Overhauling suckler breeding in Angus

The Stodart family in Angus asked the farmers at the latest Angus Monitor Farm meeting for advice on changing their cattle enterprise. Their farm, Mill of Inverarity, is part of the Monitor Farm Scotland initiative, managed by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds.

The farm has 200 suckler cows, which are Simmental and Limousin crosses. It has 150 stores and 150 finishers. Rob Stodart is keen to make sure the farm has the right breed for its system.

“I’m concerned that our Limmy crosses, many of which are now being put to a Limmy bull, are going to become almost purebred Limousin and they will lose the good mothering and milk characteristics that we need,” he told farmers at the Monitor farm workshop in Forfar mart on Thursday 7 December.

The meeting went through the efficiency figures for cows on the farm at the moment, as well as recent trials using AI.

The Stodart’s are keen to move to a closed herd, having experienced some problems with Campylobacter in the past.

So making decisions around future breeding will be impacted by that, as maternal traits will have to be bred in the herd.

The question they asked farmers at the workshop is whether to sell store cattle, finished cattle or both.

“I think 2018 will see changes to how we farm here at the Mill,” Rob said, adding that they may try move to an only spring-calving system. “

We need to ensure we are working as efficiently as possible and we’re really open to new ideas and hearing other farmers’ experiences to help us decide the future of the herd”.

Approximately 60 people in attendance at the meeting split into groups of 10 to discuss the questions posed for the Mill of Inverarity breeding plan.

The general consensus was that in order to make a final decision, the Stodarts must have a target market in mind (ie decide on whether to sell store cattle or finish them).

The efficiency of cows at Mill of Inverarity was compared by assessing the weight of the calves at 200 days and what proportion that was of the cow’s weight (see table 1).

The most efficient cow weighed just 644kg, and her calf was 45% of that weight at 200 days. Meanwhile, the least efficient cow was a much heavier animal, weighing 774kg and her calf was just 21% of that weight at 200 days.

However that cow was also much older, so the figures in table 2 show how the top 25% and the bottom 25% of the herd performed.

The workshops also asked farmers to consider the harvest for 2017 – what was good, bad and what they would do differently next year.

“The Angus monitor farm is going well, we’re getting a consistent number of people to the meetings and each time we are able get into a bit more detail on the different topics,” said the co-ordinator from SAC Consulting, David Ross.

“It takes time for a group to get established and be comfortable enough at sharing their experiences.

“There’s a lot of knowledge among the group and the trick is to be able share ideas and previous experiences of those present.”

The next meeting for the Angus Monitor Farm is on 18 January and it will discuss the sheep enterprise on the farm, as well as feed requirements pre-lambing and finances.

The Stodarts bought some lambs from other farms in the Monitor Farm programme and the group will see how they performed and graded out.