You can have the highest price per kilogramme when you are selling your weanling cattle, but it is of little benefit if you do not have animals with enough weight to generate a sale value that covers all costs of production. Weanlings must have weight for the system to make a profit.
This is the opinion of Niall Patterson who farms alongside his mother, Jane, close to Carrigallen, Co Leitrim.
The Pattersons operate a 32-cow suckler herd on 28.9 adjusted hectares of grassland. The herd calves from December to May, with a calving interval in 2013 of 384 days.
Land type is a major factor in restricting farm development and output. Heavy soils limit the livestock carrying capacity, so calves are sold as weanlings because the land is not suitable for carrying large numbers of forward stores.
A flock of 70 ewes has also been built up over the past few years to increase farm output. The farm has a stocking rate of 1.72LU/ha and produced 465kg liveweight per hectare last year. The farm has a target output of 600kg liveweight per hectare to achieve by 2016.
Tackling the calving pattern is the main method identified to achieve that goal. Increasing the herd size is not a realistic option until further land improvements are made.
Niall targets the autumn weanling sales for marketing his cattle. As he uses a mix of Blue and Limousin sires, through AI and natural service, there a number of calves that are of export quality.
The late spring born calves are dragging down the farm output and profit of the herd, as they are too light to be sold in autumn and have to be carried over winter, therefore increasing costs. Due to limited grazing opportunities and cash flow, these cattle normally have to be sold by March.
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Table 1 outlines the monthly calving spread on the farm. Niall wants to move all calving into a window of December to late February. Currently, there are 15 cows calving over the months of March, April and May, which will have to be tightened up gradually each year.
Practices such as priority grazing, improved nutrition and separating the cow and calf will be adopted to try and bring cows forward in the calving period. Advice from farm adviser Tom Coll and his programme adviser will be crucial to achieve this.
Although easier said than done, the profitability of the farm will not improve unless the calving dates of these animals are moved forward.
The alternative is selling the cow at weaning and replacing with an in-calf heifer/cow that will calve in the desired period.
As lack of milk is becoming an issue in the herd this is an option that may need to be considered fully by Niall.
Currently, replacements are bred on the farm and finding suitably proven, maternal Limousin bulls that will not compromise calf quality is an issue for Niall.
Taking a daily liveweight gain of 1.3kg/day, from 1 March, 1 April and 1 May, until a potential sale date of 1 November and allowing for a 45kg birth weight, the average calf weights are:
1 March = 364kg1 April = 323kg1 May = 284kg.Moving these animals to a 1 February calving date increases the potential sale weight to 400kg. At a target sale value of €2.50/kg, there is a difference of €290 in the sale value between a weanling sold at 400kg and a weanling at 284kg on 1 November.
Niall has moved to selling his bull weanlings at a minimum of 400kg and heifers at a minimum of 360kg by 10 months of age. Bull weanlings sold in October this year met the target and averaged €1,080 per head.
Another option for increasing output and income is to carry the late spring born heifers over the winter.
Traditionally, these animals are sold in February through the mart. Selling at this time of year needs careful budgeting of the production costs involved, as the winter period is the most expensive part of the system and the liveweight gain on heifers will realistically be around 0.5kg/day over this period. There is little point in overwintering an animal to sell below the cost of production.
There are seven heifers on the farm to be carried over winter in 2013 and they weigh approximately 300kg at present. Selling on 1 March will result in an average sale weight of approximately 350kg, at a daily gain of 0.5kg liveweight/day. Over a 100-day winter, feeding a daily diet of 20kg of silage and 3kg of ration will cost €118 per head.
But if these animals are able to get back to grass on his drier land for a period of 80 days, from early March, the sale weight of the heifers could be increased by 80kg to 420kg liveweight.
At a grazing cost of 5c/kg DM, the grazing costs over the 80 days would amount to €30. The heifers would be marketed at a time when there is traditionally demand for grass cattle and replacement heifers.
Feeding weanlings
A group of 10 April and May born bulls weighing 360kg liveweight are currently housed with a planned sale date of late December. The bulls are being offered a daily diet of 4kg of concentrates and 15kg silage.
The silage was analysed and has a DMD of 70%, along with a protein level of 13.4%. Dry matter is low at 20% and the silage cost €20/tonne to produce.
The ration cost €260/tonne and consists of barley, distillers, maize meal and soya hulls, with a crude protein of 16%. The daily feed cost for bulls is €1.34 per day and the target daily liveweight gain is a minimum of 1kg.
Feeding cows
As the cows are calving indoors in mid-winter, they will have a higher feeding cost than cows calving in March and getting back to grass shortly afterwards. But the land type and system dictate when cows calve on the farm.
Niall feels that calving in August and September does not suit his farm as he does not have the required housing space to carry 32 cows and calves indoors all winter.
As the cows would also be on ad-lib silage throughout the winter, getting sufficient quantities of silage cut would be another issue for the farm. Instead, calving from December onwards is a fair compromise for his system.
Dry cows have been housed in body condition scores of 2.5+, with some cows up on BCS 3.5. They are being fed restricted silage and straw. Mature cow size on the farm is 620kg liveweight, so dry cows are eating approximately 30kg silage and 2kg of straw which is costing 72c/day. Dry cow minerals are fed from six weeks pre-calving.
Once calved, the cows will move onto ad-lib first cut silage and 2kg/day of concentrates.
The concentrates will be fed until the early calving cow has settled back in-calf. For the later calving cows, concentrates will be removed from the diet once the animal has gone back to grass.
The daily feed cost for the December/January calving cow, consuming 45kg of silage and 2kg of meal, is €1.42/head.
Farm aims
Niall is clear on what he wants to achieve for his farm through the BETTER farm programme, which is:
tightening the calving period to a three-month spread from December to February;increasing the average sale weight of his weanlings to 400kg for bulls and 360kg for heifers;increasing the milk in cows so that weaning weights rise. He aims to increase daily liveweight gain to 1.4kg/day to 1.5kg/day through the improved milk yield.
You can have the highest price per kilogramme when you are selling your weanling cattle, but it is of little benefit if you do not have animals with enough weight to generate a sale value that covers all costs of production. Weanlings must have weight for the system to make a profit.
This is the opinion of Niall Patterson who farms alongside his mother, Jane, close to Carrigallen, Co Leitrim.
The Pattersons operate a 32-cow suckler herd on 28.9 adjusted hectares of grassland. The herd calves from December to May, with a calving interval in 2013 of 384 days.
Land type is a major factor in restricting farm development and output. Heavy soils limit the livestock carrying capacity, so calves are sold as weanlings because the land is not suitable for carrying large numbers of forward stores.
A flock of 70 ewes has also been built up over the past few years to increase farm output. The farm has a stocking rate of 1.72LU/ha and produced 465kg liveweight per hectare last year. The farm has a target output of 600kg liveweight per hectare to achieve by 2016.
Tackling the calving pattern is the main method identified to achieve that goal. Increasing the herd size is not a realistic option until further land improvements are made.
Niall targets the autumn weanling sales for marketing his cattle. As he uses a mix of Blue and Limousin sires, through AI and natural service, there a number of calves that are of export quality.
The late spring born calves are dragging down the farm output and profit of the herd, as they are too light to be sold in autumn and have to be carried over winter, therefore increasing costs. Due to limited grazing opportunities and cash flow, these cattle normally have to be sold by March.
||PIC2||
Table 1 outlines the monthly calving spread on the farm. Niall wants to move all calving into a window of December to late February. Currently, there are 15 cows calving over the months of March, April and May, which will have to be tightened up gradually each year.
Practices such as priority grazing, improved nutrition and separating the cow and calf will be adopted to try and bring cows forward in the calving period. Advice from farm adviser Tom Coll and his programme adviser will be crucial to achieve this.
Although easier said than done, the profitability of the farm will not improve unless the calving dates of these animals are moved forward.
The alternative is selling the cow at weaning and replacing with an in-calf heifer/cow that will calve in the desired period.
As lack of milk is becoming an issue in the herd this is an option that may need to be considered fully by Niall.
Currently, replacements are bred on the farm and finding suitably proven, maternal Limousin bulls that will not compromise calf quality is an issue for Niall.
Taking a daily liveweight gain of 1.3kg/day, from 1 March, 1 April and 1 May, until a potential sale date of 1 November and allowing for a 45kg birth weight, the average calf weights are:
1 March = 364kg1 April = 323kg1 May = 284kg.Moving these animals to a 1 February calving date increases the potential sale weight to 400kg. At a target sale value of €2.50/kg, there is a difference of €290 in the sale value between a weanling sold at 400kg and a weanling at 284kg on 1 November.
Niall has moved to selling his bull weanlings at a minimum of 400kg and heifers at a minimum of 360kg by 10 months of age. Bull weanlings sold in October this year met the target and averaged €1,080 per head.
Another option for increasing output and income is to carry the late spring born heifers over the winter.
Traditionally, these animals are sold in February through the mart. Selling at this time of year needs careful budgeting of the production costs involved, as the winter period is the most expensive part of the system and the liveweight gain on heifers will realistically be around 0.5kg/day over this period. There is little point in overwintering an animal to sell below the cost of production.
There are seven heifers on the farm to be carried over winter in 2013 and they weigh approximately 300kg at present. Selling on 1 March will result in an average sale weight of approximately 350kg, at a daily gain of 0.5kg liveweight/day. Over a 100-day winter, feeding a daily diet of 20kg of silage and 3kg of ration will cost €118 per head.
But if these animals are able to get back to grass on his drier land for a period of 80 days, from early March, the sale weight of the heifers could be increased by 80kg to 420kg liveweight.
At a grazing cost of 5c/kg DM, the grazing costs over the 80 days would amount to €30. The heifers would be marketed at a time when there is traditionally demand for grass cattle and replacement heifers.
Feeding weanlings
A group of 10 April and May born bulls weighing 360kg liveweight are currently housed with a planned sale date of late December. The bulls are being offered a daily diet of 4kg of concentrates and 15kg silage.
The silage was analysed and has a DMD of 70%, along with a protein level of 13.4%. Dry matter is low at 20% and the silage cost €20/tonne to produce.
The ration cost €260/tonne and consists of barley, distillers, maize meal and soya hulls, with a crude protein of 16%. The daily feed cost for bulls is €1.34 per day and the target daily liveweight gain is a minimum of 1kg.
Feeding cows
As the cows are calving indoors in mid-winter, they will have a higher feeding cost than cows calving in March and getting back to grass shortly afterwards. But the land type and system dictate when cows calve on the farm.
Niall feels that calving in August and September does not suit his farm as he does not have the required housing space to carry 32 cows and calves indoors all winter.
As the cows would also be on ad-lib silage throughout the winter, getting sufficient quantities of silage cut would be another issue for the farm. Instead, calving from December onwards is a fair compromise for his system.
Dry cows have been housed in body condition scores of 2.5+, with some cows up on BCS 3.5. They are being fed restricted silage and straw. Mature cow size on the farm is 620kg liveweight, so dry cows are eating approximately 30kg silage and 2kg of straw which is costing 72c/day. Dry cow minerals are fed from six weeks pre-calving.
Once calved, the cows will move onto ad-lib first cut silage and 2kg/day of concentrates.
The concentrates will be fed until the early calving cow has settled back in-calf. For the later calving cows, concentrates will be removed from the diet once the animal has gone back to grass.
The daily feed cost for the December/January calving cow, consuming 45kg of silage and 2kg of meal, is €1.42/head.
Farm aims
Niall is clear on what he wants to achieve for his farm through the BETTER farm programme, which is:
tightening the calving period to a three-month spread from December to February;increasing the average sale weight of his weanlings to 400kg for bulls and 360kg for heifers;increasing the milk in cows so that weaning weights rise. He aims to increase daily liveweight gain to 1.4kg/day to 1.5kg/day through the improved milk yield. 
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