7 lessons learned outwintering in soaking conditions

Winter growth rates struggled on many outwintering systems this year, and the cattle at Castletown Estates, near Carlisle, were no exception.

Ruari Martin, farm and estate director, told the Beef Expo audience (27 April) that the 600 spring-born, native-cross dairy beef steers and heifers failed to hit the budgeted 0.7kg a day.

Instead, they averaged just 0.53kg a head a day.

See also: Video: How a Cumbrian estate grazes beef cattle on 1,000ha marsh

Meanwhile, cattle wintered inside on straw courts and a grower diet of home-grown grass silage, wholecrop barley and beans, crimped barley and minerals, achieved a better cost/kilo gain than budgeted (see “Inside and outside cattle compared”).

However, Ruari told Farmers Weekly he remains positive about outwintering. Here, he shares his assessment of the season.

1. Flexibility is essential

The estate’s sandy loams lend themselves to outwintering. However, the option of a run-back to stubbles was important this year.

The farm grows maize and winter barley on adjacent fields, allowing cattle a vital run-back off the fodder beet (that follows the winter barley), and from the rape/kale hybrid onto maize stubbles (often undersown with ryegrass).

Normally, bale silage is fed from trailers to ensure cattle get sufficient fibre.

However, this year, clamp silage was added, and home-grown straw and used sawdust horse bedding from a local stables provided a dry lie when needed. 

2. Animal welfare was good

People are used to seeing cattle wintering inside, but objective assessments showed the outwintered cattle to be clean and well fed.

There were no pneumonia issues outside and only one animal was treated for lameness. Two died with broken legs, but Ruari says that could have happened indoors.

3. Older cattle outwinter better

The theory that younger cattle lose more heat because they have a greater surface-area-to-volume ratio proved correct.

In January, daily liveweight gain (DLWG) in cattle five to six months older was 0.3kg, which was 0.2kg more than cattle less than ten months old.

4. Accept lower utilisation

The rape/kale hybrid ran out at the end of January, two months earlier than usual.

This was because cattle were offered twice the amount on daily moves in wetter weeks to ensure they stayed clean and had enough dry matter. The shortfall was made up with bale silage.

5. Gut fill influences weight gain

Accounting for gut fill is important, as the timing of weighing sessions cannot always coincide with periods when cattle are empty.

Growth rates were depressed for much of the winter – sometimes as low as 0.1kg/day –  and the gut fill factor could make some weight gain figures look worse if cattle were empty. 

6. Accept trade-offs with arable

Integrating cattle on arable ground means the farm only needs to buy nitrogen as the livestock provide phosphate and potassium. However, poaching and compaction from this winter will need addressing. 

7. Continue monitoring data

Ruari will monitor DLWGs closely this year. He hopes the outwintered cattle show compensatory growth when they go out to graze the Solway marshland in the summer or are housed on the finishing diet.

The outwintered cattle are 60kg behind, which, at a store value of £2.50/kg, is £150 a head.

He said it would take a lot of cattle at that money to pay to build a shed, but one option could be to house the smallest 200 and continue outwintering 400-500 of the bigger cattle.