Farmer Focus: Renewed bull team helps conception rate

We got our first taste of winter in the last week of November. We had around nine inches (23cm) of snowfall, followed by a very quick thaw.

Other than this bad spell, it’s been a decent back end, which has allowed us to get a lot of cattle work done in great conditions. Cows are now onto their deferred grass, kale and bales.

See also: How rumen boluses can help manage suckler cow fertility

About the author

Duncan Morrison

Aberdeenshire-based Duncan Morrison is aiming to run his 240 Angus and Stabiliser suckler cows and small Lleyn flock as low-cost as possible after getting a foot on the farming ladder by renting cows and land. Stock are outwintered on deferred grass, bale grazing and forage crops.

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The crisp, frosty mornings of recent weeks have made feeding cattle a pleasure.

We had our best scan yet, with 95% in-calf in two cycles of bulling (six to seven weeks). It was satisfying to see the progress our herd has made recently.

Fertility is one of the most important factors to influence suckler herd profitability, and it’s one we’ve worked hard to improve.

While one good year doesn’t mean we have cracked it, I hope it means what we’ve been doing has worked to a certain extent.

An important factor could have been an overhaul with the bulls. A few older ones have been replaced with younger and fitter models.

We have also trialled multi-sire mating where possible, which I think is quite effective, especially in a very tight bulling period.

I was really pleased with the condition of the cows as they came into winter, with an average body condition score across the board of 3.4.

With a good scan and plenty of heifers to bull, we will likely chisel away at a few issues in the springtime.

The cow herd is always a work in progress. We have some exciting matings coming through, so I’m looking forward to calving in spring already.

We put the tups out recently too, so fingers crossed the sheep do as well as the cattle on the fertility front.

Our monitor farm management group spent a very interesting afternoon learning about the cloud-based accounting software Xero and how to put together forward budgets and monitor cashflow.

The power of these financial packages is quite incredible.

Last week, we filmed videos for a case study on the merits of different types of forage crops for wintering stock.

Next week, we are visiting one of our members who is a finisher, to look at his system. Every day is a school day, as they say.