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Last week, BETTER Farm NI participant Ryan McDowell outlined his farming system at the first of the programme's livestock demos. Prior to 2016, Ryan was working off farm, but decided to leave his employment and return home to farm on a full-time basis.
However, for Ryan to make a wage, the farm system had to change from store cattle and lambs for finishing.
A suckler herd was established with a target of reaching 100 cows as soon as possible. After scanning this autumn, there are 99 cows and replacement heifers scanned in-calf for spring 2018.
Herd details
Cow type is different to the other herds in the programme. To suit land type and maximise stocking rate, Ryan purchases Angus-cross-Friesian calves from the same dairy herd every year.
The dairy herd uses New Zealand genetics, making heifers ideal to produce milk from grass as well as having good fertility to maintain a tight 10- to 12-week calving pattern. Cows typically have a mature weight of 480kg to 500kg liveweight. Angus and Hereford stock bulls have been used to serve cows, with some Limousin breeding used.
Male cattle are taken through to slaughter at 18 months of age. Steers are marketed under premium breed schemes, as the bonus available helps to offset the lighter carcase weights.
Heifers have generally been retained, along with additional bought-in dairy-cross heifers, to build breeding cow numbers as quickly as possible in the last two years.
24-month calving
Ryan calves heifers at 24 months of age to get calves on the ground as early as possible. By calving at 24 months, he also has fewer stock groups on farm, allowing him to carry extra cows (13% more cows) which increases farm output by approximately £50 to £100/ha.
Scanning results for 2017 had 39 heifers in-calf from 42 bred. The breeding season lasted 12 weeks in total. Dairy-cross heifers weighed 430kg at housing, with homebred heifers averaging 470kg.
AI was used this year and 22 out of 36 heifers held to insemination.
A teaser bull was used, but next year he will run with heifers earlier to stimulate heats.
As the cow herd reaches the target number of 100, Ryan plans to become more selective when choosing replacements. Until now, heifers have been retained purely to build numbers.
In future, a shorter breeding period is planned so that only the most fertile animals enter the breeding herd.
Second-calving heifers
One of the big challenges of 24-month-old calving is getting heifers back in calf. In Ryan’s herd, only two heifers have not gone back in calf over the three-year period since the herd was established.
As well as getting heifers to the target breeding and calving weight, management post-calving has played a key role in getting animals back in calf again.
Calving matches the start of the grazing season. Heifers go to high-quality grazing shortly after calving, which means they are on a rising plane of nutrition.
No concentrate is fed, but body condition is monitored to ensure they are not losing excessive condition.
The average calving interval of the heifers in the herd is 385 days, which will reduce as the breeding herd settles at 100 cows and culling policy becomes tighter.
Cow performance
Ryan’s focus is very much on maximising weight gain at the lowest possible cost. He wants cows that wean heavy calves from grass, not concentrates. He wants calves that gain weight, not cows.
An example of two first-calved heifers was outlined on the evening. Both heifers are settled in-calf again.
Heifer 705 is an Angus animal that weaned an Angus male calf at 315kg this autumn, giving a lifetime gain of 1.36kg/day.The heifer weighed 406kg, giving a weaning percentage of 75% of her bodyweight. A second Angus heifer weaned a Hereford calf at 281kg. The heifer weighed 423kg and weaned 66% of body weight.
By calculating a weaning percentage, he can identify the most efficient cows in the herd and those that are not performing can be marked for culling.
Mature cows
The performance of two cows that calved for the third time in 2017 was also outlined. Cow 503 is an Angus cow that weaned a Hereford male calf weighing 322kg this autumn. The calf had a lifetime gain of 1.41kg/day to weaning. The cow weighed 516kg and weaned 62% of her body weight. Over the lifetime of the cow, she has produced three calves in the herd. While the cow is not the biggest of animals, she is delivering in terms of output by weaning a total of 1,016kg of liveweight.
The second cow (506) weaned an Angus heifer at 243kg. The cow is much heavier at 628kg, meaning she has not been as efficient in Ryan’s system. The cow weaned 39% of her body weight this year. Over the three years she has been in the herd, cow 506 has 789kg of liveweight. Taking a liveweight value of £2/kg, cow 503 has generated £454 more in terms of output than cow 506.
As Ryan stated, it is only by keeping records that you can see where costs can be saved and output improved.
Milk is undoubtedly a key factor in driving the heavier weaning weights on farm.
Although cows are smaller than typical suckler cows, they are highly efficient animals producing heavy calves year on year.
While a continental bull would increase the sale options for the herd in terms of the live and finishing market, weight gains are unlikely to increase much beyond current levels.
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