Focus Groups are a key part of the Farm Profit Programme. At a recent on-farm meeting with one of the groups, a discussion was held around autumn calvers. The meeting host currently has a smaller autumn-calving herd that has up until recently been used as a source of replacements for the larger spring-calving herd.
With a move to calving all heifers at two months, the family are now looking at whether the autumn herd stacks up and asked the group members for their opinions on the future of the two herds.
The subject matter brought a very hearty discussion on the pros and cons of not only autumn-calving, but also the broader aspects of feeding cows and whether to calve at two or at 30 months.
Having covered calving age in a previous article, we will leave this for now. However, the broader picture for autumn calving is a constant debate in the industry, with many herds moving to spring calving.
This has the potential risk of creating a lumpy supply of cattle to the market. Our consumers would like to see sufficient volume of beef on the shelf for all 12 months of the year. However, should all herds become spring calving, despite differing finishing systems, this would still mean a large glut of cattle hitting the market at certain times of the year, followed by shortages at other times.
Table 1 demonstrates just how heavily beef registrations are loaded toward spring at present, with 63% of annual beef calf registrations taking place across March, April and May, while only 13% take place across August, September and October.
At present, the variation in genetics and finishing systems manage to keep the supply relatively level. However, there will come a tipping point should more businesses move to spring calving, meaning issues with the supply of beef to the retail shelf. Autumn calvers are often vilified for not being profitable enough when compared with their spring-calving counterparts, when the extra costs of feeding are taken in to consideration. At the meeting, the Focus Group was tasked with drawing out the costs and benefits of the autumn-calving herd.
The costs and benefits listed by the group are in table 2. below:
Addressing each of these points in turn for a 120-cow herd, either calving them all in spring or calving 60 in spring and 60 in autumn.
Benefits
Spreads the workload: Calving 60 cows in spring and 60 cows in autumn is far less daunting than calving 120 cows in spring. If each batch is kept to a tight nine to -12-week calving period, the workload is spread more evenly throughout the year. This is especially useful for those who are lambing ewes and sowing spring grain.Spreads the cost of bulls if spring and autumn calving: Our spring-calving herd will require four bulls to cover all 120 of the cows, while the split herd can manage to cover the same number of cows with two bulls. With a £5,000 bull costing around £50/cow over a four-year working life, using him twice a year reduces that cost by half.Spreads cashflow: Two calving periods means two sale periods. Agricultural cashflow is notoriously lumpy throughout the year, per year. Splitting the calving in two means a similar amount of money coming in overall, but at two different times in the year. This can help with budgeting.Lends itself better to use of Artificial Insemination (AI): As autumn-calving cows are generally inside during the service period, regular handling is simpler, meaning AI’ing cows is easier to do. This gives the opportunity to use superior genetics and also to be able to match cows to different bull types more easily.Lower disease risk as calves are born outside: One of the strongest antibacterial solutions available to livestock farmers is fresh air. Autumn calves are generally born outside, before making their way in later in the year. Outdoor births reduce disease exposure by giving the cows more space in which to calve, leading to a lower disease pressure. Autumn cow nutritional demands: Autumn cows also offer a different nutritional demand than spring cows. Firstly, they need to be well fed in winter and less well fed in summer. For those making better-quality silages, autumn cow diets are far more compatible with good-quality silage than dry spring cow diets are. After weaning, dry autumn cows can also be used to tidy up poorer-quality grass, maintaining better-quality grass for spring cows that are still suckling calves.Costs
Higher risk of mastitis: As autumn cows are generally being dried off in the summer, they are at a higher risk of catching mastitis. The loss of a quarter to mastitis means that she will underproduce when compared with a healthy cow. This either means that poorer calf performance is accepted, or a higher cull rate is required. Greater level of empty cows: Mother nature wants cows to give birth in the spring, into fresh spring grass and for milk production to tail off as days shorten. However, autumn calving works opposite to this and some cows are poorly adapted to this, often meaning a higher cull rate.Winter feed costs: As mentioned above, autumn calving occurs after the grass growth has peaked and grass quality is either disappearing or grass has disappeared altogether. With this, autumn cows need better-quality feed when housed than dry spring cows. An average autumn cow diet will cost in the region of 50p more per day than a dry cow diet.Temptation to give cows a second chance: Spring cows are generally scanned in late November/early December, around the same time that the bulls are being turned in with the autumn herd. It is often very tempting to swap empty spring cows in to the autumn herd, and likewise with autumn-calving cows in to the spring herd. However, often cows that have slipped once will go on to slip again, leading to calving patterns with calves born in every month of the year – a management and logistical nightmare.Conclusion
Looking at the above, the argument is actually fairly well balanced between keeping and losing autumn calvers.
While at industry level, 100% spring calving would cause problems with seasonal supply, this decision needs to be made at farm level. If your business is going to continue or increase the number of autumn calvings on your farm, are you going to be financially rewarded for doing so?
Knowing that your production costs are higher for autumn calvers, £100/head in the example above, it will come down to the cost/benefit of the system for your particular circumstances.
Of the six Farm Profit Programme focus farms, four have autumn-calving herds. After the initial reviews with all the farm businesses, only one farm, the Biffens at Arnage, have decided to go 100% spring calving. While cost of production came into consideration for this decision, the factor that swung it towards all spring calving was labour management. With a large arable aspect to the business, it was decided they didn’t have time to be calving cows in autumn.
Take the time to assess your own situation, get a handle on your cost of production for both herds and weigh up the pros and cons before coming to a final decision.
Focus Groups are a key part of the Farm Profit Programme. At a recent on-farm meeting with one of the groups, a discussion was held around autumn calvers. The meeting host currently has a smaller autumn-calving herd that has up until recently been used as a source of replacements for the larger spring-calving herd.
With a move to calving all heifers at two months, the family are now looking at whether the autumn herd stacks up and asked the group members for their opinions on the future of the two herds.
The subject matter brought a very hearty discussion on the pros and cons of not only autumn-calving, but also the broader aspects of feeding cows and whether to calve at two or at 30 months.
Having covered calving age in a previous article, we will leave this for now. However, the broader picture for autumn calving is a constant debate in the industry, with many herds moving to spring calving.
This has the potential risk of creating a lumpy supply of cattle to the market. Our consumers would like to see sufficient volume of beef on the shelf for all 12 months of the year. However, should all herds become spring calving, despite differing finishing systems, this would still mean a large glut of cattle hitting the market at certain times of the year, followed by shortages at other times.
Table 1 demonstrates just how heavily beef registrations are loaded toward spring at present, with 63% of annual beef calf registrations taking place across March, April and May, while only 13% take place across August, September and October.
At present, the variation in genetics and finishing systems manage to keep the supply relatively level. However, there will come a tipping point should more businesses move to spring calving, meaning issues with the supply of beef to the retail shelf. Autumn calvers are often vilified for not being profitable enough when compared with their spring-calving counterparts, when the extra costs of feeding are taken in to consideration. At the meeting, the Focus Group was tasked with drawing out the costs and benefits of the autumn-calving herd.
The costs and benefits listed by the group are in table 2. below:
Addressing each of these points in turn for a 120-cow herd, either calving them all in spring or calving 60 in spring and 60 in autumn.
Benefits
Spreads the workload: Calving 60 cows in spring and 60 cows in autumn is far less daunting than calving 120 cows in spring. If each batch is kept to a tight nine to -12-week calving period, the workload is spread more evenly throughout the year. This is especially useful for those who are lambing ewes and sowing spring grain.Spreads the cost of bulls if spring and autumn calving: Our spring-calving herd will require four bulls to cover all 120 of the cows, while the split herd can manage to cover the same number of cows with two bulls. With a £5,000 bull costing around £50/cow over a four-year working life, using him twice a year reduces that cost by half.Spreads cashflow: Two calving periods means two sale periods. Agricultural cashflow is notoriously lumpy throughout the year, per year. Splitting the calving in two means a similar amount of money coming in overall, but at two different times in the year. This can help with budgeting.Lends itself better to use of Artificial Insemination (AI): As autumn-calving cows are generally inside during the service period, regular handling is simpler, meaning AI’ing cows is easier to do. This gives the opportunity to use superior genetics and also to be able to match cows to different bull types more easily.Lower disease risk as calves are born outside: One of the strongest antibacterial solutions available to livestock farmers is fresh air. Autumn calves are generally born outside, before making their way in later in the year. Outdoor births reduce disease exposure by giving the cows more space in which to calve, leading to a lower disease pressure. Autumn cow nutritional demands: Autumn cows also offer a different nutritional demand than spring cows. Firstly, they need to be well fed in winter and less well fed in summer. For those making better-quality silages, autumn cow diets are far more compatible with good-quality silage than dry spring cow diets are. After weaning, dry autumn cows can also be used to tidy up poorer-quality grass, maintaining better-quality grass for spring cows that are still suckling calves.Costs
Higher risk of mastitis: As autumn cows are generally being dried off in the summer, they are at a higher risk of catching mastitis. The loss of a quarter to mastitis means that she will underproduce when compared with a healthy cow. This either means that poorer calf performance is accepted, or a higher cull rate is required. Greater level of empty cows: Mother nature wants cows to give birth in the spring, into fresh spring grass and for milk production to tail off as days shorten. However, autumn calving works opposite to this and some cows are poorly adapted to this, often meaning a higher cull rate.Winter feed costs: As mentioned above, autumn calving occurs after the grass growth has peaked and grass quality is either disappearing or grass has disappeared altogether. With this, autumn cows need better-quality feed when housed than dry spring cows. An average autumn cow diet will cost in the region of 50p more per day than a dry cow diet.Temptation to give cows a second chance: Spring cows are generally scanned in late November/early December, around the same time that the bulls are being turned in with the autumn herd. It is often very tempting to swap empty spring cows in to the autumn herd, and likewise with autumn-calving cows in to the spring herd. However, often cows that have slipped once will go on to slip again, leading to calving patterns with calves born in every month of the year – a management and logistical nightmare.Conclusion
Looking at the above, the argument is actually fairly well balanced between keeping and losing autumn calvers.
While at industry level, 100% spring calving would cause problems with seasonal supply, this decision needs to be made at farm level. If your business is going to continue or increase the number of autumn calvings on your farm, are you going to be financially rewarded for doing so?
Knowing that your production costs are higher for autumn calvers, £100/head in the example above, it will come down to the cost/benefit of the system for your particular circumstances.
Of the six Farm Profit Programme focus farms, four have autumn-calving herds. After the initial reviews with all the farm businesses, only one farm, the Biffens at Arnage, have decided to go 100% spring calving. While cost of production came into consideration for this decision, the factor that swung it towards all spring calving was labour management. With a large arable aspect to the business, it was decided they didn’t have time to be calving cows in autumn.
Take the time to assess your own situation, get a handle on your cost of production for both herds and weigh up the pros and cons before coming to a final decision.
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