The Kepak Group’s feedlot located in Clonee, Co Meath, extends to 320ha, with a shed capacity of 1,800 head. The feedlot finishes in the region of 3,500 cattle per year on an intensive finishing diet, based primarily on utilising the farm’s homegrown barley, wheat, maize, wholecrop and grass silage/haylage.

The feedlot has traditionally focused on finishing top-end continental bulls and heifers for Italian customers but according to the group’s procurement manager, Jonathan Forbes, is diversifying in recent years to meet changing market requirements.

“The feedlot’s focus is all about finishing to customer specification. We don’t play in the commodity market and everything today reflects that.”

Hereford cattle

Changing market dynamics have resulted in the feedlot switching from mainly continental bulls and heifers to a mixture of continental bulls/steers/heifers and Hereford steers and heifers.

Jonathan explained that it is this growth in demand for Hereford cattle and increasing throughput of industry partners Irish Hereford Prime that led to a decision to host an open day with a major focus on indoor finishing of Hereford cattle. Despite dealing with a different animal, he says the group maintains the same principles in its purchasing policy, health programme and animal husbandry and feed management. The only real difference is in the diet offered and length of the finishing period.

Hereford versus continental

Nutritionist Charlie Purcell from KK Agri Ltd explained the farm’s diet formulation and feeding management. He said the aim is to optimise liveweight gain by using the best-quality ingredients while also keeping economics in mind.

Irrespective of the type or source of animals, all cattle are transferred on to a finishing diet in an identical manner. Once animals arrive on the farm, they are allowed to rest for 24 hours in a straw-bedded shed with access to good quality hay and water.

When health treatments and vaccinations have been administered, they are transferred to their allocated shed. In the first week, animals are offered access to ad-lib silage and 25% of their TMR (total mixed ration) diet. This is increased to 50% in week two and 75% in week three. On day 21, access to silage ceases, with animals offered 100% of their allocated TMR diet.

Charlie stressed the importance of introducing the high-energy diet gradually.

“We tried a lot of options and this practice is working best. The first three weeks dictate performance for the next 120 days”.

Explaining the rationale for targeting a 120-day finishing period, he said: “We have found if you push cattle after 120 days, they hit a wall. There are exceptions and you might push some cattle for 130 to 140 days but in most, they will stall at 120 days. If anyone can find a way around this, they can retire in the morning. It doesn’t last long-term and cattle generally start thriving after two to three weeks.”

Diet formulation is based on the quality, volume and relative value of ingredients. Charlie says the ingredient of choice for the feedlot is maize due to its consistency.

“2014 was an excellent year for maize. We have been feeding up to 10kg (per head) in diets but have eased back to 8kg to conserve supplies until this year’s crop is harvested. Starch levels of 28% are a good target, even better if you can get 30%. Dry matter of 30% to 32% is ideal but if you go higher the digestibility of starch will suffer.”

Table 1 details the feed value of the 2014 crop of maize.

Along with maize, animals are offered on average 3kg barley, 3kg maize and up until recently were offered 0.75kg wheat. Reserves have recently run out and this has been replaced with barley. Explaining the reasoning behind lower than normal reserves of wheat, Charlie said: “Maize meal is an excellent feed and its value was increased as it has been excellent value for money. Last year, we sold wheat and bought maize at €180/t. This year, it is €200/t so it might be more wheat fed.”

Brewers grain is also included at 4kg per head. “We like it as we are close to the plant (factory supplying it). We are lucky due to the number of cattle that we are always using it fast and don’t get secondary fermentation. Energy is good and protein is similar at about 23%.”

The protein source currently being used is wheat distillers.

“Soya bean meal is obviously the best protein source but we can’t use it (GM policy with Italian customers). We used some rapeseed but it a lot more expensive now. If the farm wasn’t producing KK, we’d use soya at present. We will monitor the price of alternatives but now it (wheat distillers) is the best fit. We have also started a trial using Optigen and it looks promising, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

The final part of the diet formulation which Charlie says is crucial to get right is the fibre (NDF) content. Straw is included at a rate of up to 0.75kg.

“We are looking for long fibre with best results with straw of two inches length. If we go less, we find cattle leave straw and consume the grain first. The ideal for the rumen is 25% to 28% NDF (neutral detergent fibre); if you push to 30% or over, it can affect intake”.

Molasses is also purchased in bulk with capacity to store 20t on the farm. However, according to Charlie the cost of molasses is increasing in recent months with its value reducing as a result.

Responding to a question on increasing the volume of grass silage in the diet, Charlie says this boils down to the quality.

“First of all when you talk about silage, you have to know its feeding quality. I’d advise everyone here to test their silage as if you don’t know what it is you can’t feed it to its potential. Last year it was 67% DMD, this year it is 77% and has an ME of 12.

“I can’t see how the product is better than grass so I’m calling it 11.5ME for calculations. At this level I’m quite happy to increase grass silage depending on stocks of maize. You could argue the silage is possibly too good as we want more fibre for intake to help settle the stomach.”

Responding to a further query questioning the merits of feeding a TMR diet over an ad-lib cereal diet, Charlie responded: “We have tried feeding ad-lib in the past but found it trickier to manage and everything we do here, we want to be as smooth for management as possible. That does not mean there are no risks with a TMR diet. Remember if you are feeding 8-9kg concentrates in any form, it is tricky. The starch content is 40%, you can go to 45% but it is close to the line. We include as acid buffer along with pre-mixed minerals as a precaution.”

Difference in protein levels

The quantity of feed offered is based on animals consuming 2.25% of their bodyweight in dry matter with the current intake target averaging 22kg to 23kg of the TMR diet at 50% DM. Charlie says if they can maintain this level of intake, they are very happy with performance while if they can push dry matter intake to 2.3% of bodyweight, he finds animals perform to their optimum potential.

The only difference between the diet fed to continental and Hereford animals is in the protein percentage.

The protein content for continental animals is 12.8% while the diet for Hereford cattle is formulated to deliver a protein content of 13.5% and lower energy density of 11.7 to 11.8 ME compared to 12.2 for continentals.

The reasoning behind a higher protein content and lower energy density is to promote more growth in Hereford cattle while at the same time trying to reduce the rate of fat cover developing. The average finishing period for Hereford cattle in 2015, excluding the 21-day build-up phase, is 100 days.

Jonathan Forbes said that while indoor finishing can represent a higher cost over finishing traditional breeds off grass-based systems, it helps in delivering a consistent product.

“The customer wants grass-fed and sustainable beef but visual colour and consistency of meat are key. Grain-fed beef delivers this consistency and we are responding to what the customer wants by requesting at least 50 days meal feeding pre-slaughter.”

Jonathan said this does not mean they are ignoring grass with a focus on sourcing well-grown animals that have done a good thrive on grass and are ideal for a short finishing period.

He added that the feedlot’s finishing is also delivering higher slaughter performance.

“Our slaughter performance is 37% Rs, 60% Os, 1% Ps and 1% Us. This compares with 29% Rs from cattle supplied through the producer group (Irish Hereford Prime). For me the better you can finish an animal, the better you can get in conformation and fat cover”.

Watch Jonathan assess fat covers on bulls prior to slaughter in our video below:

Responding to a question on differences in fat cover between grain and grass finished heifers, he said heifers finished on a high-cereal diet will have a lighter fat colour to grass-finished heifers, allowing heifers to be brought to higher weights without tending to go over-fat.

The breakdown of heifers grading 4+ and 5s for fat is 11% and 3% respectively, identical to the fat cover profile of heifers marketed to Kepak through Irish Hereford Prime. The average weight of Hereford heifers slaughtered from the feedlot is 324kg, 14kg higher than the group average of 310kg.

Calculating your own budgets

Farmers at the event were told the Kepak feedlot works independently to the Kepak factory in that it has to operate and deliver a margin over costs. The advice delivered on the final stand discussing the economics of the various finishing systems was for farmers to do budgets taking in costs and production performance relevant to their own farms.

Table 3 details the budget for cattle purchased in the first half of 2015. Jonathan made the point that farmers should calculate their own feed costs as there is greater negotiating power in purchasing ingredients in higher quantities. The breakeven price required, excluding any margin, for heifers currently finishing is €3.65/kg.

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Focus: Winter feed 2015