Dairy farmers have been told that they may need to pay calf-to-beef farmers to take their plainer-type calves in the future.
Speaking at the Ballyhaise22 Dairy Open Day in Co. Cavan on Wednesday (July 13) Teagasc’s Tom Coll said: “The reality is, you may need to give an envelope with them [plain dairy calves destined for beef] to get someone to actually take them to make a profit on them.
“That’s where we may well be heading in the next couple of years.”
Tom Coll is a livestock advisor based in Sligo and Leitrim who works with contract-rearing groups, and farmers who are contract-rearing dairy bulls too.
Speaking at the Ballyhaise event, he outlined two major issues dairy farmers will be faced with in the future, the first being the future of exports for calves.
“Is it something that will be challenged in the future and how long is it going to last?” he questioned.
“This year, when the ferries didn’t move, the calf price fell,” he said.
“The other issue is calf slaughterings at two to three-weeks of age. That’s something that from a public perspective, isn’t going to be acceptable into the future.”
Every Calf project
Coll informed attendees at the farm open day of the research body’s ‘Every Calf project‘.
The project aims to evaluate the potential for profitable dairy calf-to-beef contract-rearing systems on commercial farms.
As part of the project, ten drystock farmers are contract rearing over 1,000 dairy-beef calves from dairy herds in Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan; Clonakilty, Co. Cork; and three farms around Moorepark, Co. Cork.
The calves will be taken in by contract rearers at three weeks of age and kept until slaughter.
The calves consist of 55% dairy bull calves which are a range of Holstien Friesian, Friesian and Jersey genetics. 45% of the calves have beef sires and are Angus; Limousin; Hereford; Charolais; Belgian Blue; and Aubrac-sired calves of the dairy herd.
All calves are fed once a day (OAD) from 30-days of age and are weaned off milk at 63-days of age. The calves are given 4L of milk replacer and offered concentrates ad lib. The concentrate ration is cheap and cheerful, with all good ingredients.
At weaning, calves are eating 1-1.5kg of meal/head/day. After weaning they go to grass and get meal until mid-June, when meal is removed from the diet until mid-September.
Weight gain
The target weight gain from calves in the first season at grass is 0.6kg/head/day, however calves on the trial achieved a weight gain of 0.75kg/head/day.
Over the winter period, the target weight gain was 0.6kg and some of the farms involved in the project achieved this by feeding no meal and top-quality silage, ranging from 72-80% Dry Matter Digestibility (DMD).
During the second summer at grass, the target weight gain was 0.9kg/day, however the average achieved was 0.83/day.
This resulted in a lifetime average daily gain (ADG) of 0.75kg/day from birth to slaughter at 23-months of age.
On most farms in Ireland, these types of cattle are finished at 27-28-months of age.
Results
The cattle in the trial had an average carcass weight of 293kg and an average grade of O-3=. Cattle were selected for slaughter based on fat cover as opposed to liveweight.
Coll noted that the project is showing that “the results are validating the indexes”.
Calves with a high Commercial Beef Value (CBV) performed better, indicating the calf’s CBV is a “good prediction” of performance.
Coll noted that the cow’s carcass value within the beef sub-index of the cow has a “significant impact” on the calf’s performance.
Coll said that cows with a lower carcass value such as the Jersey and Jersey-cross breeds are producing progeny that “don’t fall in the market specification”.
“That’s going to be an issue going forward if there’s no live shipping and you can’t slaughter them as a calf,” he said.
“The potential for profit from the farmer buying them is next to none at current costs.”
He also noted that the “attrition rate is very high” in calf-to-beef systems and said “so many farmers get out of it because of profitability”.
He said that dairy farmers who are selling calves with a high CBV will be at a competitive advantage in the future and said he expects beef farmers to prioritise buying these higher CBV calves.