Selecting the right market for high quality cattle
Kieran Mailey, Beef & Sheep Development Advisor, Greenmount Campus, CAFRE
Producing suitable cattle for sale requires top quality breeding stock and excellent husbandry and management skills. Suckler herds often produce calves with no guarantee of what price they will receive at the point of sale. Keeping a focus on producing quality calves will open up different markets to suckler farmers as well as the conventional store or finishing market.
Sam Chesney runs 90 continental crossbred cows on his farm outside Kircubbin. His herd consists predominantly of Limousin type cows, with some Simmental and Belgian Blue breeding. This year has seen Sam review his business and move towards producing high quality calves for live sale, as feels that he was not receiving a beef price that reflected the true worth of his cattle.
Increasing Holstein influence has resulted in difficulty for suckler producers in sourcing good replacements so Sam has decided to concentrate on producing the type of cow he wants from within in his own herd. Having made considerable progress, his herd is now producing surplus replacements and these are now being sold as top quality breeding females.
The breeding policy in the herd is heavily focussed on improving growth and conformation. There is a rigorous culling policy, with cows culled for infertility, low milk yield, feet and age. With cow prices high, Sam sees little merit in retaining unproductive cows. Approximately 30 replacement heifers will be served this year and calve at 22 to 24 months of age. Such a selection policy ensures his cows are continually improving in quality and productivity, as any cow that is weak on any of these traits is culled.
Calving heifers at a younger age can lead to increased calving difficulties and also low milk yields. To avoid this problem, Sam purchased new Limousin stock bulls with high calving ease, milk and growth Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) to use on the herd. Retaining milk genes in the breeding will improve weaning weight and reduce the need for concentrates. A summary of the EBVs to focus on when breeding replacements is outlined below:
| Calving | Milk | Growth | Muscle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What to look for | Higher +ve value results in easier calving | Higher +ve value increases milk | Higher +ve value indicates higher growth rates of calves | Higher +ve results in better conformation and kill-out |
The health status of the herd has also been improved. After completing an animal health challenge last autumn through CAFRE, the herd is now routinely wormed, fluked and vaccinated against diseases such scour and pneumonia. Cows are blood sampled and vaccinated for BVD and Leptospirosis. With no mortality this year and a calf produced per cow, Sam feels it has been a worthwhile practice. It is also a strong selling point when bringing breeding heifers to the sale ring.
With rising production costs, Sam is not keen to carry cattle through to slaughter in a traditional suckler to beef system. High fertiliser costs and stock grazing pressure in a season where grass supply has been totally unpredictable means that selling live cattle at an earlier age is more beneficial economically to his business.
