How Beef Focus Farmer Ian Willison is hitting new carcass specs

Fast finishing is vital to bull profitability for Nottinghamshire farmer Ian Willison, who adapted his intensive system to meet tight market specifications on carcass.

He believes feeding young animals when they are at their most efficient is the key to reducing fixed costs on bulls from high growth-index sires.

By doing this and using Terminal sire bulls within the top 5% of the breed, he is hitting daily liveweight gains of 1.82kg from weaning to slaughter, to reach 700kg at 13 months.

Selling bulls at 398kg carcass weights (48kg above AHDB target) at £3.30/kg dcw (dead carcass weight) is worth an extra £158 a bull (48kg x £3.30). This equates to an additional return of £6,320 for the year across the 40 bulls produced at Williamswood with similar feed costs.

Harper Adams beef specialist Simon Marsh believes Mr Willison has adopted the most-efficient system by finishing male calves at 13 months.

“The system maximises stocking rates and output on his farm. If Ian were to finish the calves at 18 months old as steers, he would either have to reduce herd size by 23% or acquire more land and buildings to keep the same herd size. If the calves were to be finished more extensively at 24 months, the herd size would need to fall by a dramatic 38%.”

See also: Beef focus farm: How to hit the top weaning weights

To achieve this the feeding mentality is “push, push, push” from birth, although Mr Willison stresses success with bull beef systems doesn’t hinge on feeding alone.

He sees the finishing phase as the last piece of the puzzle – on top of the right hybrid genetics, good herd health and welfare, and a well-executed weaning strategy for his autumn-born Simmental cross suckler bulls.

Similarly, Mr Willison believes feeding high amounts of cereals can work only if based on a solid foundation of high DM intakes and a fibrous diet, allowing animals to “tick over” with a healthy rumen.

Feeding regime

A 50:50 forage and blend finishing ration fed ad-lib incorporates home-grown grass and maize silage, with a focus on protein helping to achieve a daily liveweight gain from weaning to slaughter of 1.82kg, well ahead of AHDB targets of 1.45kg (see below).

A 17% crude protein, high neutral detergent fibre and 19% starch rearer nut is targeted at bulls prior to weaning as part of a policy of all calves being creep-fed to promote frame development and maximise genetic potential.

Two weeks ahead of weaning, bulls, all of which are kept entire, are introduced on to the fattening ration, which is built up to 7kg of maize silage and a further 7kg blend, delivering 14-15kg/day overall.

Daily concentrate feed rate is then stepped up to 8kg in the autumn, five to six weeks prior to slaughter as bulls approach 12 months of age.

By 13 months concentrates are increased to 10kg/day to finish tailenders, with bulls eating 20-22kg of ration overall.

Variety drives appetite and supports rumen function, explains Mr Willison, who supplies home-grown maize for starch, high-quality digestible fibre from sugar beet and keeps protein levels at 14-15% (in the DM) to maximise the growth potential of his bulls.

“These form the basis of a balanced ration based on cereals, with straw always available for long fibre,” he says. He budgets for 60cm of bunker space a bull.

“Bulls looking gutty is never a concern, since this indicates a bull with good rumen function rather than a clean-bodied greyhound type of beast with acidosis.”

Wheat straw is provided twice a week in racks for “scratch factor” at a rate of 1kg a head/day.

October-born bull calves: ration timeline

Consistent weighing and housing

Recent years have typically seen between 30 and 40 bulls finished each year for ABP, although cow herd expansion will see as many as 50 bulls finished in the coming years, at the expense of home-grown barley for grass leys.

Bulls are finished in the shed in which they are wintered and weaned in mid-April and cows turned out on to spring grass.

“Once we have grouped and housed bulls we try not to alter groups or the housing since this checks growth rates,” says Mr Willison.

His thinking is that groups of bulls can be split if needs be, but ideally groups shouldn’t have bulls added, in an attempt to reduce the stress on animals.

See also: Beef focus farm: How cow size influences performance

Equally important to consistency of environment is a consistent cattle weighing schedule, explains Mr Willison. Using a simple race and crush, 25 cattle can be weighed in half an hour, an exercise he stresses should take into account gut fill.

“The difference in gut fill can be up to 30kg on the overall weight of the animal,” he adds, potentially meaning you can be more than 0.5kg out in your daily weight gain calculations.

For this reason, Mr Willison’s Simmental cross bulls are weighed at the same time on a morning in the first week of each month to account for eating routines.

“Tragic situation”

Adaptations have been made to produce an average carcass weight at Williamswood of just under 400kg to avoid penalties for heavy carcasses.

Monthly weighing and fast finishing are two important factors in running a system that will limit over-heavy cattle and remain in control of slaughter weights, allowing cattle to be sold early if they have stopped gaining weight and are close to 700kg, explains Mr Willison.

These are ways of dealing with the “tragic situation” the beef industry has found itself in, according to Mr Marsh.

“We have made so much genetic progress over the years, having been encouraged to improve cattle growth rates to then see penalties for efficient well-bred beef cattle,” says Mr Marsh.

“If this market penalty continues, most breed societies will need to evaluate how they calculate Terminal Index and reduce the weighting on growth and place greater emphasis on calving ease and positive fat depth. However, this move will prove detrimental to finishing heifers, which are rarely slaughtered at heavy weights. The industry needs to evaluate optimal finishing systems for suckler bred heifers.”

Performance comparison

Note: DCG in brackets deducts 24kg for the bull calf birth carcass weight