Autumn Beef Series in association with Teagasc
2023 has proven to be a very difficult year to farm in many parts of the country. While beef prices have fallen from an early May height, the real trouble lies in the extra costs incurred on farm with a very late turnout in spring followed by a complete breakdown of weather in June, which has persisted since.
Rainfall levels in many parts of the country, particularly the western half, have exceeded the yearly averages by a large percentage and have resulted in many farmers with cattle coming near finish with a decision to make.
Farmers need to assess whether or not they can finish their cattle off grass outdoors or if they would be better off housing them for a period and feeding meal and silage inside.
The decision will be based a number of factors:
- The type of bovine being finished and what the desired finishing weight will be;
- The quantity of grass outside to be grazed;
- Ground conditions;
- Housing availability.
Type of bovine and desired finishing weight
Farmers with early maturing heifers need to look at these animals and assess the level of fat cover on the heifers and make a call as to how far from slaughter they are.
Some early maturing heifers out of dairy herds can be bred by very short gestation and easy calving bulls with poor beef characteristics. It is common for some of these types of heifers to be laying down fat at around 400kg liveweight at grass once they hit around 18-20 months of age, resulting in a carcass of around 200-210kg.
While the money these carcasses will come into is small and might not suit every outlet, there is little point in feeding or storing these types heifers as they more than likely don’t have the genetic merit to increase carcass weight.
The best move is to slaughter them as quickly as possible once they reach a fat score of 3.
Continental heifers and steers along with Friesian steers will generally need some level of meal feeding. A target for continental steers would be 700-800kg at around 29-30 months of age depending on genetic make-up while Friesian steers would be targeting 700-750kg liveweight at the same age.
Some small level of meal feeding may be needed at grass in the region of 3-4 kg per day for 3-5 weeks to ensure fat scores tick all the boxes and move these cattle before the 30 month cut off for QA bonus.
Younger steers at their second season at grass would be near 19-20 months of age by now and if the intention is to finish these before the end of the year they will likely need near 400-450kg of ration.
A 60-80-day feeding period will suffice. If cattle have been fed since late July or early August it should be possible to finish off grass in the next few weeks once ground is not being damaged.
If they have only started on meal in the last 3-4 weeks or if ground is being poached then housing now is probably the best option on silage and 5-6 kg of meal.
Quantity of grass to be grazed
Despite the waterlogged conditions on some farms grass growth levels have been higher than expected due to very warm conditions. This is leaving some farmers with higher than expected covers on land that can’t be grazed with heavy stock.
If this becomes the situation, calf-to-beef producers have lighter weanlings that can be used to graze off these grass covers as best they can until the end of the year.
Weanlings will continue to thrive at grass with 2kg of meal supplementing their diet and should do only superficial damage at worst to land.
The important thing is that farmers aim to graze off 60% of the farm by early November. Leaving heavy covers over the winter will lead to grass rotting into the ground and will hamper spring growth.
Stock should be moved every three days to fresh grass in a new paddock or a back fence to be put in place to prevent poaching.
Ground conditions
While one of the main targets for farmers feeding cattle at grass is to finish them as quickly as possible and avoid any change in diet. It must be ensured that no major level of poaching is carried out.
Granted, there will be areas near troughs and gates and field corners that get damaged at this time of year, but if the majority of paddocks are starting to cut up and hold water in hoof prints it is probably time to look at killing cattle or else moving them to the shed for a short finishing period.
Damage at this time of year will hit spring growth and result in delayed turnout into late spring.
Housing availability
One of the biggest failings on many beef farms is overstocking of sheds. Feeding forward stores on now either at grass or in the shed will result in more space available for lighter stores and weanlings once all stock are housed later in the year.
This will result in greater levels of thrive over the winter housing period. Finishing cattle need a minimum of 2.5m2 per head to have enough lying space to ruminate comfortably and access feed.
Farmers need to be aware of slurry storage requirements when housing cattle early to feed with October 1, being the beginning of the closed period.
In the majority of cases around 70 days should see the majority of cattle being finished inside fit for slaughter once silage quality is adequate
The last piece of the jigsaw that farmers need to pay attention to is feed quality. Ration should contain a high level of cereals, around 75-80% to provide energy and an easily digested protein source such as soya bean meal.
Protein levels can be kept at a relatively low level when feeding at grass (<12%) but may need to rise to 14% or higher when fattening inside if protein levels in silage are very low.
Silage quality needs to be tested also with farmers needing over 70% dry matter digestibility (DMD) to achieve an economic level of performance inside in a shed.