The foundation of any successful farm plan is achieving the optimum level of output that is capable of covering variable and fixed costs and delivering a net margin when these have been accounted for.

It is not just a case of simply driving output, as if it costs more to generate a given level of output than it returns, then the farm plan will simply not work.

The foundation of the Newford Farm plan is operating at a high stocking rate, underpinned by a 100-cow suckler-to-beef herd and achieving high levels of output from a grass-based system.

The finishing blueprint developed for the project is based on finishing 70% to 80% of steers and heifers off grass.

There is also a secondary component in achieving this goal of also increasing the average carcase weight over the lifetime of the project, as detailed in Figure 1.

This has proven challenging to date, with the grazing season cut short in 2016 and 2017, while the finishing blueprint has been disrupted for 2018 with the sale of 2017-born heifers.

Table 1 details the slaughter performance of the herd for the last three years. As can be seen, the average carcase weight delivered for the 2016-born batch of cattle slaughtered in 2017 achieved the target carcase weights.

However, the challenge is the manner in which it was achieved. There were 76% of the heifers finished off grass and all options were exhausted to try to finish 40% of steers off grass. This included earlier housing of 27 lighter steers on 13 September to prioritise available grass for forward steers, along with supplementing with 6kg concentrates at grass.

Poor ground conditions ultimately forced housing of the 20 remaining steers on 13 October and subsequent finishing on an intensive concentrate diet.

The difficulty for the farm plan was a concentrate input in the region of 900kg for steers during the finishing phase and a spike in variable costs.

The current batch of 61 steers weighed 563kg on 23 August, gaining 1.05kg/day since turnout on 19 April and 0.95kg/day since birth.

The challenge for the future is to achieve the best balance between carcase weight and finishing date and costs.

Year two

The jury is still out on the performance of progeny from first-cross Angus and Hereford cows in year two of the production cycle and this will remain under the spotlight in the coming years.

If the farm is to undertake an expensive indoor finishing period, then a higher carcase weight will be required to cover indoor finishing costs.