Careful selection required when sending cattle for slaughter

Finishing cattle are now coming ready for slaughter across a number of the programme farms. As a direct result of the tighter calving periods, the farmers now have larger groups of cattle coming ready for slaughter at this time of year.

While bigger numbers of finishing cattle can offer greater negotiating power on beef price, it can sometimes be a false economy if all of the animals in the group are not finished to the correct market specification.

Securing an extra 2p to 4p/kg on base price by selling larger groups of cattle is quickly lost if fat covers are outside the gold-box standard.

Full potential

Selling an underfleshed animal means it has not reached its full potential and results in a lighter carcase and therefore lost income. Increasing carcase fat class from a 2- to 3+ will improve the kill-out of the animal, increasing the carcase value. Cattle that are underfleshed in terms of fat cover are limited in terms of market outlet, making them of less use to the processor.

Therefore, to avoid sending under-finished cattle to the factory, it is vitally important when finishing cattle that you handle each animal individually to assess the level of fat cover present.

Better indication

By handling the animal regularly, you will get a much better indication of when the animal is ready to be marketed.

Focus on handling the animal along the rib and loin, followed by the tail head and cod to assess the level of fat present on the animal.

Weighing

Combining fat scoring with regular weighing is a much more accurate way to determine when cattle are ready to sell. For some animals with lower growth potential, it will not be economic to keep feeding in an effort to improve fat score. Weighing these animals will indicate when it is not putting on enough weight to cover feed costs, at which point these animals should be sold.

Week in review

Andrew Gardiner, Kilrea, Co Derry

Targeting right market spec for finishing cattle

We are sending the first of our 2015 spring-born steers for slaughter this week. Cattle are being finished approximately three weeks later than the equivalent batch slaughtered last December.

Despite achieving an average group daily liveweight gain (DLWG) of 1.9kg/day over the past six weeks, we were always playing catch up with these animals.

The recent weight gains have largely been the result of some compensatory growth after a delay in housing meant that cattle had entered a store period in the leadup to housing.

Finishing steers and heifers have been fattened on a diet of ad-lib first-cut silage, which was supplemented with rolled barley and minerals.

Meal feeding has gradually been built up to 5kg/day for the heifers and 7kg for the steers. The steers averaged 606kg liveweight two weeks ago.

Steers being drafted for slaughter weigh around 670kg to 700kg. The Charolais and Saler-bred steers and heifers going into the conventional market are mostly R and U grades.

When selecting cattle for slaughter, we are aiming to draft animals as they reach a fat cover in the 3- to 3+ range.

However, we have the first of our Shorthorn-bred cattle being fattened alongside these continental animals.

The plan is to market these cattle through the Glenarm Shorthorn scheme. Under this scheme, a higher fat cover of 4+ is required to meet the carcase specification.

Although this will require a longer feeding period, a bonus payment of 10% above the conventional market base price should make this worthwhile.

Breeding

Over the past three years, we have used a Shorthorn stock bull (Dunsyre Fergus), with a Simmental bull (Omorga Cheiftain) added to the herd for the 2015 and 2016 breeding seasons.

Our aim is to develop a three-breed rotation of Shorthorn, Simmental and Limousin. Our Simmental bull gave feet problems during the breeding season this year. After discussions with our vet, we were advised to replace the bull, as the problem is likely to flare up again when he is working.

With this bull now being slaughtered, we want to bring in a replacement soon. This will mean a new bull is acclimatised to the farm before the breeding season.

Top of our priorities when selecting a bull will be his calving ease and that of his daughters, followed by milk.

This year, we used AI on our replacement heifers, with fixed-time AI insemination, and got a 65% success rate to first service.

If we can continue to be successful with this in the future, we can introduce Limousin sires to the herd. It will also allow our stock bulls to be retained for four years of breeding.

In-calf heifers

We are very tight for space during winter, particularly with regards to slatted housing. Last year, to save on bedding and the added workload of cleaning out bedded areas, we housed our replacements along with our dry cows.

Looking back, these heifers probably could have done with a little extra nutrition than that required by the older cows.

This year, in-calf heifers have been grouped together and are currently being fed good-quality first-cut silage.

When calving heifers at 24 months, they must be well looked after if they are to be productive mothers and go back in-calf successfully the following year.

Animal health

Dry cows are due to be treated for fluke over the Christmas period. For cows, we use a nitroxynil-based product which targets adult fluke. Therefore, cows need to be housed for eight to 10 weeks to achieve the best results.

Cows are being fed second-cut silage, which is average quality at best. Nevertheless, this silage is doing a good job at maintaining body condition.

The in-calf heifers are treated with a fluke and wormer product. Cows will be offered pre-calving minerals in the new year at a rate of 100g/cow on a daily basis.

All other young stock were covered for worms at housing and received a tricalabendazole fluke drench two weeks after being housed. These young cattle require no further treatments.

Weanlings

Our calves suffered a setback this autumn due to an acute infection with rumen fluke. This has also been an issue in previous years, even causing some calf deaths.

We find it difficult to get the timing of this dose correct, even with the use of faecal egg counting. We seem to get a quick spike at different stages each year. In future, calves will have to be monitored much more closely and treated more promptly.

Despite vaccinating all calves for pneumonia, we still had some issues after housing. But this was probably a management issue as much as anything else.

With space at a premium and poor airflow, conditions were perfect for some respiratory disease to take hold. To catch up in performance, steer and heifer calves are being fed 3kg/day and 2kg/day of meal respectively along with first-cut silage.

We will review weights and condition score in the new year and reassess the feeding levels required for the pre-turnout period next spring. To alleviate housing space, we are in the process of drawing up plans for extra cattle accommodation, which will hopefully ease the system in future.