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Store cattle wintered on low concentrate diets can avoid a negative impact on lifetime performance, provided they are placed on a high plane of nutrition the following year, farmers attending a beef and sheep event at Greenmount on Tuesday were told.
With concentrates currently costing £370/t to £380/t, the potential for wintering store cattle on a silage only diet was detailed by AFBI scientist, Dr Francis Lively.
In feed trials involving steers and heifers, cattle were stored during their first winter on silage and only 0.5kg/day of concentrate, and had a liveweight gain of 0.3kg/day.
A second group were wintered on silage and 2kg/day of concentrate with a daily gain of 0.7kg/day. Turnout weight was therefore higher in the second group.
Cattle were grazed on good grass, then re-housed for a second winter and finished over 140 days. Both cattle groups were offered high quality silage and concentrate on an ad-lib basis. By the time of slaughter, there was no difference in carcase weight across the two groups, with both averaging 377kg.
In a similar trial, animals were not pushed on a high plane of nutrition during the second grazing or housing period. Carcase weight in the animals that only gained 0.3kg in their first winter was on average 11kg lower at slaughter. When the finishing period was reduced to 100 days, this difference increased to 18kg, or £80/head at current beef prices.
“There are potential savings to be made in the first winter, provided silage is good and cattle are returned to good grass in early spring, then housed and placed on a high-quality finishing diet.
“If this is not the case, the farmer will most likely have higher finishing costs next winter from a longer finishing period,” concluded Lively.
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