We are now into the eighth week of breeding (it started on 3 June) and three bulls will be removed from 98 cows in the week beginning 1 August after a nine-week breeding period.

During mating, I keep a close eye on activity and keep records of all observed heats. I want to identify any potential sub-fertility early. There were no major problems identified this year and, as a result, there is now very little activity.

I carry a spare bull on the farm, which can be used to cover any problems. Bulls are also swapped around the batches over the final two to three weeks of mating.

The Aberdeen Angus bull was removed from the heifers last week, six weeks after they had been synchronised and artificially inseminated. There have been a few repeats seen over this time, which should now be covered.

This year, these 21 replacement heifers were artificially inseminated with the Stabiliser bull Givendale Norseman on 10 June. This bull is from a high growth rate and an easy-calved maternal bloodline. His calving value, beef value and maternal production values are all in the top 1% of the breed, so he should produce some excellent future replacements.

Cow performance

Herd fertility has generally been good in recent years. In 2015, we had a calving index of 360 days and a reappearance rate of 80% by 390 days (80% of cows produced another calf within 390 days of calving). In 2016, there was a calving spread of seven weeks with 79% calved in four weeks and a calving index of 366 days. However, from 93 cows and 36 heifers put to the bulls in 2015, by 1 July 2016, there were only 106 calves on the ground (82%). This is well short of the industry target of 95 calves weaned per 100 cows mated.

It is easy to make excuses but seven cows, despite being in calf, were culled at weaning for poor production or functional traits. Taking this into account makes the figure a slightly more respectable 87%. Any losses are recorded and isolated.

To date in 2016, there has been no one major issue. I have a comprehensive health programme in place which is reviewed annually with our vet. Animal health is an area that needs to be improved. I am continuing to build herd numbers but most likely will not buy in any more female replacements, to help reduce the health risks associated with purchased breeding stock.

Although heifers have not yet been scanned, my experience of synchronisation and AI this year has largely been positive.

Heifers were handled five times in 10 days. They were kept in paddocks close to the yard and I fed them 1kg of concentrate per day over this period, mainly to help encourage them into the handling yard. Although the synchronisation programme I used was supposed to be fixed-time AI, this did not quite go to plan. I had seen half of the heifers bulling 24 to 30 hours before they were due to be inseminated, so I decided to AI them eight hours earlier than the rest. Time will tell if this was worthwhile or whether I would have been better just to stick with a fixed-time programme. A recent 10-day trip to the US with a group of farmers from the Stabiliser Cattle Company opened my eyes to the potential of AI. Despite the large-scale and difficult terrain they have in many areas, it seems to be no barrier to using synchronisation and AI. The farmers we visited described AI as “the lowest hanging fruit on the tree”.

At home, even though cows generally graze rented ground away from the main yard, this has encouraged me to explore how I can use synchronisation and AI more widely in future years. I want to capitalise on the rapid genetic progress that can be made by using top genetics.

Scanning usually takes place here on the day the bulls are removed. This has been useful in the past as it accurately identifies which cows are due to calve in the first few weeks. It also means if a group of cows scanned poorly I have the option of extending the breeding period for another cycle.

On the other side, it involves an additional handling of cows. In an attempt to reduce the labour requirement, I will delay scanning this year until early September. At this point, I can tie in a salmonella booster vaccine (Bovivac-S), as well as giving calves a second wormer and a pneumonia vaccine booster to prepare them for weaning in October.

At scanning, any empty cows will be marked for culling after weaning. Thinner cows will get fed intensively and then slaughtered. No matter how good a cow may have been previously, I will not tolerate any empty cows.

I need cows to work hard. If they are to stay in the herd, they must provide a suitable income to cover their annual costs – ideally that’s a weaned calf but, if not, they become a cull cow.

Young bulls

In April, May and June, 18 2015-born bulls were slaughtered. They averaged 376kg carcase weight at 13.7 months, giving an average carcase gain of 0.91kg per day.

At calving this year, I only castrated a quarter of the male calves and these were mostly Angus calves. I will castrate some of the poorer calves after weaning, which should leave approximately 30 bulls for finishing next year.

Finishing beef as young bulls, if they have the growth potential, is the most efficient way to market suckler-bred males. The Stabiliser bulls on this farm flesh easily and can grow rapidly, so with good management they can meet the market specification quite easily. I will spread finishing over a few months as it also helps hedge against a volatile beef price.

Forage

We made second-cut silage last week, which yielded well after eight weeks regrowth.

Ideally, we would have cut seven to 10 days earlier, but the weather has not been favourable.

I now have very limited room for any third cut, so will bale any heavy surpluses in early September. All silage aftermaths have now received 5t/acre of farmyard manure and will get 25 units/acre of nitrogen.

I am also planning to grow a 7ac crop of a rape/kale hybrid, which will be used for wintering 50 weaned heifer calves.

Out-wintering on forage crops is something we have done in the past. It is a good way to increase the forage output of the farm, while also providing a very healthy environment for the cattle.

Cattle coming off kale also tend to perform very well when at grass the following spring.

Having enough suitable land for utilising winter crops is a limiting factor here, but the field identified is appropriate. It needs reseeding which can be done next spring.

As we progress through the winter, the soil condition will be monitored and if it becomes too wet we will house the heifers for a short time, if required.