Oliver McKenna, Eskra, Co Tyrone

System

Oliver’s target has been to get 60 calves on the ground annually from approximately 30 spring- and 30 autumn-calving cows. The system mainly finishes male calves as bulls under 16 months of age.

Heifers not retained as replacements are sold in-calf at 18 months or slaughtered by 20 months. A small number of steers bred from traditional breeds, such as Hereford or Angus, are slaughtered by 20 months of age.

Performance and improvements

Increased herd profit is being driven by a closed herd breeding programme using proven AI sires. Limousin cows are crossed to Hereford, Angus and Salers sires to maximise hybrid vigour.

Cows are fertile, with excellent maternal traits while retaining high levels of weight gain and conformation. Cows had a calving interval of 364 days in 2017.

In 2017, bulls averaged 374kg carcase weight at 15.2 months old, so there is room for improvement by reducing age at slaughter.

Average weight gain of bulls pre-weaning in 2017 was 1.2kg/day without creep. Limited housing space has meant bull calves remain at grass too late into autumn. In future, introducing creep feed in late summer will increase late-season performance and housing weight, which, when combined with high-quality forage, will help reduce slaughter age.

Declan Rafferty and Aidan Quinn, Pomeroy, Co Tyrone

System

Major changes to herd management over the last four years are now bearing fruit. The herd now comprises 80 spring-calving and 20 autumn-calving cows using Simmental x Limousin x Stabiliser genetics.

Replacement heifers entering the herd in 2018 are all homebred. All male cattle will be finished as under-16 month bulls.

Surplus heifers will be slaughtered at 20 months or sold for further breeding this year. To increase output, dairy heifers are now being contract-reared to supplement the suckler enterprise. This has helped raise the farm’s stocking rate to 2.22 CE/ha.

Performance and improvements

Grassland management is excellent and average growth exceeded 10.5t DM/ha last year. But there is still huge potential to be delivered from livestock.

Despite excellent cow fertility (with a calving interval of 368 days), mortality was high, with 14 cattle across different age groups being lost because of various reasons.

Mortality is too high and needs to be addressed if the farm is to realise it’s full potential in terms of profit.

With multiple enterprises on farm, additional labour is now available. This will ease the workload and allow herd management to be prioritised at key periods of the year.

Carcase weights for bulls can also improve, having averaged 340kg last year and masked by high beef prices during May 2017.

There is also potential to market heifers earlier for breeding.

Fionbharr Hamill, Raholp, Downpatrick, Co Down

System

The farm traditionally operated spring- and autumn-calving suckler herds, taking steers through to slaughter at 30 months.

Cows are a mixture of traditional and continental breeding, with Angus and Charolais bulls used in recent years. Calving pattern was too spread out, particularly in the autumn herd.

To simplify management, all calving will now take place in spring. Calf performance pre-weaning has been good, with males averaging 1.28kg/day and heifers 1.18kg/day.

However, the milking ability of future replacements could be an issue. Limousin-cross-Holstein Friesian heifer calves have been purchased to rear for breeding and AI is also being used to maintain maternal traits.

Performance and improvements

The target is to finish steers by 20 months at carcase weights averaging 360kg. For this to happen, performance from grass must improve for cattle in their second grazing season. A structured paddock grazing system was established in 2017 to maximise performance at grass, which will help increase stocking rate from 1.79 CE/ha. Cow numbers are building to 110, but further increases in output will come from rearing dairy calves to beef.

Changing to overwintering cows on kale and forage rape has been successful and increased grazing covers for early turnout.

Rather than produce 100% Angus-sired calves for the premium breed schemes, Fionbharr will increase market options from using some Limousin and Charolais sires this year.

Paul Jamison, Blackscull, Dromore, Co Down

System

The farm carries an intensive suckler calf to bull beef system, which is operated on a part-time basis. Plans are in place to carry 70 cows this year across 40.2ha, the majority of which is rented ground.

Cow type is a concern, as the herd is almost pure Limousin genetics, offering little hybrid vigour. Calf mortality is also high, with poor survivability last year from cows and heifers scanned in-calf.

Output per hectare is the highest of all the programme farms, with bulls being finished at an average carcase weight of 385kg.

Performance and improvements

On visual appearance, cattle quality is exceptional. But as demonstrated in earlier phases of the programme, cattle with high levels of conformation are not always profitable and often come at a cost.

Simmental genetics have been introduced to improve hybrid vigour and a new Simmental bull has been purchased for 2018.

Calf performance pre-weaning was the lowest in the programme, despite excellent grassland management.

Calves averaged 1.06kg/day on the cow, which is too low for a bull beef system, as animals have a longer intensive finishing period, which increases concentrate levels.

In 2017, calving was spread over 26 weeks and steps have been taken to shorten this in 2018.

Tighter calving will make better use of concentrates and increase efficiency during the finishing period.