Across the farms in the NI Suckler Beef Programme, a number are now finishing a proportion of their male calves as young bulls to maximise output from their cattle enterprises.
However, finishing young bulls is not for everyone, and before even considering keeping males entire, it is important to establish with your processor that there is a ready market outlet for your cattle.
Also, high-quality silage must be available to help keep costs down and all bulls must be finished at under 16 months to avoid the prospect of price penalties.
No doubt bulls are more efficient converters of feed. Bulls will give a 20% better feed conversion than steers, allowing them to be finished four to five months earlier than a 19- to 20-month steer system.
Better kill-outs will leave heavier carcase weights compared with steers, while grading will also improve. But is it profitable for a farm business?
The simple answer is yes – if the farm is already at a very high stocking rate.
But if the stocking rate is low, there is little point in moving to bull beef if it is just to replace a 20-month steer system.
The bulls will require higher levels of concentrate feeding and are therefore higher cost than steers, where grazed grass should make up a significant part of the overall diet.
If producing bulls, something else (for example more cows) should be on the ground to make up for the shortfall that would normally have been filled by steers in their second season at grass.
Across programme farms, most have found that autumn-born calves are best suited to a bull beef system, as the bull, once weaned, can go to grass for a number of months, before finishing by the end of the year.
However, in the case of John and Joe Milligan, outlined below, they are now moving to also finishing some spring-born calves as bulls.
This will allow them to keep more dairy-bred calves on the farm and increase overall farm output. Therefore, potentially, it is the right decision for this farm, but with a long winter feeding period ahead, the margins per head from bull finishing could be small. They are starting with a low number and will re-evaluate the decision next year.
Farmer focus: John and Joe Milligan, Castlewellan, Co Down
Finishing target of 360kg to 380kg at 19 to 20 months
All cattle due to be slaughtered over the winter are now housed. Our spring 2015-born (April) suckler-bred steers had been housed from early September. When last weighed on 16 September, they averaged 552kg. We are also finishing the remaining autumn 2014-born bought-in dairy-bred calves, which didn’t manage to finish off grass.
Silage has been analysed. The best-quality material (27.6% DM, 13.0 CP, 11.3 ME, D value 70 and intake 90), harvested as round bales in May, is being prioritised to finishing stock.
The target average carcase weight in the suckler-bred steers is in the region of 360kg to 380kg at 19 to 20 months.
To achieve this, they are currently eating 4.5kg of a high-energy 13% protein blend along with ad-lib silage. They will be built up to 7kg at slaughter to achieve an adequate fat cover. The aim is to keep them growing at 1.4kg per day from now until finish from early December onwards.
Replacement heifers
Heifers which had been born alongside these 2015-born steers were bred this summer to calve down at 24 months.
Similar to last year, we bred all of those available, with any surplus to requirements then sold off in-calf.
From a batch of 26 bulled this year, nine were sold scanned in-calf during September, with a further four due to go over the next week.
This has worked well for us. We have been able to get heifers moved on a few months earlier and with less feeding than would have been required if they had been retained for finishing.
Last calves to be weaned
There are just 14 of the 60 calves born this spring yet to be weaned. Most years, all would be weaned at this stage. However, good grass supplies, together with decent ground conditions here this month, meant we kept some with their mothers for longer.
We forward-graze all calves during late summer. Initially, this is by physically herding the calves under a raised electric fence or creep gate for a few weeks. But after this initial effort, calves very quickly all go for the fresh grass themselves.
This allows us to offer meal in troughs to calves pre-weaning. Along with gradually removing a few cows at a time from the batch, this helps reduce the stress and setbacks at weaning.
Those heifer calves now weaned are being offered 1kg per day of meal at grass. Calves have all been treated with a doramectin pour-on in early September. One of the cheaper ivermectin pour-on products will be used at housing to clean out any remaining worm burden. All calves are vaccinated for pneumonia.
Culls fed for slaughter
We look to move most of our cull cows on after calving, with their calves then adopted on to cows in the herd which can handle multiple suckling. A further two cows were culled this month after not proving in-calf.
They had been separated off and fed for three to four weeks at grass pre-slaughter.
Spring-born bull beef
For the first time, we are going to finish one batch of this year’s spring-born male calves as bulls.
Out of a possible 27, we have pulled off 12 of the heaviest which are now housed on good-quality silage and should be eating 3kg of meal by the end of this month.
The plan is to steadily build them up by 1kg per month to have them finished at 13 to 14 months next May/June.
The remaining steer calves are still at grass and eating 1.5kg of meal daily.
By moving these heavier males on faster as bulls, it will allow us to keep more dairy-bred calves in their place next summer, ultimately increasing overall farm output.
Although bulls are undoubtedly the most efficient way to finish cattle, it remains to be seen if it will be the most profitable. To this end, we are taking a cautious approach this year by finishing one pen of 12. We will re-evaluate the system next year.
Autumn calvers
After a number of years trying to tighten the caving pattern of our autumn-calving cows, this year they calved down over a 30-day period (31 July to 30 August).
There are 16 cows in this herd and we aim to increase it to 20.
With just two bull calves born in 2015, we have lots of replacements to choose from. We have 10 selected for breeding over the next month. These heifers have done really well after weaning last spring and are now averaging just over 430kg.
All of our autumn-calved cows are housed in preparation for breeding. They are being offered ad-lib silage along with 1.5kg of meal daily.
Calves are being allowed to suckle twice daily. We find restricting the suckling helps with getting these cows to cycle for breeding.
Week in review
Cattle housed in early September for finishing are being closely monitored to ensure target weight gains and level of finish is being achieved.Spring-calving cows are being batched according to condition score, with feeding levels restricted accordingly.Autumn-born calves are being given restricted access to cows. All observed heats are being recorded.Silage has now been analysed on all programme farms and used to determine best value winter feeding programmes.
Across the farms in the NI Suckler Beef Programme, a number are now finishing a proportion of their male calves as young bulls to maximise output from their cattle enterprises.
However, finishing young bulls is not for everyone, and before even considering keeping males entire, it is important to establish with your processor that there is a ready market outlet for your cattle.
Also, high-quality silage must be available to help keep costs down and all bulls must be finished at under 16 months to avoid the prospect of price penalties.
No doubt bulls are more efficient converters of feed. Bulls will give a 20% better feed conversion than steers, allowing them to be finished four to five months earlier than a 19- to 20-month steer system.
Better kill-outs will leave heavier carcase weights compared with steers, while grading will also improve. But is it profitable for a farm business?
The simple answer is yes – if the farm is already at a very high stocking rate.
But if the stocking rate is low, there is little point in moving to bull beef if it is just to replace a 20-month steer system.
The bulls will require higher levels of concentrate feeding and are therefore higher cost than steers, where grazed grass should make up a significant part of the overall diet.
If producing bulls, something else (for example more cows) should be on the ground to make up for the shortfall that would normally have been filled by steers in their second season at grass.
Across programme farms, most have found that autumn-born calves are best suited to a bull beef system, as the bull, once weaned, can go to grass for a number of months, before finishing by the end of the year.
However, in the case of John and Joe Milligan, outlined below, they are now moving to also finishing some spring-born calves as bulls.
This will allow them to keep more dairy-bred calves on the farm and increase overall farm output. Therefore, potentially, it is the right decision for this farm, but with a long winter feeding period ahead, the margins per head from bull finishing could be small. They are starting with a low number and will re-evaluate the decision next year.
Farmer focus: John and Joe Milligan, Castlewellan, Co Down
Finishing target of 360kg to 380kg at 19 to 20 months
All cattle due to be slaughtered over the winter are now housed. Our spring 2015-born (April) suckler-bred steers had been housed from early September. When last weighed on 16 September, they averaged 552kg. We are also finishing the remaining autumn 2014-born bought-in dairy-bred calves, which didn’t manage to finish off grass.
Silage has been analysed. The best-quality material (27.6% DM, 13.0 CP, 11.3 ME, D value 70 and intake 90), harvested as round bales in May, is being prioritised to finishing stock.
The target average carcase weight in the suckler-bred steers is in the region of 360kg to 380kg at 19 to 20 months.
To achieve this, they are currently eating 4.5kg of a high-energy 13% protein blend along with ad-lib silage. They will be built up to 7kg at slaughter to achieve an adequate fat cover. The aim is to keep them growing at 1.4kg per day from now until finish from early December onwards.
Replacement heifers
Heifers which had been born alongside these 2015-born steers were bred this summer to calve down at 24 months.
Similar to last year, we bred all of those available, with any surplus to requirements then sold off in-calf.
From a batch of 26 bulled this year, nine were sold scanned in-calf during September, with a further four due to go over the next week.
This has worked well for us. We have been able to get heifers moved on a few months earlier and with less feeding than would have been required if they had been retained for finishing.
Last calves to be weaned
There are just 14 of the 60 calves born this spring yet to be weaned. Most years, all would be weaned at this stage. However, good grass supplies, together with decent ground conditions here this month, meant we kept some with their mothers for longer.
We forward-graze all calves during late summer. Initially, this is by physically herding the calves under a raised electric fence or creep gate for a few weeks. But after this initial effort, calves very quickly all go for the fresh grass themselves.
This allows us to offer meal in troughs to calves pre-weaning. Along with gradually removing a few cows at a time from the batch, this helps reduce the stress and setbacks at weaning.
Those heifer calves now weaned are being offered 1kg per day of meal at grass. Calves have all been treated with a doramectin pour-on in early September. One of the cheaper ivermectin pour-on products will be used at housing to clean out any remaining worm burden. All calves are vaccinated for pneumonia.
Culls fed for slaughter
We look to move most of our cull cows on after calving, with their calves then adopted on to cows in the herd which can handle multiple suckling. A further two cows were culled this month after not proving in-calf.
They had been separated off and fed for three to four weeks at grass pre-slaughter.
Spring-born bull beef
For the first time, we are going to finish one batch of this year’s spring-born male calves as bulls.
Out of a possible 27, we have pulled off 12 of the heaviest which are now housed on good-quality silage and should be eating 3kg of meal by the end of this month.
The plan is to steadily build them up by 1kg per month to have them finished at 13 to 14 months next May/June.
The remaining steer calves are still at grass and eating 1.5kg of meal daily.
By moving these heavier males on faster as bulls, it will allow us to keep more dairy-bred calves in their place next summer, ultimately increasing overall farm output.
Although bulls are undoubtedly the most efficient way to finish cattle, it remains to be seen if it will be the most profitable. To this end, we are taking a cautious approach this year by finishing one pen of 12. We will re-evaluate the system next year.
Autumn calvers
After a number of years trying to tighten the caving pattern of our autumn-calving cows, this year they calved down over a 30-day period (31 July to 30 August).
There are 16 cows in this herd and we aim to increase it to 20.
With just two bull calves born in 2015, we have lots of replacements to choose from. We have 10 selected for breeding over the next month. These heifers have done really well after weaning last spring and are now averaging just over 430kg.
All of our autumn-calved cows are housed in preparation for breeding. They are being offered ad-lib silage along with 1.5kg of meal daily.
Calves are being allowed to suckle twice daily. We find restricting the suckling helps with getting these cows to cycle for breeding.
Week in review
Cattle housed in early September for finishing are being closely monitored to ensure target weight gains and level of finish is being achieved.Spring-calving cows are being batched according to condition score, with feeding levels restricted accordingly.Autumn-born calves are being given restricted access to cows. All observed heats are being recorded.Silage has now been analysed on all programme farms and used to determine best value winter feeding programmes. 
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