Eight out of the 10 BETTER farm NI programme farms are in a birth-to-beef finishing system. Some farmers operate a conventional steer finishing system, while others have gone down the route of killing male calves as young bulls.

Either way, the main focus within a finishing system is to maximise the feed efficiency of cattle so that they deliver a weight gain that is covering the daily feed costs and returning a margin after feed.

Weighing cattle on a regular basis is the only way to accurately identify how well animals are performing.

With finishing animals now housed, it becomes easier to facilitate regular weighing. Cattle can be weighed and assessed on a monthly basis to monitor performance.

There is little benefit in weighing animals any less than 30 days apart, as there can be greater variation within a group when regularly weighed over shorter intervals.

Once accurate weights are recorded, it becomes easier to determine slaughter dates for cattle and when feeding levels need to be adjusted. Cattle will only be able to sustain high levels of weight gain on a concentrate diet for a limited period. With heifers, this usually occurs over a 50- to 70-day period.

Steers can sustain high levels of growth for a period of 70 to 100 days, depending on breed type. Bulls can sustain high levels of weight gain for 120 to 180 days, depending on breed type.

Feeding cattle on high levels of concentrate for longer than the outlined time periods becomes uneconomic, as weight gain will drop and no longer cover the daily feed costs.

Regularly weighing cattle allows you to identify earlier when daily weight gain starts to drop and animals can be marketed.

Week in review

  • Where cattle are still grazing, higher residuals are being left after each rotation.
  • Ideally, these higher residuals will be grazed off with sheep, or light weanlings, later this year.
  • Cattle are being moved quickly around the rotation to prevent any form of poaching.
  • Finishing cattle are being weighed to monitor weight gains since housing in September.
  • Jonathan Blair: Ballykelly, Co Derry

    My spring-calving herd has been pregnancy scanned and the results were pleasing. From 41 cows scanned, there were 38 animals confirmed in-calf for next year. Along with the cows, there was a group of 21 heifers that were bred over the summer and 20 of these animals are also confirmed in-calf.

    Based on scanning data, cows and heifers are running between two and four months in-calf. The calving spread is looking fairly compact, with the majority of cows calving in early to mid-March.

    Cows were bred to an Angus or Stabiliser bull. There was a group of nine cows that we tried to synchronise and use AI for breeding in May, but only one animal held.

    AI was also used on heifers and there was a better success rate, although I would have liked it to have been higher. Five out of 11 heifers held to AI, with the remainder covered by the Stabiliser stock bull.

    Herd expansion

    With the focus on building cow numbers, it is pleasing to have had a good breeding season and scanning results.

    My target for the herd is to build numbers to 100 spring-calving cows. We have 58 cows and heifers scanned in-calf for spring 2018, an increase of 11 cows on spring 2017.

    I am hoping to add to this by possibly purchasing some extra cows over the winter, with Stabiliser females being my preferred choice. I purchased 10 Stabiliser heifers earlier this year and they are now in-calf.

    Weaning

    The strongest calves have now been weaned and are back at grass, while their mothers remain housed. I decided to use the Quietwean nose tags and they worked really well. There was no stress on either the cow or calf.

    They cost £61 for a bag of 25 tags. The tags have been cleaned and will be used again for the next group of younger calves, which will be weaned in the coming weeks.

    The tags were inserted in calves on 30 September and removed after one week. The cows were housed and fed straw for one week and then moved on to silage after the calves were weaned.

    Grazing

    I still have the later spring-calving cows and calves at grass and grazing in rotation, as well as the 20 in-calf replacement heifers. There should be enough grass to see cows through until the end of the month.

    The calves are now forward creep grazing ahead of the cows and this is working well. I simply raised the electric wire using a fencing post to allow calves to creep ahead.

    The calves are then fed a simple creep ration of 15.5% protein in a trough. All calves have now received their booster shot of pneumonia vaccine, as well as an IBR vaccine, and were treated for worms.

    Finishing cattle housed

    The first group of finishing cattle were housed in early September. I have a group of five Limousin-bred bullocks penned on straw and they are currently eating first-cut silage and 5kg/day of a high maize ration.

    They were weighed on 2 October and ranged from 620kg to 666kg. My target is to try to get them as close to 700kg before slaughter to maximise carcase weight and sale value.

    The group averaged a daily gain of 1.05kg/day on their last weighing, but there was a big range within the group from 0.7kg/day up to 1.63kg/day.

    Stores

    The second finishing group has seven bullocks. They are lighter and on a store period before being pushed for slaughter.

    They are now housed 10 days and at their last weighing on 21 September, the group averaged 443kg, with animals ranging from 353kg to 522kg.

    There are a few lighter cattle in this group that never really performed. As calves, they lost their mothers to TB, which may have stunted them slightly.

    The store cattle are also on first-cut silage, which has a feed value of 31.7% DM, 12 ME, 11.6% protein and 75 D-value. Thankfully, I have plenty of silage in store this winter.

    The group is also eating 2kg/day of the higher protein growing ration, but will move on to the high-maize low-protein ration when they are being pushed for slaughter.

    The growing ration cost £198/t, while the finishing ration cost £190/t.

    Heifers

    Finally, I have three heifers being fed for slaughter. One is a heifer that was not in-calf and the other two were marked for killing early as they always had a bit of a temperament problem, so they were never going to be kept for cows. Along with the five heavier steers, they should be ready for killing in December.

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