Stabiliser cattle focusing on feed efficiency

The BETTER farm programme participants visited the Stabiliser Cattle Company to view first-hand how the farm is focusing on carrying out on-farm feed efficiency trials.

The suckler herd is well managed by David Thirwell, with Ursula Taylor responsible for marketing and sales of pedigree stock.

Stabiliser cattle are a composite breed established in Colorado by the Leechman Cattle Company. The breed originally consisted of four breeds – Angus, Hereford, Simmental and Gelbvieh. More recently, the breed has evolved and there is less Simmental influence in new bloodlines in the UK.

Although it is an uncommon breed in Ireland, there are some pedigree herds established. In Northern Ireland, the breed has become well-established with some notable herds.

The breed was imported into England in 1996 when five beef producers in East Yorkshire founded the Stabiliser Cattle Company.

Finding it difficult to source quality replacement heifers from the dairy herd due to the increasing Holstein influence, these farmers viewed the Stabiliser as being a potential breed to provide maternal suckler cows with low feed costs, longevity and high fertility.

Farm background

Givendale farm runs 245 spring-calving cows and all animals are purebred. Cows calve from early to mid-March and all females are calved in nine weeks, with 70% of cows calved in the first three weeks.

Cows are turned out to grass as they calve as there would be too great a demand on indoor calving facilities.

The calving interval is 365 days. Cows are served with a combination of stock bulls and AI. Stock bulls cover 45 to 50 cows. Barren rates are typically 3% in a nine-week breeding season.

Prior to Stabiliser cattle, the farm carried a spring-calving herd of Angus and Limousin cross Friesian cows crossed with Charolais sires to produce slaughter cattle. A 100-cow pedigree Charolais herd was also in place.

The current system sees all stock being performance-recorded, with high-index bulls and heifers retained, as well as sold for breeding, along with a select number of stock bulls.

Cattle that are not suitable for breeding are finished on-farm. Bulls are slaughtered at 400 days with carcase weights of 350kg.

The breed is geared towards maternal traits and with Angus and Hereford genetics present, the male progeny produce lighter carcase weights when slaughtered. Up to 80% of young bulls on the farm mostly grade R4L.

Animal performance

Calf birth weights are 41kg for bulls and 39kg for heifers. Cows and calves are grazed extensively on upland grassland.

Grass quality is poor and the farm is prone to burning during the summer. Creep feeders are introduced in late summer, with calves offered 1kg/head of a barley and maize distillers mix.

Calves remain on the cow until weaning at 200 days in late October. Weaning weight for bulls in 2013 was 323kg and calves are on track to reach a similar weight this year. Performance is monitored through weighing and calves have averaged 1.4kg/day this year.

Once housed, bulls are moved on to the finishing ration and pushed for slaughter. There is no storing period on the bulls.

Finishing is all about cost per kilogramme of carcase gain and daily feed costs. Bulls are the most efficient converters of concentrate feed, so storing them only adds cost to the finishing system.

Bulls are fed 12kg DM per day of wholecrop wheat, straw, sugar beet pulp, maize distillers and barley. The finishing ration is 14% protein and typically 38% to 40% starch and high in energy. Daily feed costs are £2/head/day (€2.40).

Average daily liveweight gain is 1.8kg/day over the finishing period for bulls. Kill-out is usually 57%, so average daily carcase gain is 1.02kg/day. Bulls are marketed through retail chain Morrisons and a premium of 10p/kg is paid on young bulls between 320kg and 370kg.

Heifers that are kept for breeding are fed red clover silage and 1kg/day of concentrates. Heifers have gained 1kg/day during the winter period and are being bred from 450kg to 480kg liveweight at 15 months with little trouble.

According to farm manager David Thirlwell, heifers are getting too big at breeding, which is increasing cow size. This winter, heifers will be offered red clover silage only. Mature cows weigh from 650kg to 800kg. David would like the upper weight range capped at 700kg.

While cows are heavy, they usually hold body condition between 3.5 and 4.0, which is adding 30kg to their liveweight. Heifers that are finished are slaughtered out of the house. There is no second grazing for these animals. Eating a similar ration to the bulls, the heifers are killed at 450 days at 300kg carcase weight.

Feed efficiency

Feed costs account for 70% of the total production costs in suckler-beef systems. Therefore, the less feed consumed by the animal and the better the performance, the greater the margin.

The farm received a £1.5m grant from industry stakeholders and government to carry out feeding trials.

The plan is to have 1,000 Stabiliser cattle pass through a purpose-built feed unit in five years. Steers and bulls are on trial and the information collated will be used to produce a breeding index or EBV. While feed efficiency is important, it has limits, as it does not take into consideration carcase weight or carcase grade, which have a major influence on the value of the animal. This information has to be accounted for afterwards.

Three trials are run annually, with 80 animals per trial. Animals are sourced from Givendale Farm, plus other known Stabiliser breeders. Animals must represent the top and bottom performing animals. Animals coming on to the unit are treated for worms, fluke and IBR, then weighed and given an electronic ear tag.

Animals have a 28-day period to acclimatise to the new environment and diet. The actual feed trial lasts for 56 days and during this period, cattle have ad-lib access to the finishing ration.

Cattle eat from a feed crate fitted with a weigh cell. Cattle have an electronic tag so all intakes are recorded along with the number of times the animals eat daily.

From the data recorded to date, bulls are 20% more efficient than steers, although steers have performed well on trial. Bulls have averaged 1.84kg/day over the 56 days this year, with a range of 1.2kg to 2.4kg/day.

Steers have averaged 1.4kg/day, with a range of 0.5kg either side of the average. Steers are older when carrying out the feed trial, which has to be accounted for when compared to a 12-month-old bull. Steers are 14 to 16 months old at the start of the trial and slaughtered at 16 to 18 months at 330kg carcase weight.

The trial has shown that there can be a 25% difference in intakes between bulls and steers and a 13% difference between the top and bottom third of cattle on the trial.