Why cull cows could hold the key to additional farm income

Finishing cull cows is returning Northumberland arable and beef farmer Martin Grix a consistent gross margin of £50-£80 a head, with all costs accounted for.

He describes what he does as “feeding waste products to someone else’s by-products”, but he is seeing a good return from it.

Mr Grix farms 280ha at Hillhead Farm near Morpeth, Northumberland, in partnership with his brother Richard, where they house 600 suckler cull cows at any one time.

They source cattle from livestock markets and buy primarily big, framey continental cows that weigh 580-650kg.

They are not particular about age. As long as it looks healthy and like it will finish well, it is a suitable candidate for purchase, says Mr Grix.

See also: Cull cows rise in demand

They used to finish black and whites, but found it harder to put condition on them. “It works for some people but it didn’t do it for us,” Mr Grix admits.

He has also moved away from finishing smaller native breeds as the margin is not there because their auction price has risen and also because, in his system, they are harder to finish.

He found they were more susceptible to pneumonia because all the finishers at his farm are housed and the native breeds were not used to this.

Making a margin

Mr Grix says that, to make a margin, cows need to gain at least 100kgs during a 90-day finishing period. “We don’t weigh them. The only weight that matters to us is what’s hanging on the hook at the end of the day,” he says.

However, if it is clear they are not performing, they will be sent to slaughter earlier than the 90-day period to save on feed costs.

Cows are typically aged between 60 and 200 months when they arrive on farm. While older cows will not kill out at as high, they do not get premiums for younger cows.

See also: Focus on margins to deal with volatility

On average, the cows cull out at 50% and 350-360kg deadweight. When it comes to grading, 65% are achieving O+, with most of the rest grading R for conformation, with a fat class 4L or 4H.

In recent weeks, the culls have been making 95-105p/kg at auction and about 265-270p/kg deadweight (5 August 2015).

Success secrets

A methodical process is crucial to the success of this business. The system runs at full capacity – they are buying animals from market four days a week and cows leave for slaughter weekly.

“If they don’t go out, they can’t come in,” says Mr Grix. Consequently, they are not able to avoid peaks of supply in late autumn and midwinter.

“We have to take the rough with the smooth. If you stop selling, it clogs the system up, and if you hold on to them, they get too fat and they have eaten another fortnight’s worth of food.”

The cows are housed in pens of 15-20 at a stocking density of about 4sq m a cow.

They are bedded on barley straw for the first fortnight to a month to help them adapt to the new environment and diet before moving on to sawdust, which is cheaper and keeps the cows cleaner.

All animals are treated with a pour-on when they arrive at the farm and are vaccinated in winter for pneumonia and pasturella.

Mr Grix knocks £50 off the final price straight away to cover daily costs, such as vaccination, slaughter fees and transport.

Doing their own haulage helps keep costs down and their largely arable operation fits perfectly with the cull cow business because they use their own barley straw for bedding and their own wheat straw and crimped barley for feed.

This year, they are harvesting 140ha of barley – 100ha winter crop and 40ha spring.

See also: How to hit beef finishing targets

“The spring barley works well for us because it gives us somewhere to tip the muck in winter, which we can then plough in before planting the spring crop, saving on fertiliser costs too,” he says.

They crimp 1,500t of barley, which is not only useful for extending the harvest window because they combine it 10 days earlier than traditional harvest, but also for maintaining more of its nutritional value.

Diet

Cows are fed 27kg freshweight once a day, which comprises the captured barley, at a cost of £1.30 a head a day.

They have been on a fairly stable total mixed ration for the past six years with only very small tweaks (see “Total mixed ration”, right).

On the Grix’s farm, Keenan Pace technology is used to ensure a consistent diet is achieved. “They notice if the fruit is missing,” says Mr Grix.

“I ran out briefly once and you could see them pushing the food around before eating. It is an appetite-driver.”

The fruit waste, – mainly citrus – is sourced from Paradise Foods in Gateshead, which produces packaged fruit for supermarkets.

The potatoes come from McCain in Scarborough and the pot ale is from a distillery in Edinburgh. These waste products, while not cheap, are a cost-efficient way of creating an effective feed.