Last week, the NISBP farmers undertook a study tour to Yorkshire, visiting farms focused on feed efficiency. The trip provided the opportunity to join up with farmers from the BETTER farm programme who are focused on similar objectives in terms of improving farm output, grassland management and animal performance.
One of the farms visited was that of Edward Rook. Edward runs a large-scale operation with multiple enterprises. These consist of:
1,400 acres of arable ground including barley, wheat, potatoes and maize.50,000 laying hens.24,000 free-range laying hens.40,000 ducks under a B&B arrangement for meat production.170 spring-calving suckler cows.300 store to beef cattle.The farm employs eight full-time staff, which includes Edward’s father and uncle, who are semi-retired, and his brother.
Edward and one full-time labour unit run the suckler and beef finishing enterprise with the remaining labour responsible for grain and hen units.
Herd background
With so many different enterprises to oversee, there is a necessity to keep the suckler herd simple to run.
The herd is purebred Stabiliser and some breeding bulls are sold annually. The purebred herd was established in 1999 with the importation of Stabiliser embryos from Montana, USA.
Cow numbers had been reduced to 140 females as recently as two years ago, as Edward wanted to carry out a heavy cull of unsuitable breeding stock and focus on breeding lines that would increase maternal traits.
Since then, heifers have been retained for breeding to build numbers to the current 170 in-calf animals due to calve in spring 2015.
Sires are selected on estimated breeding values (EBVs) and the entire herd is performance-recorded. Potential herd sires are selected on growth rates, but a strong emphasis is placed on maternal traits, such as milk and calving ease.
Heifers are bred to calve at 24 months and do so with little trouble. Although heifers have been kept for herd expansion, the actual level of females being culled for infertility or poor production is less than 10%.
Grassland
Grassland management is not a high priority on the farm. Grazing land is mostly rented and, as a high percentage is under parkland management, it cannot be reseeded or improved and fertilizer or FYM cannot be applied.
The only management permitted is topping. The land parcels that can be improved are reseeded and are set stocked.
Land rent is competitive in the area as there is added interest in the land from arable producers. Annual rent ranges from £120 to £200 per acre for productive grassland.
Without fertilizer, the grassland area is stocked to its limit at 170 cows plus followers. Cows are grazed in three groups to suit natural service with stock bulls. Heifers are also grazed in a separate group.
There is no set area for silage production. Silage is made if there is a large grass surplus, which is seldom given the low rates of fertilizer applied.
Instead, winter fodder is mostly made as maize silage. In addition, urea-treated straw is used as winter forage.
Land is free-draining and the farm is located in an area which is prone to drought. A small area of stubble land and a wintering pad are used for out-wintering cows.
Forage rape has been grown in the past in an effort to get more livestock manure on to land. Once grazed, land was levelled and direct-drilled with the next crop. Cows are housed for a maximum of 12 weeks to facilitate calving.
Cattle management
Cows and calves are turned out to grass within days of calving. Calves are weaned at six months of age at a minimum of 300kg liveweight, which is a daily liveweight gain of 1.44kg on the cow. No creep feed is offered until weaning.
Calves are not treated for worms over the summer. The first treatment is given at housing when weanlings are drenched for worms, fluke and lice and vaccinated for IBR. Cows are vaccinated for BVD and Lepto. The herd is also on a four-year test cycle for TB.
Bought-in stores are given a similar treatment as the weanlings. They are bought directly off-farm from known breeders in Wales and Scotland.
Edward has little interest in buying through marts. Cattle are weighed leaving the farm of origin and weighed on his farm and a price is agreed.
Typical purchase price is around £2/kg for stores. It is also a requirement that stores are vaccinated for IBR before they are purchased.
Approximately 80 stores are purchased in spring and taken through to finish over the summer on an indoor diet. The remainder are purchased in autumn and finished in early spring as bulls.
Finishing
Both bought-in cattle and bull weanlings are moved on to ad-lib feeding straight after housing. There is no adjustment period.
Bulls are finished at 13 months of age and sold into Morrisons under a Stabiliser beef scheme, which provides a premium on bulls slaughtered under 14 months of age and between 320kg and 370kg carcase weight.
Bulls on the farm typically range from 330kg to 350kg and are mostly R grading. Fat cover is not an issue. Daily liveweight gains are 1.8kg to 2.2kg/day.
The finishing ration is 4kg of barley, 1kg of beet pulp, 2kg of wheat distillers, 10kg of maize and 1kg of straw. Most of the ration is produced on-farm.
Bulls will consume 1.2t/head during the finishing phase. Break-even finishing costs, including paid labour and land rent, total £3.28/kg.
Last week, the NISBP farmers undertook a study tour to Yorkshire, visiting farms focused on feed efficiency. The trip provided the opportunity to join up with farmers from the BETTER farm programme who are focused on similar objectives in terms of improving farm output, grassland management and animal performance.
One of the farms visited was that of Edward Rook. Edward runs a large-scale operation with multiple enterprises. These consist of:
1,400 acres of arable ground including barley, wheat, potatoes and maize.50,000 laying hens.24,000 free-range laying hens.40,000 ducks under a B&B arrangement for meat production.170 spring-calving suckler cows.300 store to beef cattle.The farm employs eight full-time staff, which includes Edward’s father and uncle, who are semi-retired, and his brother.
Edward and one full-time labour unit run the suckler and beef finishing enterprise with the remaining labour responsible for grain and hen units.
Herd background
With so many different enterprises to oversee, there is a necessity to keep the suckler herd simple to run.
The herd is purebred Stabiliser and some breeding bulls are sold annually. The purebred herd was established in 1999 with the importation of Stabiliser embryos from Montana, USA.
Cow numbers had been reduced to 140 females as recently as two years ago, as Edward wanted to carry out a heavy cull of unsuitable breeding stock and focus on breeding lines that would increase maternal traits.
Since then, heifers have been retained for breeding to build numbers to the current 170 in-calf animals due to calve in spring 2015.
Sires are selected on estimated breeding values (EBVs) and the entire herd is performance-recorded. Potential herd sires are selected on growth rates, but a strong emphasis is placed on maternal traits, such as milk and calving ease.
Heifers are bred to calve at 24 months and do so with little trouble. Although heifers have been kept for herd expansion, the actual level of females being culled for infertility or poor production is less than 10%.
Grassland
Grassland management is not a high priority on the farm. Grazing land is mostly rented and, as a high percentage is under parkland management, it cannot be reseeded or improved and fertilizer or FYM cannot be applied.
The only management permitted is topping. The land parcels that can be improved are reseeded and are set stocked.
Land rent is competitive in the area as there is added interest in the land from arable producers. Annual rent ranges from £120 to £200 per acre for productive grassland.
Without fertilizer, the grassland area is stocked to its limit at 170 cows plus followers. Cows are grazed in three groups to suit natural service with stock bulls. Heifers are also grazed in a separate group.
There is no set area for silage production. Silage is made if there is a large grass surplus, which is seldom given the low rates of fertilizer applied.
Instead, winter fodder is mostly made as maize silage. In addition, urea-treated straw is used as winter forage.
Land is free-draining and the farm is located in an area which is prone to drought. A small area of stubble land and a wintering pad are used for out-wintering cows.
Forage rape has been grown in the past in an effort to get more livestock manure on to land. Once grazed, land was levelled and direct-drilled with the next crop. Cows are housed for a maximum of 12 weeks to facilitate calving.
Cattle management
Cows and calves are turned out to grass within days of calving. Calves are weaned at six months of age at a minimum of 300kg liveweight, which is a daily liveweight gain of 1.44kg on the cow. No creep feed is offered until weaning.
Calves are not treated for worms over the summer. The first treatment is given at housing when weanlings are drenched for worms, fluke and lice and vaccinated for IBR. Cows are vaccinated for BVD and Lepto. The herd is also on a four-year test cycle for TB.
Bought-in stores are given a similar treatment as the weanlings. They are bought directly off-farm from known breeders in Wales and Scotland.
Edward has little interest in buying through marts. Cattle are weighed leaving the farm of origin and weighed on his farm and a price is agreed.
Typical purchase price is around £2/kg for stores. It is also a requirement that stores are vaccinated for IBR before they are purchased.
Approximately 80 stores are purchased in spring and taken through to finish over the summer on an indoor diet. The remainder are purchased in autumn and finished in early spring as bulls.
Finishing
Both bought-in cattle and bull weanlings are moved on to ad-lib feeding straight after housing. There is no adjustment period.
Bulls are finished at 13 months of age and sold into Morrisons under a Stabiliser beef scheme, which provides a premium on bulls slaughtered under 14 months of age and between 320kg and 370kg carcase weight.
Bulls on the farm typically range from 330kg to 350kg and are mostly R grading. Fat cover is not an issue. Daily liveweight gains are 1.8kg to 2.2kg/day.
The finishing ration is 4kg of barley, 1kg of beet pulp, 2kg of wheat distillers, 10kg of maize and 1kg of straw. Most of the ration is produced on-farm.
Bulls will consume 1.2t/head during the finishing phase. Break-even finishing costs, including paid labour and land rent, total £3.28/kg.
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