved with minimal effort.
Andrew Gardiner, Kilrea
Farming part-time has presented many challenges this year
Both my father and I work full time, with an average of 11 to 12 hours spent away from the farm on week days. We are currently running 55 spring-calving suckler cows, crossed to Shorthorn and Simmental bulls, with all progeny finished off farm by 22 months as steers and heifers.
Over the past two years, we have also established a dairy calf to bull beef enterprise with 45 autumn-born Holstein Friesian calves reared and then grazed for a summer before being finished by December at under 16 months. We also purchase store lambs for finishing each winter.
The lack of available labour means we try to streamline tasks as much as possible. Contractors are brought in to do work such as silage-making and slurry spreading.
Calving takes place over an eight- to nine-week period, which helps streamline routine cattle treatments and tasks, such as weaning, dosing or castration. Any major tasks normally carried out by us can really only be completed at weekends.
Very unsettled weather this year meant that where prompt action was required when moving or even housing of cattle, we sometimes just couldn’t get it done quickly enough.
Consequently, some paddocks were poached; grass utilisation was not ideal and, perhaps at times, animal performance was not what it could have been.
It has highlighted that we need to improve our farm set-up to minimise the labour required when moving stock. This summer, we have started this process, with fencing of field boundaries using sheep wire and also a start made on a network of high-tensile fencing wire to divide fields and facilitate mains-powered electric fencing throughout the main grazing block.
This should reduce the need for constantly moving electric fences. Water troughs have been relocated and some laneways extended, all with the aim of helping make it easier to shift cattle and ultimately improve grass utilisation. We are also in the process of installing cattle handling facilities on land situated three miles from the main farm.
Housed for finishing
Our spring 2015-born heifers and steers destined for slaughter this winter have all been housed over the past two weeks.
Average steer weight is back on last year by about 15kg to average 515kg just after housing. With lots of grass available during September, we probably kept them out a little longer than we should have.
Our first-cut silage is good (see Table 1) and almost identical to last year in terms of quality and availability. This will allow us to follow a similar feeding regime when silage was fed ad-lib along with rolled barley and minerals to both finishing cattle and housed weanlings.
Steers will be built up to 6kg of concentrate feed per day, with the aim of getting a good proportion of the heavier cattle finished before Christmas.
Cull cows
After scanning, our empty cows were first to be weaned and then put back to grass for fattening. They are coming in this week to be weighed and assessed for level of finish.
Where cows are not yet ready for slaughter, they will be fed first-cut silage and rolled barley indoors to achieve a short, sharp finish.
Weaning spring-born calves
Similar to the past two years, we have been weaning our spring-born calves at grass.
Calves are encouraged to forward-graze paddocks from August, and after eating meal for a few weeks, we gradually remove cows from the batches. This has worked well and has allowed us to keep young stock out later than would otherwise have been possible.
Cows and calves are weighed at weaning and a weaning percentage calculated. To date, cows weighed an average of 601kg, with calf weight corrected to 200 days averaging 289kg, leaving a weaning percentage of 48.5%. The ultimate aim is to get this above 50%.
One noticeable thing this year is the impact that the wet grazing season has had on cow condition. I would estimate they are on average half a condition score back from last year.
Fluke and worm dosing
Dry cows will be treated for fluke using Trodax (Nitroxynil) eight to 10 weeks post-housing. We will faecal sample and monitor body condition to see if rumen fluke also needs to be addressed, as this has been an issue in the past.
All finishing steers and heifers were worm-dosed pre-housing and treated with Fasinex (triclabendazole) two weeks post-housing. For these finishing cattle, we wanted to eliminate all stages of liver fluke as soon as possible. We also intend treating calves with Ivomec Super to kill worms and some mature liver fluke at housing, which will be followed with Trodax eight weeks later.
Week in review
Beef cattle housed for finishing in mid- to late-August are now being weighed to ensure performance on target.Gradual weaning is continuing on some programme farms.Silage analysis undertaken, with winter feeding plans being put in place.All programme farms in the west have the majority of their cows housed to avoid poaching.
Poor grazing conditions, particularly in the west, have resulted in a lot of cows being housed in recent weeks. It has resulted in many farmers taking the option of selling off culls and weaning the calf, rather than having to house both animals together.
However, as evident from the farm of Andrew Gardiner, featured below, the wet summer has meant cow body condition score and weight are well back on previous years on many farms. Some farmers could get a surprise when they actually see the weights of their cows once the animal has emptied out and goes through the ring in a local mart. What might have been considered a 700kg cow could actually be a 600kg cow on the day. With plentiful numbers of plainer types and under-finished animals passing through the rings, it is a buyers’ market at present.
Therefore, it is important to get cows weighed before a potential sale to assess just what might be the best route for these culls. A dry suckler cow is one of the easiest to fatten, as long as the animal is in good physical heath. A 60-day feeding period can potentially add 100kg and leave the cow in fat class 3 or 4 – much more attractive to buyers. A 700kg cow can potentially kill into £950 if properly finished.
Part-time farming
The other issue highlighted below is the challenge posed by part-time farming, particularly in a wet year, when reacting quickly to the weather is sometimes critical.
Where labour is limiting, it is vital to have a good infrastructure in place across the farm, which allows cattle to be moved with minimal effort.
Andrew Gardiner, Kilrea
Farming part-time has presented many challenges this year
Both my father and I work full time, with an average of 11 to 12 hours spent away from the farm on week days. We are currently running 55 spring-calving suckler cows, crossed to Shorthorn and Simmental bulls, with all progeny finished off farm by 22 months as steers and heifers.
Over the past two years, we have also established a dairy calf to bull beef enterprise with 45 autumn-born Holstein Friesian calves reared and then grazed for a summer before being finished by December at under 16 months. We also purchase store lambs for finishing each winter.
The lack of available labour means we try to streamline tasks as much as possible. Contractors are brought in to do work such as silage-making and slurry spreading.
Calving takes place over an eight- to nine-week period, which helps streamline routine cattle treatments and tasks, such as weaning, dosing or castration. Any major tasks normally carried out by us can really only be completed at weekends.
Very unsettled weather this year meant that where prompt action was required when moving or even housing of cattle, we sometimes just couldn’t get it done quickly enough.
Consequently, some paddocks were poached; grass utilisation was not ideal and, perhaps at times, animal performance was not what it could have been.
It has highlighted that we need to improve our farm set-up to minimise the labour required when moving stock. This summer, we have started this process, with fencing of field boundaries using sheep wire and also a start made on a network of high-tensile fencing wire to divide fields and facilitate mains-powered electric fencing throughout the main grazing block.
This should reduce the need for constantly moving electric fences. Water troughs have been relocated and some laneways extended, all with the aim of helping make it easier to shift cattle and ultimately improve grass utilisation. We are also in the process of installing cattle handling facilities on land situated three miles from the main farm.
Housed for finishing
Our spring 2015-born heifers and steers destined for slaughter this winter have all been housed over the past two weeks.
Average steer weight is back on last year by about 15kg to average 515kg just after housing. With lots of grass available during September, we probably kept them out a little longer than we should have.
Our first-cut silage is good (see Table 1) and almost identical to last year in terms of quality and availability. This will allow us to follow a similar feeding regime when silage was fed ad-lib along with rolled barley and minerals to both finishing cattle and housed weanlings.
Steers will be built up to 6kg of concentrate feed per day, with the aim of getting a good proportion of the heavier cattle finished before Christmas.
Cull cows
After scanning, our empty cows were first to be weaned and then put back to grass for fattening. They are coming in this week to be weighed and assessed for level of finish.
Where cows are not yet ready for slaughter, they will be fed first-cut silage and rolled barley indoors to achieve a short, sharp finish.
Weaning spring-born calves
Similar to the past two years, we have been weaning our spring-born calves at grass.
Calves are encouraged to forward-graze paddocks from August, and after eating meal for a few weeks, we gradually remove cows from the batches. This has worked well and has allowed us to keep young stock out later than would otherwise have been possible.
Cows and calves are weighed at weaning and a weaning percentage calculated. To date, cows weighed an average of 601kg, with calf weight corrected to 200 days averaging 289kg, leaving a weaning percentage of 48.5%. The ultimate aim is to get this above 50%.
One noticeable thing this year is the impact that the wet grazing season has had on cow condition. I would estimate they are on average half a condition score back from last year.
Fluke and worm dosing
Dry cows will be treated for fluke using Trodax (Nitroxynil) eight to 10 weeks post-housing. We will faecal sample and monitor body condition to see if rumen fluke also needs to be addressed, as this has been an issue in the past.
All finishing steers and heifers were worm-dosed pre-housing and treated with Fasinex (triclabendazole) two weeks post-housing. For these finishing cattle, we wanted to eliminate all stages of liver fluke as soon as possible. We also intend treating calves with Ivomec Super to kill worms and some mature liver fluke at housing, which will be followed with Trodax eight weeks later.
Week in review
Beef cattle housed for finishing in mid- to late-August are now being weighed to ensure performance on target.Gradual weaning is continuing on some programme farms.Silage analysis undertaken, with winter feeding plans being put in place.All programme farms in the west have the majority of their cows housed to avoid poaching. 
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