End of grazing season 1 review at Orsedd Fawr

Gethin Prys Davies, Red Meat Technical Officer

The aim this year at Orsedd Fawr, an organic farm was to finish cattle on grass before they were 18 months of age by using a rotational grazing system, with the cattle moved every two days.

Did we achieve this? Well yes, to some extent, but the number that went off finished was slightly disappointing. Of the 24 bullocks that were on the grazing platform throughout the grazing season (an additional 6 animals were added during June/July) 5 were sent off finished on the 10th of October. Their killing out percentage, grade and age can be seen in table 1. Of the remaining cattle, in my view another two would have been ready before the end of October, but Gwyn had an offer from an organic store buyer too good to refuse, so all the remaining bullocks went off as stores.

Table 1

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the cattle did not go to the abattoir on the expected date, therefore the killing out percentage could be slightly lower, as there was an additional two weeks spent on grass.

There was considerable difference in the performance of the bullocks in terms of total weight gained over the grazing period. The average was 158kg over 180 days, with the best performing animal gaining 190kg and the worst performing gaining only 114kg during the same period.

Generally, performance up to the first week of July was very good, then from that point the average DLWG dipped below the 1kg target, with three animals in particular very disappointing from then on. Despite going into plenty of grass, they did not perform as well as we expected them to.

The weather from September onwards was particularly wet and this could very well have contributed to the lower DLWG in more ways than one. Given the wet conditions, it is possible that parasitic burdens on the cattle was higher than expected. As part of the project, FEC analysis was regularly carried out on the cattle. Rumen fluke and lung worm were detected quite early in the grazing season and were treated accordingly. Although no liver fluke eggs were detected, of the animals sent to slaughter, one had traces of immature fluke. It is therefore a possibility that there was some liver fluke burden on the cattle towards the end of the summer, and that might be the reason why some of the animals performed particularly badly.

Looking ahead to 2019

This year’s calves have already been weaned and weighed, and are generally more even than last years. Last year’s calves were fed roughly 70kg/head of concentrates from November to the end of December, and that was the only concentrates they had while they were on the farm. With the aim of getting more finished off grass this year, as there is considerable financial benefit compared to selling them as stores, Gwyn has decided to double their concentrate allowance this winter to achieve a higher turnout weight. Although this will mean additional cost to the system, this will be monitored to see if the additional expense can be justified.