The 130ha lowland Abbey Farm includes a beef unit, finishing around 200 cattle each year, and a 50-cow suckler herd, which in recent years has moved over to Stabiliser breeding.

The calving season, which commenced on 22 February, should conclude over the next 10 days. Forty-seven cows were due, all of which had been served with the Stabiliser stock bull Givendale Omega over a 10-week mating period last year.

Similar to other years, it has been difficult to get cattle turned out during March on this farm.

Large fields with little shelter leave young calves exposed to the elements, while heavier soils on the farm mean even the lightest stock can leave too much soil and sward damage in any inclement weather.

Good housing facilities are available, which facilitate this earlier calving and also allow calved cows to remain indoors post-calving.

However, the improvement in the weather in the second half of April has meant that freshly calved cows and replacement heifers have all been out grazing over the past two to three weeks, although may have to be rehoused if conditions deteriorate.

If this occurs, calves will have access to straw-bedded creep areas.

Weekly grass measurements are being taken to determine grass supplies and aid decisions around grazing.

Due to delayed turnout, paddocks assigned for cattle grazing are presently showing a higher grass cover than normally required for this time of year (2,400kg dry matter (DM) per hectare compared with a normal target of 2,200kg DM/Ha).

However, with current growth rates lower than normal, and also behind current stock demand, average farm cover will quickly reduce.

Growing cattle and suckler cows all receive mineral boluses at turnout. Mineral profiling over the years has shown iodine deficiency to be a particular problem on this farm and the boluses are being used to address this issue.

Fertiliser

All grazing areas have received 25kg of urea per acre and will also receive 50kg of CAN per acre after each grazing and where phosphorus and potassium levels are sufficient to meet crop needs.

Fields closed for silage received 2,000 gallons of slurry per acre in February, followed by 50kg of urea per acre. This is being topped up with CAN or compound, depending on individual field requirements.

Most silage areas now have covers of 4,000kg DM/ha. Again, the aim is to make high-quality first-cut silage this year. In order to do this, the target harvesting date is mid- to late-May, weather-permitting.

Silage areas were rotationally grazed by sheep until December, which helped to remove any excess grass covers.

Breeding

Breeding will commence in mid-May this year. The stock bull Givendale Omega will again be used on cows. He has recently been tested for fertility in preparation for the upcoming breeding season.

Twenty pure Stabiliser and Stabiliser-cross heifers have been selected to be mated from a total of 26 available. A relatively high number of replacement heifers are being retained, as no heifers calved into the herd this year, and given an aim to increase herd size and future output per hectare.

This also means a more ruthless approach can be taken in culling any underperforming cows.

The heifers selected were an average weight of 399kg at turnout this spring, which leaves them well on target to achieve a target of 65% of mature cow weight at mating.

Synchronisation used across breeding heifers

Heifers will be synchronised on 16 May as part of a DARD Research Challenge fund synchronisation study, leaving them calving down at 24 months.

They will be artificially inseminated to the Stabiliser bull, Givendale Black Oswald. This bull has positive estimated breeding values for all calving traits, as well as the other main maternal and terminal traits.



The programme being used (see Table 1) was the less successful of the two synchronisation programmes used across the study on heifers last year.

Across the first year of the study, conception rates to first service averaged just 48% in this programme (involving three handlings), compared to 74% to first service in the second programme (involving four handlings – prostaglandin is administered two days after CIDR removal).

Although it might seem foolish to again use the first programme, the most recent results are only based on one year of data. To fully evaluate the performance of each protocol over a number of years, it is important that programme one is tried again.

In 2015, conception rates for a group of 29 replacement heifers destined for CAFRE’s hill farm at Glenwherry were also behind target, with 45% in-calf after the first service, although this increased to 83% after the second service.

Bonus on Shorthorn steers at slaughter

The majority of steers and heifers have now been slaughtered, with the first group of Shorthorn steers to come through from the three-breed rotation (Lim x AA x SH) at the hill farm also now sold.

These were marketed through the Glenarm Shorthorn Scheme, receiving a bonus of 10% above quoted base price. All Shorthorn cattle received the same price/kg irrespective of grade, providing they met scheme specification.

Finishing steers were housed during October last year and offered a diet of high-quality grass silage and 5kg of concentrate. The Shorthorn cattle had a higher feed level, with 7kg/head/day of concentrate fed, to ensure they reached the desired target fat cover for the scheme. The cost of the extra feeding over the winter was approximately £54.

The Shorthorn premium was 34p/kg above the average price received for the continental-sired steers, equivalent to £126 for the average 370kg carcase.

The original main aim of having Shorthorn in the three-breed rotation at the hill farm was to produce suitable replacement heifers.

However, the by-product steers have performed well and achieved an additional premium of £72 over feed cost through a premium market.

The slaughter performance of these Shorthorn-bred cattle is shown in Table 2, along with the performance of Limousin-bred cattle, also born and reared at the hill farm and taken to Abbey Farm for finishing.

Stabiliser bulls

The offspring from cows at Abbey Farm are Stabiliser-bred. All of the spring 2015-born male calves are now being finished as under 16 month old bulls.

At the last weighing, these averaged 530kg at 11 months old. They are due to be weighed again by students next week.

They are now receiving high-quality silage along with 14% high-energy blend offered ad lib. Some of the bulls will be ready for slaughter over the next few weeks. The performance of these bulls will be highlighted in the next update from Greenmount’s Abbey Farm.