8 October 2020
A dairy-to-beef calf rearing and finishing enterprise is utilising grass more efficiently and maintaining sward quality since establishing a rotational system of grazing.
Neil Davies and his family had been running a suckler beef herd at Cefnllan, a 105-hectare Farming Connect demonstration site at Llangammarch Wells, Powys.
In a change of direction, that herd has been scaled down and the business is now producing beef from bought-in Angus-cross dairy calves.
To get the best return, the cattle are being grown on grazed grass and home-produced forage and are achieving good growth rates.
They were weighed at the end of August and the 99 younger calves, aged from 7-8 months, weigh an average of 245kg having gained 0.8-0.9kg/day since they arrived on the farm at the end of April.
At 18 months, the 36 older calves weigh an average of 470kg having achieved a daily liveweight gain (DLWG) of 1.2kg/day.
Mr Davies is weighing his calves monthly to monitor their DLWG – they are electronically tagged to ensure precision monitoring when they are weighed.
Central to Mr Davies’ grassland management is rotational grazing, which he has established with advice from Precision Grazing, who are leading the Farming Connect project work at Cefnllan.
Rotational grazing works on the basic principle of ‘graze and rest’, so once a paddock is grazed it undergoes a rest period to rejuvenate the leaves for the next grazing.
This results in a higher yield - research has shown that rotational grazed paddocks produce around 20% more grass.
This, combined with the correct allocation of grass to a stock class, leads to more grass being utilised.
At Cefnllan, this means that more of the grass grown can be converted to beef.
Neil uses a plate meter to measure farm cover across the farm every two weeks to ensure optimum grass utilisation along the grazing platform.
AgriNet software is used to manage grass whilst Farmax software supports decision making.
Precision Grazing also carried out a baseline assessment of the farm and enterprise and added this data to Farmax - this software was used to create a map of Cefnllan.
The project will help to provide a template for other farm businesses considering the transition from traditional suckler cows to finishing dairy calves, says Farming Connect Red Meat Technical Officer Elan Davies, who is overseeing the projects at Cefnllan.
“From the data that has been gathered it is clear to see that, compared to the suckler cow enterprise on a set-stocked system, the calf rearing and finishing enterprise on a rotational grazing system utilises the grass in a more efficient way, as well as maintaining grass quality,’’ she says.