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Gross margin/ha has increased from £260 to £572 over the course of the programme, with Barry producing high-quality weanlings/stores for sale in the live ring.
Stocking rate has held relatively steady, with high-quality silage (74 D-value) harvested to reduce the reliance on concentrate input, in order to produce strong weanlings.
The farm carries 40 autumn-calving cows (Aug/Sept) and 20 winter-calving cows (Dec/Jan) bred to 100% AI.
Output has increased significantly, with increased kg of beef sold per ha of land farmed by moving from light weanlings sold straight off the cow, to light store animals around 400kg. Sale values have also increased, with the use of proven terminal sires, such as Fiston, as well as marketing calves during periods of naturally high buying demand. For example, in 2017 steers averaged 305kg at 225p/kg, or £689/head. By 2019, the change in management saw steers average 385kg at 240p/kg, or £925/head.
Improved grazing ground was used to carry later autumn-born calves during summer 2019. These calves gained 0.8kg/day, adding an extra 100kg of liveweight prior to selling live, increasing sale value compared to previous years.
Jonathan’s long-term aim is to settle at 90 spring-calving cows, almost twice the herd size at the outset of the programme.
During spring 2019, there were 81 cows and heifers set to calve down. A positive TB result last year means the herd is slightly behind target for this year, with over 90 cows scanned in-calf last autumn.
Gross margin has seen a tremendous increase from £62 to £749/ha, as the additional sales from the increased cow numbers are now coming through. Cattle sales in 2019 increased by threefold compared to 2018.
It must be noted that building herd numbers quickly can put a business under cash flow pressure.
To boost cash flow during this expansion phase, Jonathan contract rears dairy heifers for a local farmer. The money generated from the contract rearing enterprise is excluded from the gross margin analysis.
Breeding is moving to predominately high EBV Stabiliser genetics, with an Angus bull retained to spread the risk.
Young bulls slaughtered in 2019 had a lifetime carcase gain of 0.86kg/day, reducing days to slaughter by 34 days compared to 2018.
Angus-sired steers had a lifetime carcase gain of 0.57kg/day, averaging 371kg deadweight at 659 days, compared with 357kg at 670 days in 2018.
Fionbharr’s cows are a mix of traditional and continental breeding, with Angus, Limousin and Charolais stock bulls used.
The herd will calve 102 cows this spring. With a stocking rate of 1.87 CE/ha (cow equivalents), there is scope to expand cow numbers further on the farm.
However, calving 100 cows is the maximum Fionbharr wishes to operate for numerous reasons. Future expansion will come through a dairy calf-to-beef system, with a selection of bucket-reared heifers retained as a nucleus for breeding replacements with high milk production.
GM/ha increased to £799/ha, but is down on the £822/ha in 2017. However, this latter figure was inflated due to the dispersal of an autumn-calving herd.
Output is up marginally to 664kg/ha from 620kg, but the key difference is that cattle are finished much earlier.
Steers averaged exactly 380kg deadweight in 2019. Daily carcase gain was 0.54kg/day, but can be increased to 0.58kg as new terminal AI genetics start to filter through.
High EBV sires increased calf performance from birth to weaning last year, at 1.26kg/day on the cow compared with 1.16/kg in 2018.
Despite starting at a high baseline in 2016, Alastair has consistently improved herd performance and output annually.
The steer beef system produced GM/ha of £1060 in 2019, up from £894 in 2016. The herd predominantly uses a two-breed cross of Limousin and Angus, with Simmental and Shorthorn breeding introduced through AI.
Most cattle are finished on-farm, with some heifers sold live. The farm is now stocked to capacity, without investing in new buildings. A small sheep flock has been replaced with a dairy beef-calf enterprise.
Both young and finishing stock performance improved in 2019. Daily carcase gain in steers increased from 0.55kg to 0.57kg/day in 2019, reducing the length of the high-cost winter finishing period by as much as 30 days.
Calves gained 1.13kg/day from birth to weaning, up from 1.08kg/day in 2018. Refining the grazing and paddock system has allowed cow numbers to increase by 15% from 2016.
There is a clear focus on getting maximum output, as the calving spread has tightened to less than eight weeks, with 95.2% of cows bred scanned in-calf last autumn.
Ryan’s GM/ha slipped to £751 in 2019, down from £897 in 2018, but it remains well ahead of the £646 at the outset of the programme. The herd was established in 2013 and in 2018, he calved 99 cows and heifers.
However, in 2019 there was a reduction in herd size, due to Ryan entering full-time employment off-farm and giving up rented land.
The system is based on a smaller, fertile and highly maternal cow, which in 2019 had an average weaning percentage of 49% of mature cow weight. Cows also had a scanning rate of 95.6% settled in-calf over a 10-week period, which will facilitate better time management with Ryan’s job. Steers achieved an average deadweight of 308kg in 2019, compared to 291kg in 2018 at 19 months of age.
Concentrate use increased significantly to get cattle finished during the wet autumn of 2019. The system is heavily dependent on bonus payments through premium breed schemes, which were reduced in 2019.
Lower beef prices during autumn 2019 saw the average price for steers fall by 26p/kg and ultimately impacted on GM/ha.
Ryan has developed a market selling in-calf heifers to repeat buyers, but demand and prices were down on 2018 levels.
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