The range in performance between the top and bottom 25% of suckler beef herds in Northern Ireland, who undertake CAFRE benchmarking, equates to a cost of production difference of approximately £2/kg of beef, visitors to the Abbey farm at CAFRE Greenmount were told last week.

The event was organised by CAFRE, AFBI and AgriSearch and themed “Beef – Growing Performance”. A series of talks aimed at explaining what the top-performing herds in NI were doing and how suckler beef farms could maximise gross margin and profit.

Nigel Gould, from CAFRE, said that knowing your herd’s fertility performance is essential. Measures such as calves weaned per cow put to the bull give an indication of fertility and mortality in the herd. At the Abbey farm, this is currently 0.88, but the target is 0.9 weaned calves per cow to the bull.

Calving spread on the farm is 12 weeks, but the aim is to reduce this to nine weeks. This is important for ease of management, timing and predicting weights for vaccinations and dosing, as well as batching for housing and uniformity at selling, said Nigel.

Calving index

The average calving index across herds in NI is 413 days. When this is compared to a herd with a 365-day calving index, it equates to five less calves sold per 50 cows per year. If an average price of £600 is assumed, then it is costing £3,000 per year for a 50-cow herd.

Nigel maintained that crossbreeding tends to increase fertility by maximising hybrid vigour. Also, selecting bulls based on estimated breeding values (EBVs) for calving ease direct, maternal calving ease and then balancing other EBVs for growth and conformation with maternal ones are key to breeding a fertile herd.

“Bull management is a short-term measure that can improve herd fertility. Fertility testing of the bull is important to identify a problem early on as approximately 20% of bulls are sub-fertile. This means they can stop producing semen for a period of time. An inspection of the animal six to eight weeks before breeding also allows problems to be identified and remedial action to take place in time,” Nigel said.

Ensuring heifers are 60% to 63% of their mature weight at breeding at 15 months, bulling cows with a body condition score (BCS) of 2.5 for spring calvers and three for autumn calvers and maintaining herd health were all mentioned as essential for good fertility.

Plan

Jason Barley from AFBI said that reviewing farm records with the farm vet such as vaccination programmes, calf mortality rates, fertility records and medicines used will give a good indication of what needs to be included in a herd health plan.

He said that herd health plans identify problem areas and risk factors for disease in the herd. They are specific to each individual farm and they should be active documents that are constantly used and reviewed.

Grassland

On the subject of grassland management, Senan White from CAFRE said that growing grass as efficiently as possible to maximise liveweight gain was one of the most important factors that farmers have control over.

He said that 82% of soil analysis in NI showed that fields required either lime, phosphorous (P) or potassium (K). He stressed the importance of soil sampling at least every four to five years on farms.

“Do not assume your slurry is as good quality as you think it is. If your soils are low in P and K, then your silage will be as well, and so will your slurry that you will eventually spread,” Senan added.

He said that when reseeding, it is advised to select grass and clover varieties from recommended lists to best suit the system on the farm. Grass growth eventually deteriorates over time as weed grasses establish, but swards can last longer with good management.

He also maintained that set stocking grazing systems, where livestock have access to the same area continually, do not effectively balance the constantly changing supply and demand of grass. This system encourages poor utilisation and areas that are under grazed lead to waste. Where they are overgrazed, it leads to reduced growth.

Figures from CAFRE show that paddock-grazing systems, where seven or more different areas are grazed in order, can utilise 92% more grass than set stocking.

Central to this is measuring grass covers on a weekly basis to allow a grass wedge to be created, which makes it easier to identify when surpluses or deficits exist and to take remedial action, for example taking paddocks out for silage or introducing supplementary feeding.

Compaction

According to Alex Higgins from AFBI, identifying soil compaction problems in paddocks is best done by digging a hole about 30cm deep and inspecting for a blocky soil structure, a hard pan horizontal layer, poor root penetration and reduced earthworm populations.

He said that prevention through avoiding poaching or heavy trafficking is more desirable than remedial action.

A study across five sites in NI investigated soil loosening with a subsoiler in the autumn and found that grass yields were reduced by 8% initially, but increased by 10% in the following year. The autumn is the best time of year to subsoil because paddocks can rest in winter as soils are prone to re-compaction after loosening.

“Dry matter yields decrease after intervention as it disrupts the grass roots. This is why it is important only to loosen soils when you know there is actually a compaction problem. Conditions are critical as if it is too wet compaction can lead to wheel slip and smearing and if it is too dry, it can lead to surface and root damage,” Alex said.

Winter feeding

With some store cattle already housed on farms, Albert Johnston from CAFRE said that analysing silage quality is the best way to plan the lowest cost winter feed to meet growth rate targets for batches of cattle.

He said that weaned steers and heifers at the Abbey farm have a growth rate target of 0.5kg to 0.7kg/day and are front-loaded 2kg concentrates per day earlier in the winter to ensure that they are ready to make the most from grazed grass in the spring.

However, finishing steers and heifers have a liveweight gain target of 1kg to 1.2kg/day and concentrate levels can vary from 2kg to 4kg per day, depending on performance. Albert said that it is important to weigh cattle regularly to see if they are achieving the targets and if the diet needs to be adjusted accordingly.

“Good quality silage should be prioritised for livestock with highest nutritional demand, such as finishing animals, autumn-calving cows and store animals,” he said.

Spring-calving cows have a much lower winter feed demand and can be fed poorer quality silage. BCS should be monitored closely throughout the winter to be on target at calving.

The aim is to build condition on cows at grass in the summer and allow some utilisation of body reserves over winter.

If BCS is too high, feed can be restricted by offering moderate quality silage ad-lib or high-quality silage and straw ad-lib. If restricting feeding to cows in winter, it should only be done when there is adequate feed space for all animals at once.