Switching from continental to traditional beef breeds

In recent years, traditional beef breeds have experienced a resurgence in popularity, mainly due to specialist beef schemes offering a price premium.

At the outset, these schemes initially benefitted the store-to-beef finisher who was able to purchase a beef-bred animal from the dairy herd, often at a lower price than a continental beef animal.

The added premium compensated for a lighter carcase weight when finished. When factoring in lower feed costs from the ability to kill off grass, there was a profit to be made on these cattle.

Continental beef breeds still dominate suckling in Ireland, with Charolais and Limousin accounting for approximately 70% of beef breeding in the national herd. But there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of herd owners using traditional beef breeding on their herds.

Often it is merely to source an easy-calving bull for using on heifers. For others, it may be to try to breed good-quality replacements, or simply to reduce mature cow size. For some herd owners, the reason for using these breeds is to reduce input costs associated with finishing.

In Bready, Co Tyrone, Tynan Roulston manages 126 suckler cows and, over the past 10 years, has moved away from using Charolais sires to using Angus on the entire herd. The farm is primarily a one-man operation. Tynan’s father William still lends a hand for certain tasks and casual labour is employed for a few hours weekly.

Background

Prior to the change in breeding policy, the suckler herd consisted of 200 cows producing strong weanlings for sale through local marts. Cow type was predominantly Angus breeding, with cows sourced from the west of Ireland. Charolais stock bulls were used to produce fast-growing cattle and to maximise sale potential in the mart.

Around 12 years ago, William started to ease back from his role on the farm. Tynan was faced with a difficult decision that many farmers will have encountered. Either scale back in cows for a one-man operation, or employ a full-time labour unit. To generate enough income for another wage, there was the prospect that cow numbers would have to be increased.

Tynan decided that the farm would be better placed with fewer cows and just him running the business. While he was more than happy with the type of calf he was producing, he decided to re-think the future strategy of the farm and a low-labour requirement was central to this.

Like many farmers featured in this publication, Tynan has a young family and is keen to make as much family time as possible around the running of the farm. His young son James is already active on-farm, helping primarily with the sheep enterprise.

Spring calving suckler to weanlings was a simple system to operate. But to get heavy calves for the autumn sale, they were calving cows in February and March, which put pressure on housing and added costs to the system.

Only the lowland ground is suited to grazing in March, but is required for silage. The main grazing block on hill ground at 800ft above sea level, the grazing season was at best 150 to 160 days. Calves required large quantities of concentrate feeding also in preparation for sale. By reducing cow numbers, he was freeing up ground that could potentially carry home-bred calves through to beef. Having used Angus bulls on heifers, Tynan was confident there were enough Angus sires with top genetics that could produce good-quality cattle that would suit a grass-based finishing system.

Cow type

The thing that comes across when listening to Tynan is his logical approach to herd management and, more importantly, treating the farm as a business. Decisions are made having been properly researched and only if they create a positive difference, either in profit or reducing labour. He is definitely a farmer at the top of his game and the progress he has made in a short space of time is impressive.

The calving spread is one area that Tynan has focused on and detailed in Figure 1.

Back in 2009, cows calved over nine months of the year. This has been tightened, with 100 cows calving in April and May and the autumn cows calving in six weeks, from early August. In 2009, the calving interval for the herd was 409 days. By 2013 it was 359 days. In 2015, calving interval was 384 days as some cows were held back to start an autumn herd.

“Every cow needs to produce a live calf every year. Cows that had slipped in the calving spread were culled regardless of how they had previously performed or looked.

“I knew that the Angus animals would have a lower carcase weight and conformation grade than a continental breed, but having more live calves every year would mean the total liveweight sold off farm would be higher. Also, finishing cattle off grass would mean fewer cattle to be housed for a second winter, less silage and meal fed and fewer cattle to feed daily freeing up time.”

Cows are now a mix of Angus, Shorthorn, Stabiliser and Hereford. Replacement rate is around 20%, which is high for a suckler herd, but a higher turnover of cows means he’s constantly bringing better maternal genetics through.

I want a good, hard-wearing cow that can be put onto the hill and grazed until October without needing any supplementing with either silage or concentrates. Once cows go to the hill they stay there.

Cows are beef bred rather than crossbred dairy breeding. When asked why he chose to change cow type as well as the herd sires, the answer was simple.

“I want a good, hard-wearing cow that can be put onto the hill and grazed until October without needing any supplementing with either silage or concentrates. Once cows go to the hill they stay there.

“They have to be able to gain condition, rear a calf and go back in calf. Our continental cows struggled to do this. Cows were coming into the shed thin and had to be well fed to gain condition, which cost too much money.

“There is not enough income to feed the cow and finishing animal. Cows are now housed in BCS 3 and it is easier, and cheaper, to maintain this indoors with 25kg to 30kg of good-quality silage,” he explained.

Calving was moved back to April so cows could calve outdoors, on paddocks beside the yard. Calving outside reduced disease risk and helped to keep cows fitter, therefore reducing the number of interventions.

Heifers calve at 24 months of age on farm. Replacements are a mix of homebred and bought-in animals from known herds with a good health status. Buying in heifers helps to cut down the number of stock groups and brings some hybrid vigour into the herd.

Making the change

Changing the breed and type of cow is a slow process if it is to be done right. Tynan phased in the use of Angus bulls rather than going with 100% Angus in year one.

Angus bulls had previously been used and further bulls purchased as the Charolais bulls were being culled. A Stabiliser bull was also purchased to breed replacement heifers.

The gradual phase-out of the old system meant that he had not placed all his eggs in one basket. Moving from a weanling system to finishing system means that sales income is being pushed back by 10 to 12 months.

This is something that is often overlooked by suckler producers who constantly switch systems, trying to chase market price. If you do not plan a change thoroughly, it can decimate cashflow and put farms under serious financial pressure to pay bills.

The gradual phasing to Angus meant there were still suitable Charolais cattle on farm that could be sold live to bring income into the business when needed. In addition, the culling of cows brought in added income compared to selling a heifer weanling.

Being used to working with a continental breed such as Charolais, it can be a massive leap of faith for suckler breeders to move to using all-Angus breeding and a half-Angus cow. But Tynan was never in doubt about his decision.

You have to change your outlook as well as changing your breeding. Looking backwards will not make you any more money

“You cannot compare like with like. The Angus and Charolais are two very different animals. But if you have a good beef cow as a base, source top genetics when buying a bull, you will still get the weight onto the calf.

“You have to change your outlook as well as changing your breeding. Looking backwards will not make you any more money. I am in a better position today because I am producing more live calves per cow and selling more kilos of beef than I did five years.

“That is what I am here to do: produce as much beef as cheaply as possible and get the best price for it. My cows calve on their own and go back in calf faster than they used to. This again means more calves born per cow per year.

“I still look for similar traits in my Angus bulls as I did in Charolais. I want a good long bull, good shape and power, well developed loin and correct on his feet. The only difference now is I see calving ease as the most important trait.”

Tynan first and foremost picks the bull on visual assessment. If he likes the bull, pedigree and then any available performance information will then be considered. So far, you could not fault him on his choice of sire, as stock bulls are impressive animals and they are breeding excellent progeny.

Finishing system

Cattle are killed through the Tesco Aberdeen Angus Scheme, which requires carcase weights of 260kg to 360kg. Without such premiums, Tynan would reconsider his future in the current system.

“It is difficult to make money from conventional steer and heifer systems. Where we farm, we just do not have a long enough grazing season to produce enough weight off grass. Finishing 24-month steers on this farm would not be profitable.

“The Angus cattle can be killed at 18 to 22 months of grass at 310kg and R grade. Without the premium, I would have to go in a different direction to generate a margin that gives me a wage and allows for re-investing in the farm,” he said.

The tighter calving spread has been a massive help to running a profitable suckler beef system.

“It gives you bigger groups of cattle for sale at certain times, and they are more even, which helps me to negotiate a better base price with processors.

“It also helps to simplify management from my side of things. I know how many cattle will be killed in August and September off grass and how many will need to come in for a short feeding period,” he explained.

Another benefit to the system is now being realised by Tynan. Better genetics, batch selling of cattle and surplus forage allowed him to buy in extra Angus cattle for finishing this winter, which will further boost farm income.

Future plans

Tynan is always looking to improve his cattle, which he maintains is much easier to do when you have a settled system in place. He has recently sourced a number of pedigree Red Angus cattle in Scotland, as well as a new Red Angus Stock bull. His plans are to keep a small pedigree herd producing breeding stock for sale and for use within the herd.

Genetic improvement is an area he sees that further progress can be made. Increasing the average carcase weight from lower concentrate inputs and increasing milk in cows to wean heavier calves will be focussed on in future.

Cow numbers will remain steady.

“I could carry more cows, but I would start to run into times when I need more and more labour to help out with management. At the minute, I am able to keep on top of tasks such as breeding, calving and health, but with more cows, this might not be the case,” he said.