THE IMPORTANCE OF QUESTIONING YOURSELF AND OTHERS
From a standing start in 1987
with 12 Hereford cross dairy
cows, Mike Powley and father
Tom have built their 100 head
suckler herd on the principals of
having a system which is easy to
work with and produces the
quality and type of finishing
animal which suits the current
market, writes Fiona Sloan. Tom
and Mike Powley will be familiar
to many beef farmers as the first
winners of the Farmers Weekly
Beef Farmer of the Year Award, which they won in 2005. Since then, as well as developing his 100
head suckler herd, he has become involved not only with ASDA as one of their training farms but
also works closely with their main suppliers, ABP and with EBLEX as a member of their Board of
Management.
Tom had previously managed suckler herds, which were primarily traditional Hereford Cross dairy
animals and using his experience, they aimed to produce quality finished stock from a crossbred
suckler herd. The first move was to look at improving the terminal sire they were using and with this
in mind; they hired a British Blue to improve the conformation of the finished animal, without
adding any calving complications either for the cows or themselves. Following some promising early
results, Mike decided that using a British Blue as their terminal sire of choice was the way forward
and relying heavily on the EBV information available, chose a bull which had good terminal figures,
combined with an easy calving score. “It’s easy to find a selection of British Blue bulls, which have
the EBV figures we were looking for in the top 10% of the breed. We finish all of our youngstock and
use the Blue as a terminal sire only, milk and maternal figures are therefore irrelevant to us.” says
Mike. “Our work with ASDA and ABP
ensures that the beef we are producing
is what the market wants and our
involvement with these two
organisations has allowed us to develop
the suckler herd in a way which suits
our system and suits the market.” he
adds.
Having decided that the British Blue was
the way forward to produce the kind of
cattle the market wanted, Mike and
Tom started to look at their cows and
further develop the female side of the
herd. Bearing in mind that they wanted to use a closed herd system as much as possible, to avoid
health issues and to end up with a cow which was easy to manage, they looked toward the South
Devon. The two had long been admirers of the breed and their mothering ability, milkiness and
docility encouraged them to look closer and start a small foundation herd of pure cows from which
to produce their suckler herd. The Limousin cross dairy cattle which they had started with were
Mike with one of the” Elm House Reds”
Wearing her electronic collar
5 month old British Blue calf out of a Red cow
phased out although the Limousin is still the preferred cross onto the South Devon. “We have always
been careful of the temperament of the bulls we use,” explains Mike “ and by using the likes of
Ronwick Hawk, we now have a very quiet and easy to handle herd of South Devon cross Limy cows
which we call “Elm House Reds. “
All of the cows are calved at 2 years old
to either the Aberdeen Angus or the
Wagyu for easy calving with some
Angus cross cows being kept as
replacements depending on the breed
lines of their “red mother” but all
Wagyu are taken through to finish. The
aim being, to have a crossbred cow
which has a good deal of hybrid vigour
as the base cow to the British Blue
terminal sire. “What we are doing is
pretty much a traditional way of
farming with crossbred cattle, while
very much focusing on the muscle
depth and growth EBVs of the Blue bulls we use to suit the market for finished cattle.” says Mike.
The herd is spring calving and as long as the cows are in calf and correct they remain in the herd,
with some producing 10 or more calves. With depreciation being much less than it used to be on a
cull cow, any which are calving out of season will be culled. The herd is also monitored by Heattime
system adapted from the dairy herd, which monitors the head movement of the cows allowing Mike
and Tom to pin point when each of them are coming into season, making it easier and more
accurate for AI. The main unit is located in a central area in the fields and has a 400 metre range.
Each cow carries a collar with a radio antenna which beams the information back to the central unit
where it is collected and processed.
BLUEGRASS CYCLONE BALLYGRANGE ALEX
Average daily weight gain 1.03kg
16 @ E = 84% 3 @ U =16%
EAR
NUMBER
AGE IN
MONTHS
DAILY DEAD
WEIGHT GAIN
FINISHING WEIGHT
KGS
GRADE
756 13.6 1.05 436 E2
764 14.6 0.95 423 E2
EAR
NUMBER
AGE IN
MONTHS
DAILY DEAD
WEIGHT GAIN
FINISHING WEIGHT
KGS
GRADE
753 12.6 1.17 449 E2
795 11.8 1.09 390 E3
770 12.5 1.16 442 E3
793 12.5 0.98 376 U+3
743 13.4 1.08 439 E3
749 13.7 1.02 428 E2
748 13.7 1.01 423 E2
744 13.7 1.04 435 U+3
765 13.9 1.00 425 E3
775 13.7 1.04 437 E3
777 13.7 1.07 447 E2
796 13.1 1.04 414 E3
779 13.7 1.03 428 E2
773 14.4 0.98 433 E2
798 13.8 0.99 415 E2
783 14.3 0.94 411 U+2
799 13.8 0.97 408 E2
816 13.7 0.94 391 E2
766 15.6 1.11 525 E2
The same“experimental” 15month old bull as the picture above
which killed at 525kilos and E2
Average daily weight gain 1.00kg 2 @ E2 = 100%
EAR
NUMBER
AGE IN
MONTHS
DAILY DEAD
WEIGHT GAIN
FINISHING WEIGHT
KGS
GRADE
757 13.2 1.11 446 E2
751 13.7 1.10 460 E2
763 14.6 1.00 447 E2
752 14.7 0.83 370 U+1
755 14.6 0.87 387 U+3
760 14.6 0.96 428 E2
824 13.2 1.05 425 U+3
810 13.8 1.06 447 U+3
837 13.2 0.92 368 E1
TAMHORN WARRIOR
Average daily weight gain 0.99kg 5 @ E 4 @ U+
The use of sexed semen for both the Red Cows and the Blues has also become common place on the
farm, following an initial trial with the support ASDA and ABP and is proving to be very successful.
When sexed semen was used from a British Blue two years ago for the first time, he produced 26
bull calves and one heifer calf which is a major advantage in a system such as this which produces
more profit from bull beef. The herd is now on its second round of Limousin sexed female semen to
produce the red cow replacements. There is more of a consideration in using male sexed semen as it
is expensive and with the increased cost of barley,( currently £220 a ton in the area) and soya rising
in the past year from £260 to £420 currently, overhead costs need to be taken into account. “While
grain is becoming expensive, the bulls we have are very fast growing and will eat around 10 kilos a
day towards finishing which at
£200 a ton is £2 per day to feed
them and we are achieving 1Kg
DDWG worth £3.50 a kilo ” says
Mike, “so they are still giving us a
good return. The target average
for the bulls produced this year is
1 kilo deadweight gain per day
and we’ve achieved that, which
equates to 1.56 kilos of
livewieght gain per day
throughout their lives and taking
birth weight off.”
While bulls are generally finished
around 13 months of age, some
work is being done with ABP to look at taking them on further. Around 6 years ago, with the British
Blue bulls being used at that time, the herd was averaging 340 kilos at 355 days. Now the bulls are
finishing at around 425kilos on average but Mike and Tom still think there is potential to finish the
bulls at bigger weights, so long as they are not penalised by the slaughterhouse. With agreement
from ABP they have recently taken one Bluegrass Cyclone bull through to 15 months to test the
water. He killed at 525 kilos to an E2 specification showing a Daily Dead Weight Gain of 1.11 kilos
and returning over £1800. “In three months he had added 140 kilos” explains Tom “and as he was
still growing and not laying down fat he would have moved up at least one conformation grade so
we were getting paid more per kilo as well.” With this information, it is possible to try to change the
supermarket view of the ideal carcass weight as the boning out percentage is much better. The work
with ABP allows them to gather information on farm and disseminate this to other producers. The
main issue for the supermarkets is that a carcass this size does not fit into the conventional pack size
but the family have begun to make them see that there is a potential gain to both the farmer and
Elm House Red and British Blue Calf
Red cows with calves at foot
the supermarket to at least consider the possibility of producing larger carcasses without penalty.
The carcass grade is also important to the return on the cattle and with a national figure of 1.2% of
cattle killed being E grade the farm is currently running at around 60% with some bulls achieving
over 80% E grade with the rest killing at U- or U+. The farm aims to produce fat class 2 & 3 which
gives a maximum bonus of 30p per kilo. “The beauty of using the genetics which we do, “explains
Mike, “is that they can grow quickly to more kilos, without laying down fat, which is often the case
when you take animals to bigger weights.”
Mike is particularly keen on working with suppliers as well as producers and having worked with
various suppliers in the past is currently working with their grass supplier on improving the forage
quality of the grass. The introduction of Red Clover as an 18% source of protein is already looking
like it may be the way of finishing heifers on a forage based feed regime without concentrates.”It is
important to keep questioning what you do.” says Mike. “The challenge for us is to continually
improve our system and we work with both suppliers and customers to achieve this.”
As we walk through the field of Limousin cross South Devon cows with their British Blue calves at
foot, few of them stand or take any notice, unless they want their head or back scratched. The basis
of a simple system is working well here. Quiet easy to handle crossbred cows producing fast growing
quality finishing animals for which the market will pay a premium.
A good start ensures a good finish...........ask Usain Bolt!
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