Watch: increasing herd output through autumn calving

Four of the programme farms operate a split calving pattern with cows calving in both spring and autumn. There are benefits to autumn calving in terms of spreading the workload and making greater use of housing facilities. Cashflow can also be improved where there are two main periods of cattle sales.

Dry autumn-calving cows can also make good use of less productive land that is not capable of sustaining higher stocking rates or high levels of liveweight gain in various cattle groups.

However, autumn calving requires higher standards of herd management. In addition, it is a more expensive system to operate compared with spring calving, as cows requires additional fodder, concentrates and provision of straw for calf creeps.

Best practice

Best practice to make this system profitable includes:

A tight calving pattern is also important. Autumn calving is expensive enough without prolonging the period in which cows need additional concentrate feeding to get back in-calf.

Once in-calf, cows in adequate condition can have meal levels reduced, as it is more beneficial to offer the meal directly to the calf rather than the cow.

Just because it is the autumn does not mean cows do not need minerals. A good-quality pre-calving mineral is vital to get calves off to the best possible start, regardless of the month of calving.

Dates for diary

BETTER Farm Beef Challenge NI Mart Demos. Three livestock demonstrations focusing on cattle management and winter feeding. All events run from 7.30pm to 9.30pm:

I am building my suckler herd towards 60 cows, with a split of 20 spring-calving and 40 autumn-calving cows.

Up until now, calving has been spread throughout the year. On joining the programme, we reviewed what has worked well in previous years, as well as what has not.

Taking account of the farm resources available, land type and fragmentation, together with a realistic outlook on the grazing season in this area, the 40:20 autumn- and spring-calving split will make the best use of land, labour, housing and time.

Most of the poorer grazing areas are really only suited to grazing dry cows during the summer period.

All of the previous programme farmers have become much more labour efficient and increased output through compact calving.

Changing system

With this in mind, I am planning to go down this route also. To simplify my system, I intend to purchase all of my replacement heifers as in-calf animals.

As I produce cattle for the live market, this means I can focus on breeding all of my cows to terminal sires and it also makes the system much easier to manage.

To increase calf quality and performance, I intend to make more use of AI for breeding, with a Charolais stock bull kept as a back-up.

Moving to two defined calving periods is something that really appeals to me and should provide more time to meet off-farm work commitments in future.

To get into the tighter calving period quickly, I have been ruthless this year in culling cows with a history of poor fertility or producing calves with low weight gain.

At the same time, I have allowed some better cows to slip from late spring-calving to fit into the new autumn-calving group.

To build numbers in the autumn herd, I have purchased additional cows and heifers, along with a further five in-calf cows purchased this September.

Calving

From mid-August to 30 October, 24 cows have calved. There are another 11 cows to calve inside the next six weeks.

If they all calve successfully, I will have 35 autumn cows plus a further seven cows that slipped from May calving to breed this winter.

All being well, it will potentially leave 42 cows to calve next autumn.

Breeding will begin on 15 November and AI will be used during the first six weeks, followed by the stock bull.

Breeding will stop in late January, around 11 weeks after starting.

This leaves the majority of autumn cows calving next September and October.

Autumn cow management

As cows calve, they are allowed to bond with the calf for a couple of days. After this, they move to a new suckler house which was completed this summer. Cows are on ad-lib first-cut silage (65 D-value) along with 2kg/day of meal.

Calves are being allowed to suckle cows twice daily. With calves kept out of cows’ sight during the day, it should reduce the number of days from calving until they come back in heat.

Cows will also display stronger signs of bulling activity.

All cows to be inseminated will be served with the Charolais bull Fiston (FSZ). I recently purchased a Charolais bull to sweep up cows.

Charolais is being used simply because they are in demand when sold as weanlings or yearling store cattle.

As my cattle are sold live, I am simply supplying what the market wants. My cow type for crossing with the Charolais bull is either Simmental, Limousin or Salers, bred with adequate milk supply.

I would also consider some more traditionally bred cows if available.

Spring herd

The 20 in-calf spring cows are due to calve from early January through to mid-March.

This year’s spring-born calves have been weaned since September, with just one sold at the weanling sales.

Calves are being fed different first-cut silage (67 D-value) along with 2kg/day of a 16% growing blend. We decided to house calves early, which I think worked out well, as they have continued to thrive.

Bull calves averaged 333kg, with heifer calves averaging 310kg on 7 October.

Calves will be marketed next February or March at 400kg-plus.