Phenomenal weight gain in Crookedwood

From its highest point, you can stand and view every corner of Chris McCarthy’s farm, as well as making out industrial chimneys in Kinnegad and Mullingar’s cathedral spire.

The free-draining farm sits in a single 28ha block. Since joining the BETTER farm programme in 2011, Chris has succeeded in increasing the farm’s stocking rate, tightening his calving spread and surpassing the target €1,000 gross margin figure.

Alongside his tiling business, Chris calves 52 suckler cows in the springtime, between 20 January and 28 March.

Spread

“As I’m working off farm, a tight spread is crucial for me. In the past when it ran longer, my time was eaten up. It was only when we got it tightened that I realised the difference it makes. We don’t put enough emphasis on our time as suckler farmers. The tight pattern is also beneficial when selling calves – buyers love a uniform group,” says Chris.

Until this year, Chris sold his calves from the yard in October. The weaning process began in mid-August with the introduction of meal. The eldest calves’ dams would then be gradually removed from groups from 1 September.

“Buyers would come to the farm, see an even batch of properly weaned, yellow Charolais calves and generally take the whole bunch,” he says.

Yellow Charolais

Chris is very definite about his suckler cow: “I want a red Limousin, half- or three-quarter-bred. Buyers love a yellow Charolais calf, that cross gives me this.

“I know they’re all the same colour hanging up, but that’s what the customer wants. It’s one of my specifications, I suppose.”

Chris has two Charolais stock bulls, by Thrunton Bonjovi (S750) and the great Doonally New (CF52). For bull calves, Chris’s target is a liveweight of 360kg on 1 October. Heifers weigh 340kg in mid-October.

Though farmers in some parts have recorded poor cattle weight gains in 2016, Chris is on course to achieve his liveweight targets this year (see table).

Growth rates like these are among the best we’ve seen in spring-born calves. What’s all the more impressive is that the high performance is being maintained right through the weaning period.

Weight gain in recent weeks on Chris’s farm has been exceptional – the heavy-boned Charolais is beginning to come through in his calves.

Performance like this requires the perfect alignment of terminal genetics from both the dam and sire, cows with good milking potential and top-class grassland management.

Chris can attribute the lofty daily gains to three of his “four tools”.

Four tools

“The four most important tools on my farm are the weighing scales, the plate meter, the mower and the calving camera,” Chris says.

The scales is a no-brainer. Chris takes up to five weights annually on his calves. It allows him to monitor production, identify any issues quickly and pick out his under-performing cows – around 15% are culled annually.

“With such a tight window to produce beef pre-weaning, weighing cattle is a must. Guess work is no good. You need to be exact and be able to identify under-performing cows.”

Chris’s calving camera allows him to check on his cows remotely via his mobile phone.

“My bulls are easy calving and I assist only a handful of the mature cows at calving. I generally buy in my heifers in calf to easy-calving bulls, so calving is not an issue. That said, you can’t take the chance and for peace of mind, the camera is brilliant.”

The plate meter and the mower go hand in hand. The installation of 17 permanent paddocks on the farm, which are split again with temporary fences, allows Chris to graze in two-and-a-half-day allocations. This means that the grass under Chris’s cows is always of the utmost quality. Poor-quality, stemmy grass equals poorer milk production and reduced weight gain. The use of paddocks has also facilitated a cow increase from 36 to 52, without increasing total farm area.

“I walk the farm weekly and use PastureBase to identify and remove surplus grass. I’m highly stocked [2.31 LU/ha], but can get by taking one main cut of silage and getting the rest of my fodder from surplus grazing ground. I’ve been working on P, K and lime (pH) since joining the programme and now the farm is hitting its grass growth potential. The mower allows me to move in early so that the bales are top-quality. There are 100 extra bales in the yard this year from grazing ground – which will come in extremely handy for our new venture.”

Pull of the bull

Unimpressed with live cattle prices, Chris is journeying into under-16-month bull beef with his 2016-born crop. The top-quality silage that he has from his grazing ground will form the basis of their growing diet.

“I’m positive that my analysis of that silage will show a crop with a DMD (digestibility) value in the high 70s.”

At present, 2016-born bulls are grazing and receiving 2.5kg of concentrates. They will come into the house in three weeks, or when the weather turns – whichever comes first. At this point they will begin a buildup to 5kg of meal with his high-DMD bale silage. For the final 120 days, they will switch (gradually) to ad-lib concentrates.

Chris has the silage, the genetics and the shed space to run a top-class bull production system. Spring-born under-16-month bulls make use of otherwise idle sheds during the summer months, produce a slaughter-fit animal at a time when there is generally a good demand for beef and free up grazing ground for more potential cows/dry stock.

Chris has a very clear focus on what he wants to achieve on this farm. All the farm management decisions he makes feed into making this plan work. Physical and financial performance have improved year-on-year since he started working closely with Teagasc in 2009, and later with the Teagasc/IFJ BETTER farm programme.

Between 2009 and 2015, kilos of beef sold per hectare have increased by 50% from 480kg/ha to 717kg/ha. Gross output value has increased by almost €1,000 per hectare, from €730 in 2009 to €1,728 in 2015. Gross Margin per hectare in 2009 stood at €257, but has increased to €952/ha in 2015, exceeding the €1,000/ha mark in 2014. Chris is flexible to change and looks at new ways to improve farm profit, this year retaining his bull weanlings to finish under 16 months old.

Chris is an active member of the Lake County Grazers Discussion Group. Group meetings are an excellent setting for farmers to share knowledge, experience and sound out new ideas to improve their on-farm performance.

- Paul Fox