While there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach as to how replacements come into the system, there are pros and cons for both purchasing and breeding replacement heifers.

To maintain output and keep a natural age profile across the whole herd it is important that a certain number of heifers come into the system each year. It is quite easy to make a herd of cows look more profitable over a small number of years by not investing in heifers.

However, this simply leads to a bigger investment needed further down the road to rejuvenate the breeding stock. This leads to a strain on cashflow within the business and leaves you calving a large number of heifers in one particular year – potentially having a knock-on effect on performance and output in that year. The best approach is to bring in a certain number each year to spread out the associated costs.

Often people ask what replacement rate is normal for a suckler herd. The answer again depends on the individual situation. If you have a cow type that is working for you on your farm and all you want to do is maintain cow numbers, a 15% replacement rate should be sufficient. However, not many farmers I know are completely satisfied with every cow on their farm.

When we bring a heifer into the herd we should be confident that over her lifetime she will out-perform the current average cow in the herd. In that way, every year the overall performance of the herd will improve.

While this is not always easy to achieve, with the right approach in place, it can be successfully done.

Purchasing heifers

Buying in breeding stock has its advantages in terms of simplifying the complete system. If you don’t need to worry about breeding replacements, you can concentrate on terminal-type bulls with high growth rates, therefore maximising production from each female on the farm.

It also allows for rapid expansion of a herd when required. If you are trying to increase numbers by breeding from within your own herd, it can take a long time to achieve. Also the temptation is there to breed from a heifer that, under normal circumstances, you would not breed from.

If the genetic pool within your own herd is not as good as you would like it to be, purchasing in bulling heifers, or heifers with calves at foot, is a great way to get the stock you want in a short space of time.

Rearing heifers

Breeding your own replacements allows you to put a breeding programme in place that produces exactly the cow type you wish to achieve. It also means you have full control of improving your herd genetics year-on-year, whereas when purchasing you are relying on someone else.

Breeding replacements also has an advantage in terms of bio-security. While buying in from herds of known health status reduces the chances of disease, there are always risks when bringing stock into the herd. Operating a closed herd protects you from any potential introduction of disease. However, it’s worth noting that to successfully operate a closed herd you must ensure animals have no nose-to-nose contact with any neighbouring farms, you are not purchasing breeding bulls, you have strict bio-security measures for visitors and you don’t spread dung/slurry from any other farm.

The Websters, Ardhuncart, Kildrummy, Alford

Charles and Alison have a herd of maternal type, predominantly Simmental cows, with some Limousin genetics also. They have used this strong maternal element to produce heifers with calves at foot for herds that purchase in replacements. Producing large-framed heifers with plenty of milk and top genetics behind them, they are successfully producing what the market desires.

The Duffus’, Mains of Auchriachan, Tomintoul

Currently, the Duffus’ are a mixture of both buying in and rearing their own heifers. As part of the plan to utilise the hill ground better on the farm, this year 20 hill cows are being introduced. These are a mixture of Highland cross Shorthorn and Gascons. The plan is to mate these cows to a maternal-type bull, with heifers from this system coming into the in-bye herd. The first cross off these heifers will also be retained for breeding. This will provide a uniform type cow for the in-bye herd in the future.

The Mackays, Greenvale, Caithness

Mark and Shona have a robust herd of primarily Aberdeen Angus cross cows. They breed the majority of their heifers themselves, although they did buy in some in-calf heifers last year to calve this spring. The Mackays have the maternal side of the herd very much in mind all the time and have purchased a beef Shorthorn to run with the best cows in the herd to breed potential replacements in the future. The rest of the cows are then mated to terminal Charolais bulls to produce strong store cattle, with good weight for age at the point of sale.

Culling policy

If we are bringing heifers in each year, what cows leave the system? The first animal in the cull pen should be any cows with temperament issues. Farming is a dangerous occupation, one that often sees people working on their own. Absolutely no cow is worth having on-farm, regardless of her performance or genetics, if she is putting people in danger. A farm’s greatest asset is the farmer. Take the farmer out of the business for a period of time due to injury and the rest of the business will suffer.

Next culled are cows not in calf that select themselves. There is no point holding onto a cow that is not productive. Often I hear that she deserves another chance as ‘she is a good cow’ – wrong. She WAS a good cow. We need to stop allowing ‘good cows’ to slip from the spring herd to the autumn herd, or vice versa. Keeping a tight calving interval has been shown time and time again to be a key driver of overall farm profitability. Also, with the current value of cull cows, there is no good argument for this animal to remain on-farm.

Poor-performing cows are next in line to be culled. This can usually be traced back to lack of milk, poor temperament or age. However, to do this accurately a scales on-farm is required. Purchasing a weighing system for your farm will be worth the investment, provided it is used regularly.

Weaning efficiency

Over 75% of all variable costs on suckler farms can be allocated to feed. Therefore, anything we can do to minimise feed costs, or dilute them over more kilos of beef produced, will have a significant impact on overall farm profitability. The primary goal for beef farmers is to convert cheap forage dry matter (DM), ie grazed grass, into kilos of beef.

A cow will eat 2% of her bodyweight in DM each day. Therefore, the bigger the cow, the bigger the feed bill. The bigger the feed bill, the more kilos of output required to cover feed costs. This is where weaning efficiency comes into play.

This is where we measure the proportion of the cow’s body weight that she weans in a 200-day-old calf. The aim is for every cow to wean over 50% of her body weight each year.