At the beginning of the Tullamore Farm project, it was decided that we would operate an under-16-month bull system. It was the system that was projected to deliver the most output for the farm and in turn maximise returns. Under-16-month bulls have been slaughtered over the last six weeks and the performance of a selection of bulls killed two weeks ago is outlined in Table 1.

It’s a tough trade, with factory appetite poor in general for under-16-month bulls over the past six weeks. There are just 20 bulls left to be slaughtered in the next two weeks. Performance has been good, with the bulls slaughtered in Table 1 averaging 1.55kg/day over the intensive feeding period and 1.45kg/day since birth. We might have liked a bit more on the ad-lib phase but I think it may be a function of calves having a high weight gain right through their lifetime so they are never going to see huge gains at this stage.

A gain of 1.45kg/day since birth is above target and we would be happy if this performance could be repeated next year.

The price, however, is a different story. It is well below target. This week’s bulls went out a base price of €3.55/kg, 50c/kg behind last year’s price, or €190/head down on last year for a 380kg carcase. If we compare it on a per head basis it is back €190/head on last year.

In order to break even and factor in what our weanlings were worth in the autumn, we estimate that €4.41 was needed for for these bulls to break even.

It is a big hit to take after putting 1.5t of meal into these animals. It is equally frustrating when you know that performance has been good and you are producing an in-spec product.

We know that bulls are high risk and that the market can only account for so many, but it’s disappointing that we are being asked to question the most efficient system that we can operate on the farm.

Steers

There have been suggestions that we should switch to a steer system and while this would be more in line with what processors want, the price being currently being paid for steers isn’t enough to forfeit the efficiency gains in the bull beef system.

We would have to drop cow numbers by 25 to make way for 50 steers grazing for a second season.

They wouldn’t all finish by the end of the second grazing season so housing would become an issue for the second winter on the farm.

We would be feeding our male progeny for an extra eight to nine months to achieve the same carcase weight.

At slaughter they would most likely drop a subclass or two, so again would be at a disadvantage in terms of the final price.

Not having a sight of the end price is a massive negative to any finishing system. If we had an idea of price or a minimum forward price, then an informed decision could be made around whether to go the whole way or not.

We know our costs so it would be an easy decision to make.

It never pays to jump in and out of different systems so we will stay the course for now and stick with the under-16-month system but we won’t rule out a change of direction in the future on Tullamore Farm.

Cow type

About 60% of the cows on Tullamore Farm are Limousin x Friesian. This is decreasing as the farm moves to keep more and more home-bred heifers.

There is a thought out there that as we focus more on milk and fertility, we will lose out on terminal traits such as carcase weight and quality. If we use the slaughter report from the bulls in Table 1, this isn’t the case.

The four bulls are by the Simmental bull AHC and Salers bull Ulsan, both high-maternal-index bulls, while also having good carcase characteristics.

While numbers are small, it still proves that high-replacement-index cows are capable of producing offspring that will both weigh and grade at slaughter time.

We will publish the full details of the 2019 bull slaughter at our open day on Wednesday 24 July.

Tullamore Farm Open Day

Preparations are in full swing for the Irish Farmers Journal/FBD Tullamore farm open day taking place on Wednesday 24 July from 11am to 6pm. This week the farm walk route was planned with a number of technical stands including:

1 Farm plans and financial performance.

2 Soil fertility and grassland management.

3 Cattle breeding, fertility and performance.

4 Sheep system, performance and mixed grazing.

5 Animal health plan.

There will also be a live sheep handling demo in different handling units including a live dipping demo in association with Bimeda. Journal vet Tommy Heffernan will be running animal health workshops in the yard area on foot paring, foot bathing and animal handling.

Health and safety will also be covered, along with other topics. For more information, see www.farmersjournal.ie.