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Over the last three years, GM/ha across all programme farms has increased by 46%, from £574 in 2016 to £848 in 2019.
This equates to an extra £154,023 in total GM, or an additional £17,114 per farm to cover fixed costs and return a profit.
The relationship between stocking rate and GM/ha is clearly demonstrated in Table 1, with a 31% increase from 1.71CE/ha (cow equivalents) to 2.22 CE/ha in 2019.
Lower risk
The steer systems are less exposed to higher concentrate prices and lower beef prices, as a greater percentage of liveweight is produced from grass, compared to the bull systems. However, as the farms running steers started from a lower baseline, this also contributed to a high percentage increase in GM/ha.
Farm performance
Across the farms, Alastair McNeilly had the highest GM/ha in 2019 at £1,060, with a steady annual increase from £894 in 2016 to the current level. The system uses Limousin and Angus genetics with herd numbers expanding from an average of 66 cows in 2016 to 76 in 2019.
Weight gains at grass have increased meaning forward stores are being housed at heavier liveweights, leading to shorter finishing periods.
A good indication of improved efficiency inside the farm gate is the tonnage of purchased concentrate fed.
Despite more cattle being finished in 2019 compared to 2016, purchased concentrate fell to 48.8t last year from 56.5t in 2016.
Slaughter dates have moved from February/March in 2016 to December/January for Limousin steers with a higher percentage of Angus steers killed between 18 and 19 months of age during November and December.
Biggest increase
The biggest GM/ha increase over the three years occurred on Jonathan Blair’s farm, rising from £62 to £749/ha in 2019.
Driving this increase was the expansion of the suckler herd from an average of 47 in 2016 to 90 cows calving this spring.
With the expansion phase finished, cattle sales have now increased and the system has finally settled into a more defined suckler to beef finishing operation. There is scope for a further increase in GM/ha when cattle sales reach optimum levels.
Maximising output and sales in a farm system should be the top priority. A key driver of output in a suckler system is the number of live calves born and weaned annually, along with sale weight and price.
Across the programme farms, the number of calves born each year has risen from 584 in 2016 to 808 in 2019 (38% increase), and has undoubtedly been a big factor in the 46% rise in GM/ha.
Calf mortality across the farms was at 4.8% in 2019, with pregnancy scanning at 93%. Mortality rates probably need to improve in 2020 if the farms are to meet the industry gold standard of 90% of cows to the bull weaning a calf.
Calving
All farms have tightened calving patterns to an average 11.3 weeks for spring-calving herds, with autumn herds at 12.4 weeks in 2019.
Calving index is at 386 days in 2019 and higher than the target of 365 days. However, the 2019 figure is partly inflated due to changing of breeding windows, a sub-fertile stock bull on one farm and smaller autumn herds moving to spring calving.
Weaning weight
Cows must also provide enough milk to drive calf weaning weight. Maternal genetics have been used on farm to increase milk production, with these maternally bred heifers starting to come into production now.
Herd health
All farms had health plans which cover vaccines for pneumonia, scours and BVD to name a few. Veterinary costs have increased on a per-hectare basis, but fallen from £82/cow in 2017 to £74/cow in 2019.
The herd health plans are delivering more live calves and helping increase calf performance.
The programme farms have increased cow numbers in a sustainable way, and are growing and utilising more grass, which averaged 9.8t DM/ha last year.
This is a 32% increase since the start of the programme, with some farms growing over 12t DM/ha in 2019.
Grazing infrastructure, rotational grazing and better soil fertility increased grass yields.
For example, Barry Carty has increased soils from pH 5.9 and index 1 for P and K in 2016 to pH 6.3 and index 2 and 2- last year.
Nitrogen
N fertiliser applied has increased from 100 kg/N/ha in 2016 to 141kg/ha in 2019. However the rate at which this converts to beef has stayed relatively constant at 1kg N to 5.5kg beef produced.
Concentrate use
For every 1kg of concentrate purchased, the farms produce on average 0.8kg of beef. Steer systems fared better at 1kg concentrate to 1.06kg of beef, with bull systems averaging 1kg of purchased feed to 0.53kg beef.
However, there is huge variation in the bull systems from the lowest of 1kg of feed to 0.45kg of beef, to the highest at 1kg feed to 0.71kg beef at the Abbey Farm.
The Abbey’s bull finishing system is based on high-quality silage and bulls are fed a maximum of 8kg/day of concentrate during the finishing period.
In addition, weight gains of male calves averaged 1.38kg/day from birth to 200 days old. Maximising weight gain pre-weaning is a key element in reducing overall meal feeding.
Costs
The programme is about managing what you can inside the farm gate. But the farms are no different to any other farm and are affected by fluctuations in input costs and output.
The 46% increase in GM/ha is outstanding considering the change in input costs and beef prices as outlined in Table 2. Since 2017, both fertiliser and concentrates have risen by over 10%.
However, average beef price on farm (averaged across bulls, steers and heifers) has fallen by 5.6%.
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