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The family partnership of Robbie, Barbara and James Milne hosted the bi-annual Scottish Beef Association open day on their 500ac grassland unit at Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire.
The farm was selected to host the event due to the level of on-farm technical efficiency in place, especially around breeding and the number of live calves weaned annually, normally around 95%.
The Milnes previously operated a mixed tillage and livestock farm, but moved to an all-grassland system in recent years to simplify management and concentrate on what they enjoyed best, working with livestock.
In addition to the home farm, 500 acres of rough grazing is also rented to carry cows and replacements throughout the summer plus a flock of 200 breeding ewes. All lambs born are sold for direct slaughter.
Herd details
The suckler herd carries 340 spring-calving cows. However, to ease the demand on labour and housing facilities, spring calving is split into two defined periods of equal numbers.
The first block of cows calve from early January to mid-February with the second calving period running from April to late June.
Cows are either purebred Salers, or a Salers crossed to Aberdeeen Angus, with the average age of breeding females being seven years old.
The Milnes decided to move down the Salers route around 20 years ago. Back then, the herd was a mix of breed types and calving difficulty was a common problem.
Salers were chosen to reduce calving difficulties and made an immediate impact. This spring, 10 out of 184 January and February cows required some form of assistance at calving, which was considered higher than normal.
There were two dead calves in the herd, one being stillborn and the other the direct result from a hard calving. Last year, just one heifer required assistance at calving.
Replacements
The herd has been expanding and around 70 in-calf heifers calved last November, all of which were homebred animals calving down at 27 to 30 months of age.
For the Milne family, this gives heifers time to recover from the demands of calving before joining the main herd. It also facilitates replacements to be managed separately.
Heifers must be a minimum of 450kg by 18 months of age before going to the bull. Every replacement heifer has an internal pelvic measurement taken two months prior to breeding.
Heifers with a below average measurement are culled. Any animal with poor temperament is also culled.
Sire choice
Cows are predominantly crossed to Charolais stock bulls to produce high-quality calves for the live trade. Calves are generally sold through Thainstone Mart at 10 to 12 months of age.
However, the farm has also moved to finishing more cattle, especially Angus- and Salers-sired animals to add value to them, provided feed prices make it economically viable to do so.
Stocks bulls are either Charolais, Angus or Salers. Charolais sires are used on mature cows, with Angus and Salers used on heifers and on larger cows in an effort to reduce mature size.
Charolais bulls run with the January calving cows for a five-week period from 23 March until the end of April.
At this point, Charolais bulls are removed and rested before joining the later calving cows in June.
Angus bulls are then introduced to the January calving cows and cover late-breeding animals, before moving to the April calving cows in June.Breeding has finished for the replacement heifers and the results are impressive. A total of 70 heifers were put to the bull for a 30 day breeding period.
Scanning initially confirmed 66 heifers are settled in-calf, which is an 89% conception rate. Of the empty animals, one heifer was later discovered to be a free martin, with the remaining three heifers confirmed in-calf after a second scanning.
All cows are housed for winter and fed silage, straw and draff from the local distillery. Draff is the waste grain from distilling whiskey and commonly used as a livestock feed in Scotland.
Protein levels are typically 22% to 24% protein. It is also a good source of energy and fibre. Soya is fed just prior to and after calving.
Cows are vaccinated with Rotavec pre-calving. Calves are given an intra-nasal vaccine for RSP and IBR at weaning, with a wormer applied in late autumn.
Calf performance
Calves are introduced to creep feed from July onwards with a purchased blend being fed. This is gradually reduces to a 50:50 mix with barley.
January and February born calves are sold live at 10 to 12 months old once they reach 400kg liveweight. The April born calves are normally sold live from February onwards.
This February, January born calves averaged 449kg and sold at £990/head (€1,125), or 220p/kg (€2.50/kg).
April born calves sold at the same time averaged 377kg and sold for £951/head (€1,080), or 252p/kg (€2.86/kg).
A group of intensively finished Charolais steers killed out at 334kg at 14 months of age, returning £1,165 (€1,323) or 349p/kg deadweight (€3.96/kg).
Angus steers killed at 14 months produced a 286kg carcase worth £1,105 (€1,255) or 387p/kg deadweight (€4.39/kg).
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