The main focus of the meeting was attacking the cost of winter. The Duguids have adopted several new ideas this season, to both reduce cost and to help extend feed supplies. The key has been the establishment of a crop of Swift (forage rape/kale hybrid), sown with a direct drill into an old grass sward, after it was burned off.

While some of the operations have been carried out by the Duguids themselves, these have still been priced in at a contract rate to allow for a fair comparison across different systems. It should be noted that the direct drill excelled this season, due to the fact that it left such a large area of the field undisturbed – meaning that there was sufficient moisture in the land to get the crop off to a good start. At a cost of £56/t of dry matter utilised from the field, this is a very cost-effective feed to carry the cows into winter.

Of course, the cows cannot be fed a diet of 100% Swift and so are also getting straw to make up around one third of their daily intake. At a value of £120/t, this brings the feed cost per cow per day to £1.11, not including minerals.

The second alternative wintering method in play is the same straw and syrup diet that was used last year. This sees cows using less straw in total (both feeding and bedding), compared with how much a wetter silage and straw diet would use in total. These cows have a daily feeding and bedding cost of around £1.55, not including minerals. This diet is very successful for cows that are in good condition to slim them down pre-calving. They will be on this diet until six weeks pre-calving.

When these two systems are compared with the diet of the thinner cows and second calvers, a significant difference becomes apparent. The daily cost of feeding these cows a straw and silage diet and straw bedding comes in at a staggering £1.94/day, 83p more than the outwintered cows.

The other aspect that the first two systems have in their favour is the amount of time required per cow per day. The cows on the Swift take around 56 seconds per cow per day, and the cows on the straw and syrup diet take around 30 seconds per cow per day. Those that are fed on the straw and silage diet take nearer to 90 seconds per day, a significant increase again.

As mentioned previously, the alternative diets will be used until the end of January, by which point the cows will be six weeks from calving and all will go on to a straw and silage diet from then on. However, up until that point, just shy of £60/cow can be saved.

Outwintering may not suit all farms, however there are a lot of situations where it can be implemented in some form. Even using it for a month or six weeks at the start of winter can have huge benefits in terms of feed and bedding cost savings.

Spring herd performance

Both the cows and calves were weighed at weaning for the spring herd at Duguids. In terms of calving spread, the spring herd calved down in just over 13 weeks, however one cow calved 10 days premature – leaving the rest calving in a 12-week period.

The average age at weaning was 201 days. Weaning weights were corrected to a 200-day weight so that cow performance could be compared fairly. From the 74 cows that calved, 70 calves were weaned – with the losses mainly at calving time.

Average daily liveweight gain (ADLG) from birth to weaning across the whole herd was 1.10kg, with heifers averaging 1.05kg/day and mature cows 1.11kg/day. This ranged from a high of 1.43kg/day to a low of just 0.77kg/day. This shows the huge variation that exists within a herd.

Having the cow weights is a vital piece of information in the overall picture. The average weight of the cows is 654kg across both mature cows and first-calved heifers. This ranges from 526kg to 822kg.

We must remember the primary objective for a suckler cow is to convert cheaply grown forage, ie grass, and turn it into high-quality protein in the form of a weaned calf. It is how successful that the cow is at converting this forage to protein that she should be judged on. Therefore, as cattle intake is directly proportionate to body weight, we must take cow weight into account.

If we were to measure calf, and therefore cow performance, on ADLG alone the heaviest cow in the herd at 822kg would be in the top 10 performers. However, expressing the weaned calf’s weight as a percentage of its dam’s weight gives us a better reading of how well cows are converting forage to protein.

When we look at percentage of body weight weaned at 200 days, this same 822kg cow is now ranked number 58 out of 70. Overall, the herd weaned just shy of 41% of body weight. Again the range is massive, from a first-calved heifer weaning a massive 59.8% to a low of 31.2% for a 708kg cow.

Improving your herd

Collecting and using this data generated on-farm can have huge benefits for overall herd performance. We need to start setting the bar higher for our suckler cows. Simply being in-calf should not be enough to allow the cow to remain in the herd if she is not producing the goods.

This year’s data will be looked at alongside last year’s for the Duguids, as we start to build a picture of herd performance. While acting on one year’s data alone may not be the best approach, when we can look at a number of years side by side we can be confident that we are on the right track.

By actively culling and selecting replacements using the above information, over a number of years you can propel your herd performance quite dramatically. One further measure that should be included in this comparison is cow body condition at weaning. A cow that weans 50% of her body weight but comes into the winter very thin and needing a lot of feed over the winter, will not be as profitable as one that weans the same proportion and comes in with flesh on her back.