The mood may be downbeat for beef finishers at present, but for those who are feeding cattle, it needs to be done right. These 10 tips should put you on the right track this winter.

1 Planning

The most important aspect of finishing cattle is to have a proper plan in place. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. First of all, you should decide what age you plan on slaughtering your animals. With the difficult beef markets at present, you need to give yourself every possible advantage and having cattle in-spec is very important. Best practice is to work out the target slaughter date and work backwards, planning for regular weighing and dietary adjustments along the way. The ad-lib system is suitable for short finishing periods of approximately 60-90 days for steers and heifers, and up to 180 days for bulls. After this, the weight gain in animals can drop-off.

2 Facilities

Ad-lib feeding should take place indoors at all times. It is not possible to get animals on a full ad-lib diet if they are at grass. Having animals indoors allows for the controlled feeding of concentrates and roughage. There is no correct facility for feeding cattle, but there are certain characteristics that a shed must have.

First and foremost, it needs to be safe and secure. Animals on ad-lib, particularly bulls, are both strong and heavy. Penning and gates should be equally strong. Facilities should also keep cattle clean. There is increased pressures coming from factories to have clean cattle, so whether it is slats or straw bedding being used, the pens need to be dry and free from large amounts of dung.

Animals also need space. Overcrowding will negatively impact an animal’s performance, as they cannot lie-out to thrive. However, too much space is also an issue in some sheds, as animals have too much room for activity. As a rule of thumb, large beef cattle need 2.5m3 to 3m3 on slats, and 4m3 to 5m3 on loose bedding. To minimise bullying and/or fighting, keep group sizes small where possible - perhaps six to eight animals per pen. Any ad-lib facility should be bird-proof, or at least the feed face should be bird-proofed to prevent feed spoilage and risk of harmful feed contamination.

3 Weigh regularly

It is vital to constantly monitor the performance of the cattle being finished. The first step in doing this is to measure the weight gain of the animal.

The target weight gain per day for animals during the finishing period is 1.8kg in bulls, 1.3kg in steers and 1.1kg in heifers. Whether or not animals are hitting their target daily gain is the best indication of whether your finishing system is working or not. If the targets are not being hit, something is wrong.

4 Feeding levels

On average, animals will eat about 2.0-2.2% of body weight per day in dry matter. Ad-lib feeding of bulls can reach up to 15kg/head/day of concentrates, while steers and heifers can hit 10kg/head/day and potentially even 12kg/day. Getting the absolute maximum amount of concentrates into an animal should not be the objective however, as you run the risk of digestive problems.

Generally speaking, 12kg/head/day is a good ad-lib feed for a bull, while 10kg/head/day is ample ad-lib feeding for steers and heifers. In practice, the cost of feeding steers and heifers ad-lib is prohibitive. Oftentimes, 7-8kg/head of concentrates and high quality silage is a better option.

5 Ration

The best ration for a farmer to buy is seldom the cheapest. It is the feed that is going to make an animal hit its performance targets and keep the animal healthy. The two key components to look out for in an ad-lib finishing ration are energy and crude protein (CP). Energy intake is the main determinant of liveweight gain of cattle. Therefore, maximising energy intake is important. For finishing cattle, we are looking at a minimum UFV of 0.92/kg, with a gold-standard figure of 0.98 UFV/kg. But since feed manufacturers are not required to print the energy contents of their rations, look for high proportions of maize and cereals. In terms of protein for finishing cattle, the aim is for 11-12% CP/kgDM. A ration should also contain buffer and yeast in the mix, to help prevent rumen problems. If self-mixing a ration, it is important to remember these key components and a specialist diet should be drawn-up. It is also vital to ensure the mix is consistent each day.

6 Diet changes

Following on from feeding levels and feed ingredients, the manner in which we build animals up to ad-lib feeding is perhaps the most important of all.

When talking about rumen health in a finishing animal, the main thing to avoid is acidosis. Acidosis is caused by a rapid lowering of the pH within an animal’s rumen, caused by a dietary problem. The pH within the rumen should be kept above pH6.

The best way to maintain rumen health is to avoid sudden changes of diet. Starting from a base of 3kg to 4kg per animal per day, increase the feeding rate by 1.5kg/head/day every four to five days.

As well as this, once you cross 4kg/head/day, cattle should be fed twice daily to avoid gorging. On the flip side, the build-up period can actually be too long on some farms, which results in time being lost.

7 Roughage

While concentrates are the main component of a finishing diet, they would be rendered useless without the correct inclusion of forage in the diet. When feeding meals ad lib, ensure that animals receive at least 10%-15% of their dietary dry matter as straw, hay or grass silage, in order to maintain rumen function. Ideally, if using a feeder wagon, forage should be chopped to a length of 5cm and included daily in a consistent total mixed ration (TMR) to reduce sorting. At the very least, ensure animals have access to this forage at all times.

8 Water

The most important component of a healthy diet is water. Water is the number one negative on Irish farms when it comes to ad-lib finishing. When talking about water, there are two factors: the cleanliness of water and the availability of water. A finishing animal eating 14kg to 15kg of dry matter will drink up to 60l of water each day. Drinkers should be big enough so cattle can stick their mouth in and drink freely – small bowl drinkers are not sufficient.

9 Minerals

The inclusion of minerals is not often thought of, but it is something that should be considered. Minerals can have a significant impact on the performance of finishing animals, with the potential to increase daily weight gain by 10%. The three major benefits that can be achieved through minerals is that they produce beef cheaper, produce better carcase weights and maximise liveweight gain. There has also been research to suggest that the effect of antibodies, administered through vaccinations, is amplified with the use of minerals in an animal’s diet.

10 Health

If an animal is not healthy, it will not thrive, regardless of how much feed it is being given. When addressing animal health, prevention is always better than the cure. With this in mind, a health plan should be put in place before and in the early stages of housing. Clipping backs and tails and using a lice pour-on is necessary. After this, several options must be considered with your vet.

Dosing for worms is recommended at housing and a booster for clostridial diseases is common practice. Where animals are being purchased in, vaccination for pneumonia should also be strongly considered.