Weighing cattle is a routine management task on the BETTER farms and provides valuable information on cattle performance.
As outlined in this week’s feature, weighing finishing cattle on a regular basis means that the farmers know how animals respond to concentrate feeding and, more importantly, whether or not they are gaining sufficient weight to cover feed costs.
Monitoring cattle weight gains in Co Armagh.
By regularly weighing animals, winter finishing is more efficient as there is less chance of over-feeding concentrates and not getting the performance response to justify the added cost.
Likewise, farmers can identify issues with cattle performance at an early stage.
With corrective action, this minimises any impact on carcase weight.
As the margins in winter finishing are minimal, farmers can no longer ignore the benefits from regularly weighing animals if they are striving to be efficient.
Cattle may appear to be performing visually, but a differential of just 0.25kg/day over a 180-day finishing period in young bulls will result in an extra 45kg of liveweight, or 27kg of carcase weight. Visually assessing cattle will not pick up such a difference in weight gain, whereas the weighing scales will give an accurate comparison.
Farmer focus: Mark Lewis, Co Armagh
Finishing cattle have performed well this winter and we started to draft cattle for slaughter back in December.
This is the last year I will have autumn-born bulls to kill as the autumn cows were slipped into the spring-calving herd to streamline management.
Having no autumn cows has definitely freed up a lot time to focus on other jobs, such as weighing cattle every month, as well as routine management and feeding dry cows and weanlings.
The first autumn-born bulls were slaughtered on 5 December, with two Limousin animals killed.
Carcase weights were 406kg and 444kg for both animals, with one animal grading U+3+ and the other grading U+3-.
Daily carcase gain
Age at slaughter was 14.5 months for both animals, giving a daily carcase gain from birth of 0.92kg and 1.01kg/day respectively.
Taking a beef price of 350p/kg, these animals generated a daily income of 322p and 357p/day respectively.
A Salers bull was killed on 14 January and weighed 406kg at 15.9 months, giving a daily carcase gain from birth of 0.84kg/day.
I have another eight bulls coming fit for slaughter, with all animals over 600kg liveweight at their last weighing at the beginning of January.
Four of these bulls are October-born, with the other four animals born in December.
Finishing diet
Bulls have been finished on ad-lib concentrates and first-cut silage to act as a fibre source.
The finishing ration is a high maize product and costs £228/t.
Therefore, assuming that bulls are consuming 10kg to 12kg/day of meal, along with high-quality silage, the ration costs £2.28 to £2.74/day to feed during the final weeks prior to slaughter.
Monitor weight gains
To make sure bulls are gaining sufficient weight to cover feed costs, they have been weighed monthly over the winter period.
Weighing regularly means I know if I am getting a return on the cost to feed an animal. This means cattle are more efficiently managed and there is no overuse of concentrates. Once weight gain drops below feeding costs, the bulls are offloaded as early as possible, provided they have adequate fat cover.
Store heifers coming fit for slaughter
Along with the autumn-born bulls, I have started to kill store heifers that were born in spring 2017.
So far there have been six animals slaughtered on 14 January. They averaged 315kg carcase weight at just over 21 months of age.
Carcase weights ranged from 272kg to 365kg, with three U-grading animals and three R-grading heifers.
The six heifers that have been slaughtered were finished on 0.5t of concentrates
Daily carcase gain from birth to slaughter averaged 0.5kg/day for the group, which at an average beef price of 350p/kg is a daily income of 175p.
The group was a mix of Charolais and Limousin-cross animals bought-in last summer to boost output.
I bought 12 store heifers in total last July, at an average of £704/head. They weighed around 300 to 350kg to match a group of 12 homebred store heifers that were unsuitable for breeding.
I would estimate that the remaining 18 animals will all be slaughtered by late February.
The six heifers that have been slaughtered were finished on 0.5t of concentrates.
The remaining animals have been on 4kg/day of ration and first-cut silage over winter, but I decided to up the meal to 5kg/day in the past week to give them an extra boost.
The store heifers have performed exceptionally well this winter.
Weight gains over the past month have seen the group averaging 1.35kg/day, which at 56% killout is a daily carcase gain of 0.88kg.
Yearling store heifers
I have 40 spring-born heifers on-farm that I will select potential breeding replacements from this year.
This group is also being weighed monthly to monitor performance and ensure that the heifers are well developed before going to the bull.
The heifers gained 0.91kg/day from early December and should reach their target breeding weight of 400kg to 450kg by May.
Maiden heifers have been on a diet of 2kg/day and ad-lib silage this winter.
Feeding spring-born bulls
There were 42 spring-born bulls born in 2018 that will finish in late spring.
These animals weighed just shy of 500kg on 7 January and gained 1.72kg/day of liveweight from the beginning of December, and 1.15kg/day from birth.
Silage quality is excellent, at 71 D-Value, 11.3 ME and 12.1% protein
The strongest bulls in the group have been on a daily diet of 7kg/day of a growing ration; with the younger, lighter animals on 6kg/day.
Along with the ration, the group has been fed first-cut silage on an ad-lib basis.
Silage quality is excellent, at 71 D-Value, 11.3 ME and 12.1% protein.
The group is due to be weighed around 7 February, and at this point the heaviest animals will be moved onto ad-lib concentrate feeding and pushed for slaughter by April to May.
Read more
Farmer Writes: under or over 16 months?
Dairy beef: a premium meat or a byproduct?
Weighing cattle is a routine management task on the BETTER farms and provides valuable information on cattle performance.
As outlined in this week’s feature, weighing finishing cattle on a regular basis means that the farmers know how animals respond to concentrate feeding and, more importantly, whether or not they are gaining sufficient weight to cover feed costs.
Monitoring cattle weight gains in Co Armagh.
By regularly weighing animals, winter finishing is more efficient as there is less chance of over-feeding concentrates and not getting the performance response to justify the added cost.
Likewise, farmers can identify issues with cattle performance at an early stage.
With corrective action, this minimises any impact on carcase weight.
As the margins in winter finishing are minimal, farmers can no longer ignore the benefits from regularly weighing animals if they are striving to be efficient.
Cattle may appear to be performing visually, but a differential of just 0.25kg/day over a 180-day finishing period in young bulls will result in an extra 45kg of liveweight, or 27kg of carcase weight. Visually assessing cattle will not pick up such a difference in weight gain, whereas the weighing scales will give an accurate comparison.
Farmer focus: Mark Lewis, Co Armagh
Finishing cattle have performed well this winter and we started to draft cattle for slaughter back in December.
This is the last year I will have autumn-born bulls to kill as the autumn cows were slipped into the spring-calving herd to streamline management.
Having no autumn cows has definitely freed up a lot time to focus on other jobs, such as weighing cattle every month, as well as routine management and feeding dry cows and weanlings.
The first autumn-born bulls were slaughtered on 5 December, with two Limousin animals killed.
Carcase weights were 406kg and 444kg for both animals, with one animal grading U+3+ and the other grading U+3-.
Daily carcase gain
Age at slaughter was 14.5 months for both animals, giving a daily carcase gain from birth of 0.92kg and 1.01kg/day respectively.
Taking a beef price of 350p/kg, these animals generated a daily income of 322p and 357p/day respectively.
A Salers bull was killed on 14 January and weighed 406kg at 15.9 months, giving a daily carcase gain from birth of 0.84kg/day.
I have another eight bulls coming fit for slaughter, with all animals over 600kg liveweight at their last weighing at the beginning of January.
Four of these bulls are October-born, with the other four animals born in December.
Finishing diet
Bulls have been finished on ad-lib concentrates and first-cut silage to act as a fibre source.
The finishing ration is a high maize product and costs £228/t.
Therefore, assuming that bulls are consuming 10kg to 12kg/day of meal, along with high-quality silage, the ration costs £2.28 to £2.74/day to feed during the final weeks prior to slaughter.
Monitor weight gains
To make sure bulls are gaining sufficient weight to cover feed costs, they have been weighed monthly over the winter period.
Weighing regularly means I know if I am getting a return on the cost to feed an animal. This means cattle are more efficiently managed and there is no overuse of concentrates. Once weight gain drops below feeding costs, the bulls are offloaded as early as possible, provided they have adequate fat cover.
Store heifers coming fit for slaughter
Along with the autumn-born bulls, I have started to kill store heifers that were born in spring 2017.
So far there have been six animals slaughtered on 14 January. They averaged 315kg carcase weight at just over 21 months of age.
Carcase weights ranged from 272kg to 365kg, with three U-grading animals and three R-grading heifers.
The six heifers that have been slaughtered were finished on 0.5t of concentrates
Daily carcase gain from birth to slaughter averaged 0.5kg/day for the group, which at an average beef price of 350p/kg is a daily income of 175p.
The group was a mix of Charolais and Limousin-cross animals bought-in last summer to boost output.
I bought 12 store heifers in total last July, at an average of £704/head. They weighed around 300 to 350kg to match a group of 12 homebred store heifers that were unsuitable for breeding.
I would estimate that the remaining 18 animals will all be slaughtered by late February.
The six heifers that have been slaughtered were finished on 0.5t of concentrates.
The remaining animals have been on 4kg/day of ration and first-cut silage over winter, but I decided to up the meal to 5kg/day in the past week to give them an extra boost.
The store heifers have performed exceptionally well this winter.
Weight gains over the past month have seen the group averaging 1.35kg/day, which at 56% killout is a daily carcase gain of 0.88kg.
Yearling store heifers
I have 40 spring-born heifers on-farm that I will select potential breeding replacements from this year.
This group is also being weighed monthly to monitor performance and ensure that the heifers are well developed before going to the bull.
The heifers gained 0.91kg/day from early December and should reach their target breeding weight of 400kg to 450kg by May.
Maiden heifers have been on a diet of 2kg/day and ad-lib silage this winter.
Feeding spring-born bulls
There were 42 spring-born bulls born in 2018 that will finish in late spring.
These animals weighed just shy of 500kg on 7 January and gained 1.72kg/day of liveweight from the beginning of December, and 1.15kg/day from birth.
Silage quality is excellent, at 71 D-Value, 11.3 ME and 12.1% protein
The strongest bulls in the group have been on a daily diet of 7kg/day of a growing ration; with the younger, lighter animals on 6kg/day.
Along with the ration, the group has been fed first-cut silage on an ad-lib basis.
Silage quality is excellent, at 71 D-Value, 11.3 ME and 12.1% protein.
The group is due to be weighed around 7 February, and at this point the heaviest animals will be moved onto ad-lib concentrate feeding and pushed for slaughter by April to May.
Read more
Farmer Writes: under or over 16 months?
Dairy beef: a premium meat or a byproduct?
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