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If I felt inclined to join the swelled ranks of social media users, I’d probably take a picture of my Angus bullocks being turned out to grass, along with the following text: “Terrific batch of lean-looking stores, ready to pile on the flesh and make a tidy profit.”
As far as I can see, there are no poor performances or bad days in some people’s lives. However, I prefer to confront the truth no matter how unpalatable, and my explanation would have to be less self-congratulating, and more of an admission that I may have got it wrong again.
I’ll blame the dairy heifers which were penned either side of the beef stores in the slatted shed
There’s no doubt my stores look like the real McCoy and are exactly what you’d be trying to buy if you were looking for grazers in the month of April. Unfortunately, they were bought in November, and their desirable appearance is solely due to a hugely negative performance while in the house.
For that, I’ll blame the dairy heifers which were penned either side of the beef stores in the slatted shed. Each time I fed the cattle, the black bullocks looked like they were getting bigger and stronger by the day.
This was a bit of a false assumption, and it must have been the relative difference in size that made me arrive at the idiotic conclusion that the steers were doing at least 0.5kg per day.
Jenny (my daughter) oversaw the documentation
This erroneous supposition was blown out of the water when I ran them over the weighbridge before turnout and discovered to my horror, they had barely managed 0.2kg.
Jenny (my daughter) oversaw the documentation, and with the previous weights already on the page, was able to call out the actual gain (or loss) as each bullock stepped on to the scales.
It’s bad enough to hear a steady commentary of, “that one only put on 20 kilos dad”, but it’s truly dispiriting to have the occasional, “Ooh gosh, that one has lost weight”.
After we had finished, she volunteered to tot up the numbers and work out exactly what the score was, but by that stage, I was adamant that it wasn’t important, and I’d do it another time (when I’d cope a bit better with the awful truth).
Diet
For the record, they were fed ad-lib silage plus 1kg of a 16% blended ration. The silage analysis was all over the place, with various baled samples ranging from 9.5ME to 11.1ME.
By my reckoning, they were getting a traditional store diet, and because they were at least 500kg when bought, the expected performance would be in the region of 0.4kg daily.
At least there is a level of consistency here, because in 35 years of weighing housed cattle, I have rarely been pleasantly surprised.
Grass
By contrast, the opposite happens at grass, where performance has exceeded expectation on a regular basis. Therefore, hope springs eternal, and perhaps they will turn themselves inside out over the coming weeks and months.
If they had piled on the weight in the house, then maybe they’d be ready for selling during this period of upheaval and uncertainty
There is also the distinct possibility that this extension to their time on farm may be a blessing in disguise. If they had piled on the weight in the house, then maybe they’d be ready for selling during this period of upheaval and uncertainty.
I’ve convinced myself that all decisions have been utterly correct after all
Taking this argument a stage further, perhaps the market will have bottomed out, steadied, and will have peaked just as these boys are nicely fleshed and ready to kill.
Yes, I know this is hopelessly optimistic, but we can all dream, and you just never know what’s around the corner. Anyway, as I write this, I’ve convinced myself that all decisions have been utterly correct after all. I am now be ready to join the world of social media, where nothing ever goes wrong.
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