Now is the time to decide on what cattle will finish off grass this autumn and which animals will require housing for intensive finishing.

The economics of finishing cattle at grass are finely balanced. Carcase weights tend to be lower compared with cattle killed out of the shed, especially for Continental-type animals killed at 22 to 24 months of age.

Likewise, beef prices tend to come under pressure in early autumn as increasing numbers of grass-finished cattle come on to the market.

Also, there is the added cost of concentrate feed. As the feed value of grazed grass declines in autumn, meal feeding becomes necessary to maintain high levels of daily liveweight gain. It is also required in autumn to get grass-finished cattle to the correct fat cover when slaughtered.

Continental breeds are later maturing and will require higher levels of feeding compared with traditional beef breeds. The same applies for steers compared with heifers.

But concentrates should be used to supplement grass and not the other way around. Over-feeding concentrates will quickly erode any potential profit from finishing cattle at grass.

Meal prices also have to be factored in to the equation to ensure that there is an economic benefit to feeding higher levels of concentrates.

Other factors such as grass supplies, weather, ground conditions and type of cattle should also be considered when deciding on which cattle are going to be killed off grass.

Following the outlined steps will help you to make the most of grass finishing cattle this autumn.

1 Select the right cattle: ideally, you want to select cattle that are 50kg to 60kg away from reaching their mature finishing weight.

Taking a daily liveweight gain of 1kg/day, this means you want cattle that will finish within the next eight weeks.

Cattle that are still 80kg to 100kg short of their mature weight will struggle to reach an acceptable carcase weight and fat cover if the planned kill date is before late October. These animals would be better off housed early and finished in December.

Heifers are earlier maturing than steers and will be better suited to grass finishing, but under the right management, grass finishing of steers can be profitable.

Beef cattle bred from the dairy herd, and traditional beef breeds, are also suitable for grass finishing. Continental breeds such as Blue and Blonde tend to be much leaner and harder to finish off grass without higher levels of concentrate feeding.

2 Limit feed period to eight weeks: meal feeding should be introduced to cattle that are 50kg to 60kg from reaching their finish weight around eight weeks prior to your planned kill date. Feeding periods can be reduced for cattle that will kill earlier.

For early maturing cattle, you could reduce the feeding period to six weeks if there is a good supply of highly digestible grass available.

3 Keep the ration simple: as with all finishing diets, keep it simple. The easiest option is to feed rolled barley or a simple 50:50 mix of barley with sugar beet pulp or soya hulls to provide a good source of energy and rumen degradable protein.

Including maize meal is advisable if you are finishing late-maturing Continental cattle such as Charolais. Maize meal will increase energy and starch levels which will improve the level of fat cover in the animal. At current prices of £160/t for dried barley, maize meal is reasonably good value at around £175/t.

4 Feed high energy and low protein: finishing cattle on autumn grass is all about getting energy into the animal. Grass will be falling in both dry matter and energy content. However, it still has a high level of protein present. Therefore, you do not need to purchase a mix with a protein level greater than 14%. Feeding a 16% ration will only encourage the animal to lay down lean muscle rather than fat.

5 Feed rates: most research has shown that well-managed grazing swards later in the season will support liveweight gains of little more than 0.75kg/day in finishing cattle. On older swards, or poorly managed swards, this weight gain falls to 0.5kg/day in the autumn.

As the season progresses, grass dry matter continues to fall meaning that cattle are taking in less energy with every bite, so meal levels have to be increased to maintain liveweight gains of 1kg/day.

Assuming that grass quality is average, and autumn grazing supplies are limited, start off by feeding 2kg per head per day to cattle and increase to 3kg/day after 10 to 14 days.

For early-maturing cattle, hold feeding levels at a maximum of 3kg for heifers and 4kg/day for steers and monitor body condition as autumn progresses.

For Continental-type animals, increase feed levels to 5kg/day for heifers and up to 6kg/day for steers during the final three to four weeks prior to slaughter depending on grass supply.

When you are feeding more than 4kg/day to cattle, split into a morning and evening feed.

As outlined above, cattle that are unlikely to kill off grass before the end of October are better off housed in the coming weeks for finishing.

Trying to hold these animals at grass into November will be uneconomic as even if feed levels are near ad-lib, liveweight gains will be lower compared with cattle being finished indoors.

Instead, it will be more beneficial to introduce meal to these animals now at a rate of 2kg to 3kg/day to acclimatise them to the finishing diet and maintain weight gain.

The next step is to house these cattle in September and intensively finish over a period of 60 to 90 days depending on breed, sex and housing weight.

Housing these meal-fed cattle in September will avoid a transition period from a grass-only diet to a silage/meal diet. As a result, there is no short-term drop in weight gain often associated with housing cattle in late October.

Under good management, in the majority of cases, cattle housed for finishing in early September will actually exhibit a short period of compensatory growth, when weight gains can exceed 1.5kg/day in steers and heifers over the first 30-day period after housing.

Feeding meal to finishing cattle at grass will increase weight gain by 0.25kg to 0.5kg/day and increase kill-out by 1% to 2%.

Trials

Most finishing trials show that it will take 12kg of concentrate to produce 1kg of actual carcase gain. At current ration prices of £200/t, it will cost approximately £2.40/kg to gain 1kg of beef carcase.

At current beef prices of £3.50/kg for R-grade cattle, there is a margin over concentrates of £1.10 to cover grazing, veterinary, labour and all fixed costs.

The margins for grass finishing are tight, but in a well-managed system there is a potential profit to be made.