Impressive figures from Scottish beef farms

Editorial Department • Published 6 Aug 2009 09:00 0 Comments

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Keeping control on production costs and high performance appear to be the theme of a recent study tour by 44 local farmers to Scotland.

The CAFRE three-day tour included visits to the Scottish Agricultural College's research facilities on the Bush Estate, the Royal Highland Show and two leading beef farms.

Some of the performances of producing beef on the farms visited showed that cattle can be finished on an average feed cost of 56p a day.

There were also impressive visits to the SAC's research unit and particularly the Easter Howgate building, a new beef research facility opened in January 2009. This building provides state of the art facilities for conducting beef research. The building can accommodate up to 330 cows or over 500 beef cattle and will facilitate research on reducing carbon footprints for beef.

The cattle handling system in the building was designed to minimise fear and encourage calm movement. Features included a solid clad forcing gate, a curved forcing pen with a gentle angle into the race, high sheeted race sides and a shedding gate.

Fertility performance is measured in a purebred Charolais herd to assess their suitability as suckler cows. AI on a triple synchronisation program and natural service are being recorded for cows and heifers and being compared to the Limousin and Angus crossbred herds.

SAC also have a small Luing herd which was involved in grazing trials. The Luing breed was developed from the Beef Shorthorn and the Highlander.

A visit to the Royal Highland Show provided an opportunity to see the latest developments in beef and sheep technology. In addition to the livestock and machinery exhibits the technical aspect of livestock production was particularly well catered for. Both Scottish Agriculture College (SAC) and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) provided a strong independent technical resource.

The first farm visit was to Robert and Roy McNee's 500-hectare farm in the LFA. The 200-cow suckler herd comprises approx 25% purebred Luings, 25% Luing-Sims mated to the Simmental with the remaining Sim-Luing cows bred to the Charolais. The Luing cows run on the hill ground and have formed the basis of the herd for 40 years. These cows suit the environment with their hardiness, foraging ability and are ease of management. Each year a number of Luing cows are crossed with the Simmental to produce Sim-Luing replacements. The Simmental brings milk, hybrid vigour and can be finished to optimum specification. These Sim-Luing cows are then put to the Charolais to provide cattle that are in demand in giving maximum kilos when sold as stores or finished.

The next visit was to Jim Brown who farms 130 hectares near Airdrie in North Lanarkshire where he finishes 2,000 head of beef from bought-in stores. He is specialising in 340kg carcase heifers for local and London butchers and carcases of 360kg and more for Morrisons supermarket.

Grass, silage and ware potatoes are the major feeds in the production system on the Brown farm. Potatoes come from one of the largest packhouses in the country which is only two miles from the farm. The cattle are all bedded on sawdust which is again sourced locally. Jim reckons he can finish cattle for an average feed cost of 56 pence per day. Strategic applications of slurry are used to reduce forage costs.

Farmers on the study tour were able to investigate other systems of beef production and see examples of where the costs of production were being controlled. The study tour was awarded funding from the Vaughan Trust and the group would like to express their thanks to the Trustees for their generous support.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 06 Aug 09

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