Breeding and rearing suckler herd replacements – are you up to the challenge?

A traditional method of maintaining a suckler herd has been to purchase replacement heifers and terminal sires with all progeny being sold.  This is a simple system to operate and may well be the correct choice for many farmers.  On the other hand, maintaining a closed herd requires significantly more planning and effort.  Decisions have to be made on a breeding programme, sire selection, cow selection and management of the replacement heifers.  For those who succeed, the rewards are control over the health status and genetic merit of the herd and a ready market for any surplus heifers– are you up to the challenge?

Philip and William Dick have taken up the challenge with their 85 cow suckler herd near Saintfield.  Indeed, Philip has adopted a number of new technologies in recent years in the areas of breeding, marketing and health.

Philip has implemented a criss-cross breeding programme for the mature cows.  In this system, Limousin type cows are crossed with a Simmental sire while Simmental type cows are crossed with a Limousin sire.  When replacement heifers are to be retained it is beneficial to put the desired sire with the cows for only the first one or two cycles and then put in a terminal sire for the remainder of the mating period.  This ensures that replacements will be generated from the most fertile cows as these will calve early in the calving period and should also come into heat promptly.  Having later calving cows mated with a terminal sire means that any resulting heifer calves from cows with poorer fertility will not be retained for breeding.

A range of AI bulls including Milnafua Graduate (Simmental – BQI Elite Carcase and Maternal), LIMO Tanat (BQI Elite Carcase) and Epson (Limousin – BQI Superior Carcase and Maternal) have been used to generate his replacement heifers.  In 2006 a BQI Elite Maternal Simmental bull was purchased for this job.  A Limousin bull meeting BQI Superior Carcase and Maternal criteria has also recently been purchased to complement the Simmental bull.  Easy calving Limousin and Aberdeen Angus AI bulls have been used on first calving heifers.

Heifers to be retained are selected from those that are born early in the calving period and have satisfactory weaning weights.  This is important for four reasons.  

Replacement heifers are calved down two to three weeks before the main herd to allow dedicated supervision for this important group of stock.  In addition, heifers will also have some extra time after calving to start cycling before the breeding period.  The oestrus cycles of the replacement heifers have been synchronised to minimise time spent heat detecting, AI’ing and calving.  Two methods have been used namely

The combination of heat detection and a single prostaglandin injection is the lowest cost option.  On the other hand, on part-time farms or where labour is scarce, the CIDR programme gives greater control of heat synchronisation and minimises labour requirements.  

Recent work at CAFRE where 15 month old heifers were synchronised using a CIDR programme with fixed time AI and heifers observed on heat after three weeks AI’d again resulted in a confirmed pregnancy rate of 69 percent.  Any heifers which do not conceive to one of these two services are not given any more opportunities to breed and are finished for beef.

Following the purchase of BQI Superior and Elite standard bulls, Philip has been impressed with quality of the home-bred replacement heifers.  The best of these heifers are retained with other suitable heifers being sold for breeding.  To date Limousin sired heifers have been sold privately while Simmental sired heifers have been sold through the NI Simmental Club sales in Dungannon.  At these sales, Philip has sold maiden heifers of 12-15 months of age and has earned a significant price premium.  After replacing older cows and with more Simmental heifers coming on-stream, Philip aims to target this specialist breeding heifer sale again in future.

Many farmers purchase dropped calves or “pick up a bargain” at a mart.  Unfortunately, along with the “bargain” may come a range of diseases which can wreak havoc with herd health and fertility and be costly to eradicate or overcome.  The “bargain” may turn out to be the most expensive animal the farmer has ever purchased!  To improve his cow herd before becoming self-contained, Philip purchased high health status heifers sired by BQI Superior Carcase and Maternal bulls.  The herd is now self-contained to minimise the disease risks of importing breeding stock.  A vaccination programme for BVD, Clostridial diseases and scour is also implemented.  A possibility for the future is joining a herd health scheme to improve the health status of the herd and to provide vaccinated females for sale.

Are you up to the challenge of devising and implementing a plan to take control of the genetics, health status and management of your herd and breed your own replacements?

If you intend to purchase replacement heifers, will it be from a reputable, known source of genetics and health or will you just take a gamble and hope for a bargain?

Contact your local CAFRE adviser if you would like further help in this area.

Norman Weatherup with Philip and William