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Weighed on 11 November, bulls on the Milligan farm averaged 572kg (average birth date 5 October 2014) and steers averaged 602kg (average birth date 15 April 2014).
Many of the programme farmers have now begun slaughtering steers and heifers born in spring 2014. Also, some of the autumn 2014-born bulls are now coming ready.
Despite the tight calving patterns developed on farms, there is still a considerable range in weights within calving blocks. This is often resulting in cattle needing to be slaughtered in smaller batches. The danger with waiting on a larger batch size to slaughter is that some cattle could become over-fat.
Covers
Weighing facilities on farms have enabled growth rates to be regularly monitored and with cattle now housed over 60 days, farmers are keeping a close eye on fat covers, particularly on those steers and heifers with some traditional breeding.
To get the optimum value from carcases, it is essential that the correct fat cover is achieved for each individual animal. To the trained eye, general appearance gives a good guide. However, to ensure accurate selection, handling and perhaps a second opinion are required to ensure the best estimate of the level of finish.
Assessing fat cover on the tail head, loin and ribs tends to be the most reliable parts of the animal. Remember,
under-finished cattle will have poor kill-out, fail to reach conformation potential and will be discounted on price. On the other hand, over-fat cattle will also be penalised. Chasing extra kilogrammes or waiting on a price rise at the expense of cattle becoming over-fat is a false economy. It is estimated that each 1kg of fat deposited requires four times the feed energy as each 1kg of muscle. It means there is a very poor return on these extra kilos.
Week in review
Finishing cattle are being closely monitored to ensure target weight gains and adequate level of finish are being achieved.
Spring-calving cows are being batched according to condition score, with feeding levels restricted accordingly.
The last of the paddocks are now being closed for spring grazing.
Autumn-born calves are being given restricted access to cows, which is improving signs of oestrus and aiding heat detection. All observed heats being recorded.
Farmer Focus:John and Joe Milligan, Castlewellan
Most cattle have been housed over the past month. The exception is some of the spring-born heifer calves, which were weaned in September, and a batch of eight 14- to 15-month-old autumn-born replacement heifers currently running with the Aberdeen Angus stock bull.
The spring-born weanling heifers are currently being fed 1kg of meal per head daily. They will be housed over the next week as shed space becomes available. Their male equivalents have been housed over the past two weeks.
The autumn-born heifers being bulled would ideally have been housed earlier to avoid any changes during the mating period, but good weather up until this week tempted us to keep them grazing on an outfarm which is not suitable for sheep.
Approximately two-thirds of the farm is now closed for grazing until next spring. Excellent grazing conditions over October allowed those areas closed up to date to be grazed off tightly and although there is still some regrowth, this will now be saved until early 2016. It will be much more valuable at that point for young stock and freshly lambed ewes.
Housed
The first cattle to be housed during September were the 2014 spring-born steers and autumn-born bulls. They have performed similarly to last year. At the last weighing on 11 November, the steers averaged 602kg. With an average birth date of 15 April, this represents a total lifetime gain of almost 1kg per day.
The top 10 steers are now averaging over 652kg and are beginning to lay down fat cover. These will be slaughtered over the next two to three weeks.
Weighed on the same date, the autumn-born bulls (average birth date 5 October) are now averaging 572kg, giving a lifetime gain to date of approximately 1.3kg per day. Similar to the steers, there is a range in weights with some now approaching 700kg. They will be slaughtered over the coming weeks.
Since housing, both steers and bulls have been built up to 7kg to 8kg of a finishing blend daily, along with the best-quality round bale silage. From now on, cattle are being monitored closely for levels of finish.
Replacements
This time last year, we were in the fortunate position of having a surplus of potential replacement heifers in our spring-born group of weanlings.
These are mainly Simmental, Limousin and Aberdeen Angus bred cattle. For a herd of 50 spring-calving suckler cows, we didn’t anticipate needing many more than 10 to 15 replacements, even if a hard culling was to take place.
After giving it some thought, we ran 26 of these heifers with an Aberdeen Angus bull during the summer. Twenty-five of these scanned in-calf in early September. Thirteen have been kept for ourselves, with the remaining 12 sold off in mid-September.
These heifers were sold at a similar price to what they may potentially have grossed finished as beef this month. We are happy with how this has worked out and have been able to sell these cattle off earlier and with a substantial reduction in feed and housing requirements.
Using a breeding programme based on maternally selected bulls has been successful for us. We can be much more selective in which heifers we retain, which is hopefully helping to improve cow type faster.
By also ensuring the sires used are not poor on terminal traits, we don’t seem to have compromised on weight gains or grading of finished steers or bulls.
However, going down the route of breeding surplus replacements can bring with it some risks, such as potentially being closed with TB. But we intend to repeat the exercise as long as we have heifers of a suitable quality.
Autumn herd
The Simmental stock bull has been running with the autumn-calving herd since mid-October. Calves are being allowed to suckle twice daily, which we hope is helping cows to cycle earlier.
We are trying to move calving further into August and September. Calves are currently eating approximately 1kg of meal per head and have access to the best-quality silage available.
All cattle under one year old have been vaccinated for pneumonia pre-housing. This is a necessity on this farm given so many cattle of varying age groups are housed under the same roof after being grazed separately all summer. All cattle will be dosed for liver fluke eight to 10 weeks post-housing.
Many of the programme farmers have now begun slaughtering steers and heifers born in spring 2014. Also, some of the autumn 2014-born bulls are now coming ready.
Despite the tight calving patterns developed on farms, there is still a considerable range in weights within calving blocks. This is often resulting in cattle needing to be slaughtered in smaller batches. The danger with waiting on a larger batch size to slaughter is that some cattle could become over-fat.
Covers
Weighing facilities on farms have enabled growth rates to be regularly monitored and with cattle now housed over 60 days, farmers are keeping a close eye on fat covers, particularly on those steers and heifers with some traditional breeding.
To get the optimum value from carcases, it is essential that the correct fat cover is achieved for each individual animal. To the trained eye, general appearance gives a good guide. However, to ensure accurate selection, handling and perhaps a second opinion are required to ensure the best estimate of the level of finish.
Assessing fat cover on the tail head, loin and ribs tends to be the most reliable parts of the animal. Remember,
under-finished cattle will have poor kill-out, fail to reach conformation potential and will be discounted on price. On the other hand, over-fat cattle will also be penalised. Chasing extra kilogrammes or waiting on a price rise at the expense of cattle becoming over-fat is a false economy. It is estimated that each 1kg of fat deposited requires four times the feed energy as each 1kg of muscle. It means there is a very poor return on these extra kilos.
Week in review
Finishing cattle are being closely monitored to ensure target weight gains and adequate level of finish are being achieved.
Spring-calving cows are being batched according to condition score, with feeding levels restricted accordingly.
The last of the paddocks are now being closed for spring grazing.
Autumn-born calves are being given restricted access to cows, which is improving signs of oestrus and aiding heat detection. All observed heats being recorded.
Farmer Focus:John and Joe Milligan, Castlewellan
Most cattle have been housed over the past month. The exception is some of the spring-born heifer calves, which were weaned in September, and a batch of eight 14- to 15-month-old autumn-born replacement heifers currently running with the Aberdeen Angus stock bull.
The spring-born weanling heifers are currently being fed 1kg of meal per head daily. They will be housed over the next week as shed space becomes available. Their male equivalents have been housed over the past two weeks.
The autumn-born heifers being bulled would ideally have been housed earlier to avoid any changes during the mating period, but good weather up until this week tempted us to keep them grazing on an outfarm which is not suitable for sheep.
Approximately two-thirds of the farm is now closed for grazing until next spring. Excellent grazing conditions over October allowed those areas closed up to date to be grazed off tightly and although there is still some regrowth, this will now be saved until early 2016. It will be much more valuable at that point for young stock and freshly lambed ewes.
Housed
The first cattle to be housed during September were the 2014 spring-born steers and autumn-born bulls. They have performed similarly to last year. At the last weighing on 11 November, the steers averaged 602kg. With an average birth date of 15 April, this represents a total lifetime gain of almost 1kg per day.
The top 10 steers are now averaging over 652kg and are beginning to lay down fat cover. These will be slaughtered over the next two to three weeks.
Weighed on the same date, the autumn-born bulls (average birth date 5 October) are now averaging 572kg, giving a lifetime gain to date of approximately 1.3kg per day. Similar to the steers, there is a range in weights with some now approaching 700kg. They will be slaughtered over the coming weeks.
Since housing, both steers and bulls have been built up to 7kg to 8kg of a finishing blend daily, along with the best-quality round bale silage. From now on, cattle are being monitored closely for levels of finish.
Replacements
This time last year, we were in the fortunate position of having a surplus of potential replacement heifers in our spring-born group of weanlings.
These are mainly Simmental, Limousin and Aberdeen Angus bred cattle. For a herd of 50 spring-calving suckler cows, we didn’t anticipate needing many more than 10 to 15 replacements, even if a hard culling was to take place.
After giving it some thought, we ran 26 of these heifers with an Aberdeen Angus bull during the summer. Twenty-five of these scanned in-calf in early September. Thirteen have been kept for ourselves, with the remaining 12 sold off in mid-September.
These heifers were sold at a similar price to what they may potentially have grossed finished as beef this month. We are happy with how this has worked out and have been able to sell these cattle off earlier and with a substantial reduction in feed and housing requirements.
Using a breeding programme based on maternally selected bulls has been successful for us. We can be much more selective in which heifers we retain, which is hopefully helping to improve cow type faster.
By also ensuring the sires used are not poor on terminal traits, we don’t seem to have compromised on weight gains or grading of finished steers or bulls.
However, going down the route of breeding surplus replacements can bring with it some risks, such as potentially being closed with TB. But we intend to repeat the exercise as long as we have heifers of a suitable quality.
Autumn herd
The Simmental stock bull has been running with the autumn-calving herd since mid-October. Calves are being allowed to suckle twice daily, which we hope is helping cows to cycle earlier.
We are trying to move calving further into August and September. Calves are currently eating approximately 1kg of meal per head and have access to the best-quality silage available.
All cattle under one year old have been vaccinated for pneumonia pre-housing. This is a necessity on this farm given so many cattle of varying age groups are housed under the same roof after being grazed separately all summer. All cattle will be dosed for liver fluke eight to 10 weeks post-housing.
NISBP farmer John Milligan has put the stock bulls out with his spring cows last week to start the breeding season.
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