Cutting out the second winter

There is much to recommend about finishing beef under 22 months. The elimination or, at least, shortening of the traditional second wintering period to finish cattle can deliver significant cost reductions, both in terms of fixed and variable costs.
Teagasc’s DairyBeef 500 initiative includes strategies around finishing spring-born, early maturing dairy-beef steers at the end of the second grazing season. The early maturing  breeds focus mainly on Angus and Hereford crosses, as well as British Friesian type steers, which can be finished from late September to late October, thus cutting out that second indoor, intensive, and more costly, feeding period.

Key performance benchmarks
Of course, it’s not all straightforward and doesn’t happen without careful planning and execution. Even in terms of reducing housing and slurry-storage requirements, as well as reduced stored forage expenditure, the cost reductions are significant. Right along the timeline from calf to finish, several critical benchmark figures must be met, most especially continuous weight gain over the 22 months. Teagasc outlined these benchmark figures at its recent DairyBeef 500 seminar.
Average daily liveweight gain across the lifespan of the animal is set at 0.8kg to 0.9kg, with the ultimate aim of finishing at a liveweight of 560kg to 600kg. That should deliver a 280kg to 300kg carcase, with a conformation of zero, or better. It should be noted that careful selection and purchasing of appropriate calves to meet these finishing weights and body condition scores are required. Late-born spring calves, for instance, or those of lower beef genetic potential, will be unlikely to be advanced enough to finish under 22 months and would require another two months of intensive indoor feeding to meet weight and conformation thresholds.
While great emphasis is placed on quality grass as the main thrive driver, to meet that 22-month slaughter date, steers do need to be supplemented at grass for the last two to three months pre-slaughter. The figure advised by Teagasc is approximately four kilogrammes of concentrate per day over that outdoor finishing period. The concentrate level will be determined by the weight of the cattle, the quality of autumn grass available and the ability to continue hitting those average daily gain (ADG) weight targets. Overall, Teagasc suggests a lifetime concentrate input of no more than 750kg.

22 versus 24 months
The contrast between finishing at 22 months and that additional two-month period is significant, as DairyBeef 500 programme manager, Alan Dillon confirmed in his presentation to the seminar. Additional costs include high quality forage (at least 75 DMD) to maximise thrive, supplemented with 5kg of concentrate per animal per day. The housing, slurry storage, forage inputs, and additional labour and machinery requirements have to be factored in. Countering those costs is the anticipated (not always realised) lift in cattle prices in the January/February period. There is also a lift in anticipated finishing weights, targeted at 580kg to 620kg, with fat conformation of 3- to 3+. Conformation should still meet or exceed O+. All things being equal, the target of delivering a 300kg to 320kg carcase weight should be achieved. It is notable that, while higher individual animal performance is achieved in this longer lifetime production period, fewer cattle are finished, with increased silage requirements. The logistical differences compared to an earlier finishing regime do not stop there. As finishing periods increase in length, feed conversion into carcase weight reduces, to a stage, as the Teagasc research confirms, where feed costs exceed carcass gain returns. To avoid this economic impasse, Teagasc advises that regular monitoring of liveweight gain and fatness levels are a necessity, with cattle slaughtered as they reach optimum finish levels.

The Grange approach
Teagasc’s Grange Animal and Grassland Research Centre in Co. Meath examined the feasibility of finishing early-maturing steers outdoors by the end of the second-year grazing season. This included buffer concentrate feeding for the last few grazing months. An identical group of cattle were allowed grass only until housed at the end of the grazing  season and then finished with high quality silage and 5kg of concentrates daily. The age at which these Angus steers (that received concentrate from July onwards) were able to be finished was reduced by 45 days, thus avoiding that additional indoor feeding period. The Grange experiment showed that outdoor finishing does reduce margin because of the higher concentrate inputs and lighter carcases, with the cattle delivered for slaughter during traditionally peak beef supply months every autumn, when price has historically been under pressure. The research also confirmed that outdoor finishing is most advantageous in terms of profitability when high commercial beef value (CBV) cattle and limited housing are factored into the management equations. High CBV cattle finished outdoors, it was noted, produced 310kg carcases. The figures confirm, as a counterpoint, that lower CBV cattle, with consequently lower carcase weight potential, are less suitable for those cattle producers focused on an outdoor, 22-month finishing regime. Again, there is no room for ‘catch-up’ management.
Teagasc is emphatic that cattle must be at an advanced liveweight stage when concentrate feeding commenced during that July-stage grazing period. In other words, the average lifetime daily weight gain must be in place, with a target liveweight of greater than 480kg at the commencement of the concentrate supplementation period. That is an absolute requirement if the finishing carcase weight of better than 300kg is to be achieved, along with the necessary fat levels. The critical life-stage weights and performance levels are well outlined by Teagasc. The lifetime daily gain of 0.8kg or better has already been referenced. Weanling steers at the time of housing in the initial Autumn period should have reached 230kg. To achieve these targets needs top class grass and grazing management, along with well managed parasite and vaccination programmes. In that first winter housed period, moderate weight gains are earmarked, with cattle gaining 0.6kg to 0.7kg per day, feeding high quality silage and 1kg to 2kg of concentrate. The following spring, the performance targets include early turn-out of those yearling steers, to deliver a total weight gain of 200kg over a 220-day grazing season.
Ultimately, it is horses – or cattle in this case – for courses. Early born, high CBV calves are best suited to an early 22-month target finish, while later, March/April born calves are best managed to deliver higher carcase weights from an indoor finishing period, where the animals have the potential to grow further and carry more weight.