Early in the programme, it was identified that Greenvale, while already profitable, could carry more stock without significantly increasing workload. After considering several options, Mark has recently submitted a planning application to add another shed for spring cows.

With the shed in motion, the next step is to invest in cows to fill it. In the past month, Mark has purchased two lots of cows. One lot of eight Simmental cross heifers with six week old Limousin calves at foot was bought in Stirling. The remaining seven Angus cross cows and heifers (between two and three years old) came from Thainstone with Charolais calves at foot. The heifers averaged £1,900 each with the cows averaging £1,650/head.

Mark made the journey down for the sale in Stirling. For the Thainstone cows, he took advantage of Aberdeen and Northern Marts online system. This allowed Mark to attend the sale without the eight-hour round trip, making better use of his time.

“Buying online is different to begin with but once you get used to it, it works well. The Covid-19 restrictions at Stirling meant that you were not able to see the cattle out the back in the pens, meaning you had to pay attention to cows feet, legs and udder quality when they were in the ring.”

The trade looked to be back at bit from earlier sales in the season with averages over £2,000/head so Mark took the opportunity to increase the herd without breaking the bank. He selected cattle with good high health status and free of the bull to lower the risk of BVD.

“Cow size is important for me as I am not looking for anything too big,” said Mark. “The heifers had calved at two years old, so they were not too big and they all had a good growing calf at foot telling me they had plenty of milk. I also made sure there were no signs of caesareans and a good tight udder.”

“Buying online is a bit trickier to see but the first thing I did was to see if the cow was wild at all. If she is temperamental then I am not at all interested.”

The animals all came home and were first isolated for biosecuriy. Once everything was OK, they were put straight in with the Simmental bull.

With the new shed in the planning stage, Mark is keen to get it built by Christmas. This means that it would be ready for 2021 spring calving. While Mark is trying to build numbers, he hasn’t let it stop him from culling cows with 14 already identified that are not making the grade.

This year was also the first year that Mark calved most of his own heifers at two years old. There were 25 in the batch and there are 22 with live calves on the ground. One calf was lost before calving started with the heifer casting it dead, one was lost due to a twisted womb and one due to being a very large calf.

Mark is pleased with the overall result and will continue to calve at two years old in the future. “Even if the calves are only worth £700, I have still realised an extra £15,400 from these animals in their lifetime. With profitability in the industry as it is, this is an easy win.”

This year, there have been 11 bulling heifers kept back that will go to the bull to calve at two years old in 2021. There is also a batch of 30 heifers that are grazing just now that he will take a draw from in mid-July with anything over 420kg being kept to bull for the summer herd. They will go to an easy calving Shorthorn bull.

While they are going in to the summer herd, they will be wintered inside to allow them to grow on which is harder to achieve with outwintering.

Early harvest on the cards

Crops in Caithness look to be growing well, according to Mark, with the barley a week to 10 days ahead of usual. If the season continues as it is, spring barley harvest could start in the first week in September when it is typically in the middle of the month.

“We have our second spray applied and even had to add growth regulator this year that hasn’t been applied in years.”

Mark Mackay's new heifers and cows with calves at foot.

Last year, a large area of barley and oats in the county ended up flat, causing real issues for harvesting and subsequent crop quality. The growth regulator should help prevent this from happening.

Mark has 65 acres of barley in the ground this year, which is a near 50% increase in area since the start of the project. This has meant less need to purchase straw and even a surplus of barley to sell over and above what he uses to feed the stock.

Adviser comment: Robert Gilchrist

This is the first year that Mark has calved the majority of his heifers at two years old. While he was apprehensive beforehand, he has found little difference compared to previous practice.

For every extra six months that a heifer is carried and does not calve, she will require in the region of 2t of dry matter. With the average cost of a tonne of dry matter at this stage coming in at £80/t, that is £160 for every six months that a heifer is carried but not calved.

The Simmental bull with the new bought breeding cattle.

While some would argue that heifers are not big enough to calve at two, they only need to be 65% of their mature weight at bulling.

Therefore, a herd with a mature weight of 650kg only needs a heifer to weigh 420kg at bulling at 14 months (420 days).

If she has a birthweight of 40kg, she needs to gain 380kg over 420 days or 0.9kg/day. This is a very achievable growth rate for a heifer.