How maternal genetics helped double kg output/ha
© MAG/Michael Priestley Selecting replacements for maternal traits has helped a Durham herd increase productivity while tightening its calving block.
The suckler cows at Low Harperley farm, Weardale, used to be Limousin and British Blue cross-bred cows bred from dairy herds.
But, since switching to Salers genetics and selecting for fertility, milk, temperament and easy calving, the farm has increased output/ha and added value by selling bulling heifers and two or three bulls a year.
Paul Allison and his wife, Tanya Devereux, took on the farm in 2013 from Paul’s family.
At the time the farm ran 65 suckler cows and 400 sheep set-stocked in Entry Level Stewardship and most were sold as store at weaning.
See also: How a Yorkshire suckler herd is achieving 96% calves weaned
Farm facts
Low Harperley
- 125 breeding Salers plus followers
- 340 Lleyn ewes
- 97.5ha (240 acres) of grass
- 8ha (20 acres) of winter forage (half fodder beet half grass)
- 45ha (137 acres) of wheat, barley and oats
- Calving indoors from 25 February
- Lambing from 1 April
Productivity focus
Mr Allison worked full-time off farm for many years and still works in business consultancy.
The farm depends on the stockmanship of brothers Wayne and Graham Kirton, who have worked on the farm for decades.
Mr Allison has doubled farm output without increasing labour costs, thanks in part to easy-calving, maternal cattle.
He increased output/ha to dilute labour costs, accepting some loss of output an animal.
Calving temperament score |
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Score 0 |
Score 1 |
Score 2 |
Score 3 |
Score 4 |
Score 5 |
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Cow remains cool when calf is being tagged |
Looks at staff “a bit funny” |
Looks concerned |
Stands her ground |
Is threatening |
Is positively aggressive |
Productivity lift
Farm output is about 730kg of liveweight/ha – double that of eight years ago. Pasture subdivision, rotational grazing and fertiliser helped lift stocking rates, allowing the farm to finish lambs on grass and rear more cattle.
However, Mr Allison says that a stocking rate of more than two livestock units/ha was helped by a fertiliser spend of 14p/kg liveweight for 206kg of nitrogen/ha last year.
Five years of field data indicate optimum application rates will be 130kg on permanent pasture and 150kg on reseeds next season to limit fertiliser spend.
“Maternal traits drive our output in calves born and reared. Fertility and easy calving are crucial for a productive herd – if cows aren’t in calf, they get culled,” he explains.
Impressively, the increase in output has come while expanding the herd from 63 to 109 cows and shortening the bulling period from 15 to 12 weeks.
The herd rears 95% of calves and heifers bulled and mortality is 1-2%, typically due to mid-term abortion.
Breeding programme
Half the Harperley herd has been imported from France, many from Salers herds that are still milked to produce cheese.
All replacement heifers that pass the farm’s rigorous selection criteria (see table below: Replacement selection at Low Harperley) run with a homebred young Salers bull.
Two other bulling groups (76 cows in 2021) make up the “A” herd. Cows are drafted to a “milky” or “beefy” Salers bull depending on where improvement is needed.
Faulty cows are either culled or drafted into a “B” mob (see table: Culling and B mob faults).
Currently, the 44 B-mob cows run with a terminal Charolais sire selected on calving ease and 400-day weight figures. Culls and store cattle are sold at Darlington.
Replacement selection at Low Harperley |
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Trait |
Measure |
Reason |
Comments |
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Calving ease |
Anything requiring assistance is not kept. Recorded in calving book |
Long, difficult calvings are a welfare issue and lead to cows struggling to get back in-calf |
Very few have issues and need excluding at this point |
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Calf birthweight |
Birthweights recorded in calving book and Breedplan |
Avoids selecting big calves that could be hard to calve |
Salers bulls = 35kg, Salers heifers = 33kg Charolais-crosses are 10kg heavier |
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200-day weaning weight |
Past four years weight has averaged 248-272kg with no creep. Standardised weight that corrects for age at weaning 200 day weight = (200 x (Weaning weight – birth weight) + birth weight) |
This selects for milk and early calving date because the smallest calves will struggle to reach bulling weight (380kg) by 15 months |
Take each weaning weight and divide by age at weaning and multiply by 200 to standardise the weights. Cow size is also monitored to give a rough idea of cow efficiency – average last year was 42% |
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Estimated breeding values (EBVs) |
Breedplan data |
This provides a benchmark against the breed average |
No index for Salers, but growth, milk gestation, carcass, and weight traits can be checked |
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Date of birth |
Recorded in calving book. 84% of calves were born in the first six weeks last year |
Calves born in the last three weeks of calving are sold as stores at Darlington |
Dams of later-calved animals are sub-fertile compared with others calving earlier in the block |
This spring there were 109 cows – a third of them mated to a Charolais – that calved unassisted. No C-sections have happened since the last Limousin-cross left four years ago.
This year’s 26 replacement heifers ran with a bull for four-and-a-half weeks, after which 25 were in-calf. Selecting animals born early in the calving blocks breeds for better fertility, explains Mr Allison.
B mob and culling faults |
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B mob fault |
Culling fault |
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Tips for maternal selection
Emma Steele, knowledge exchange manager, AHDB beef and lamb
- Identify the most important factors for your herd
- If a complete data “newbie” start with one or two factors
- In most cases, this just means making better use of information you already have
- Keep records of cow weight and calf weaning weights – a cow should wean 40%-60% of her liveweight in calf/year
- Selecting for higher growth rate can consequentially increase mature size. Heavier cows can struggle to conceive between their first and second calving, leading to early culling and higher replacement costs. So bigger is not necessarily better
Look at calving records and consider:
- Has she required assistance before?
- Have previous calves needed help once born?
- Is she maternal in her behaviour, but not aggressive?
- Does she calve early in the season?
Maternal Matters
This content has been produced as part of Farmers Weekly and AHDB’s new Maternal Matters series.
Maternal Matters is an AHDB initiative highlighting the importance of maternal performance in driving profitability in the suckler herd.
As part of the series, we will be bringing you regular articles on how to improve the efficiency of your suckler herd, including:
- How improved maternal performance reduces costs
- Using maternal genetics to breed profitable females
- Calving heifers at two years to reduce cost of production
- Reducing calf losses
- Heifer management for rebreeding success.
Find out more at ahdb.org.uk/maternal-matters