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Increasing the amount of grazed grass that beef cattle utilise by 1t DM/ha can deliver an additional £220/ha in farm income, according to AFBI researcher Dr Francis Lively.
Speaking at the second in a series of webinars organised by the EIT Foods project, Dr Lively outlined the role of grazed grass in driving farm profit.
In NI, grass utilisation on beef and sheep farms is typically 4.1t DM/ha. From studies comparing grazing systems for beef steers, increasing utilisation by 1t DM/ha resulted in stocking rates rising from 1.3 to 1.6/ha, delivering an additional 197kg/ha of liveweight sold per year.
Combining higher utilisation with a 5% increase in sward quality saw concentrate feed reduce by 21%, resulting in a combined net margin increase of £218/ha, when compared to the NI average farm.
All trials show no economic benefit to feeding concentrates to store cattle at grass
Lively also outlined steer performance based on varying turnout dates in spring. Steers going to grass on 5 April were on average 23kg heavier at housing than cattle turned out on 22 April.
This converted to an additional 5kg in carcase weight, worth an additional £18.50/head at a beef price of 370p/kg, and excludes the higher feed and labour costs associated with a later turn out.
Lively concluded on autumn grazing management and advised farmers with forward stores destined for winter finishing to house earlier and then introduce concentrate.
“All trials show no economic benefit to feeding concentrates to store cattle at grass. Concentrate will increase daily liveweight gain, but at the expense of cheap grass,” he explained.
“These cattle will have a lower growth response to high levels of concentrates once housed. In contrast, store cattle on a grass-only diet during summer and autumn benefit from compensatory growth once housed, giving a higher economic response to concentrate feeding,” Lively said.
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