Winter Beef series is in conjunction with Teagasc’s DairyBeef 500 Campaign.
Drafting and selecting cattle for slaughter is ongoing on Teagasc DairyBeef 500 farms and will continue right throughout the spring.
Drafting animals too early, when they don’t have adequate fat cover, or too late, when they are too fat, results in a price reduction.
Market specifications require animals between a 2+ and 4= for carcass fat score.
A price reduction occurs when animals don’t meet market specifications and penalties will be applied or bonuses lost on the Quality Payment Scheme (QPS) or through breed-specific schemes.
Nationally, a relatively high percentage of animals is slaughtered at excessively high fat scores, representing additional feed days and associated economic and environmental costs.
Once cattle reach the desired fat score of a 3+, the carcass weight potential of the animal is maximised and putting animals into any higher levels of a fat cover reduces their efficiency significantly in terms of average daily gain.
Economics of over-finishing dairy/beef cattle
With the increase in input costs experienced across the sector this winter, keeping on animals and feeding them longer than required will provide very little in return.
For example, an Angus or Hereford steer gaining 1.1kg/day liveweight will equate to approximately 0.6kg of carcass gain. At current beef prices, this animal has the potential to earn €3.00/day which will fall short of covering feed costs when the diet consists of a meal feeding rate of 5.5kg/day and silage ad-lib.
It is advisable that farmers monitor animals regularly and any decision on holding cattle for longer must be made on the basis of the animal’s performance, the costs associated with keeping the animal and the potential increased return achievable from the market.
With animals now indoors on a high level of nutrition, fat cover in early-maturing breeds and heifers can change dramatically over a short period.
With this in mind, it is advised to draft animals every 10-12 days to ensure they don’t become overfat.
When it comes to assessing the fatness of steers and heifers, the primary areas to focus on are the shoulders, loin, rib and the tail head.
For bull beef producers, fat cover can be slightly more difficult to determine.
The areas mentioned above are important areas to monitor for fat cover.
However, other areas that give a good indication of fat cover in bulls are the cod – the area above the scrotum – and the brisket, the area between the front legs of the animal. Generally once fat starts to be laid down in these areas bulls are ready for slaughter.