by Iain | Mar 9, 2012 | Uncategorised
What HCC offer to Simmental Breeders in Wales?
Hybu Cig Cymru is the organisation responsible for the development, promotion and marketing of Welsh red meat. HCC currently offer a range of funding opportunities and resources to beef and lamb producers in Wales.
Breed Improvement
HCC aims to help breeders in Wales by offering support to introduce superior genetics into their herds.
The table below shows the amount of funding available to breeders in Wales.
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Performance Recording
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Artificial Insemination
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Embryo Transfer
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50%
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50% (max £500)
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50% (max £700)
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Performance Recording (PR)
- Performance recording allows you to:
- Enables herd selection based on performance.
- Measure traits that you can’t see (e.g. eye muscle area).
- Improve selected traits while maintaining others.
- Use the figures as a marketing too.
Artificial Insemination (AI) & Embryo Transfer (ET)
To qualify for AI and ET funding from HCC, the bulls used must have EBV’s in the top 90% for calving ease direct. They must also be in the top 10% for either 400 day weight or eye muscle area.
| The table below shows the 2012 Qualification Criteria for Simmental bulls |
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Calving Ease Direct
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400 Day Weight
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Eye Muscle Area
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Top 90%
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Top 10%
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Top 10%
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-5.6
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64
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3.6
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Fertility Testing Bulls
HCC are offering funding towards fertility testing bulls. Bull fertility is vitally important as infertile bulls are a major cause of economic loss in the industry.
HCC will fund 50% of the cost of fertility testing up to £200 (to a maximum of £50 per bull)
Carcase Selection Events
The opportunity to assess live animals, follow them through the abattoir process to the chillers and review the carcases. The event gives an insight into:
- Current market demands
- Carcase classification
- Breed traits
by Iain | Jan 10, 2012 | Uncategorised
Courance, home to the Jack family, is only a few miles north of Lockerbie and 30 minutes from Carlisle. The estate is made up of 5 farms totalling 1400 acres, all of which is farmed in hand. The land is ideal for cows and carries 300 Simmental x cows, 240 Spring calvers and 60 Autumn calvers. There are 8 Simmental stock bulls at present.
60 acres of cereals are grown for feed. The rest of the land is either grazing/cutting grass or rough grazing areas which provide natural shelter for cattle.
300 acres of first cut silage are made, and 200 acres second cut. Contractors are used for silage and combining, all other work is carried out in house.
The enterprise is managed by Raymond McKerlie with one more full time member of staff and as Raymond said “having Simmental cows allows us to run a large enterprise with only 2 staff members due to the Simmental’s quiet nature and ease of handling”.
The Cows are split across two main farm steadings, and each steading has winter housing for over 450 animals. All the commercial cows have high health status as does the pedigree
Spring Calvers – Calving starts on the 3rd of March and is relatively short as the bulls are withdrawn after 10 weeks.The cows having been overwintered on slats on a diet of silage/straw and minerals are moved to deep litter straw courts prior to calving. Once calved, they are moved outside as fast as possible normally 2-3 days post calving, male calves are castrated.
The land offers natural shelter allowing early turn out which in turn maximises profitability and efficiency. Creep is introduced towards the end of August and all calves selected for store sales are vaccinated in the Surecalf programme and sold at UA in Stirling in October and November. It is mainly the earliest calves that are sold at the autumn sales and Raymond said “compared to the Limousin cross calves as we had in the past the Simmentals are a minimum of 40kg heavier when we sell them or at today’s values nearly
£100 per head more”. Younger steer calves are overwintered and sold store in the spring again at UA. All heifer calves are overwintered and grazed the following summer, any not suitable for further breeding are sold as stores and the rest are retained or sold privately to a growing list of repeat customer seeking quality bulling heifers of a known “health status.”
Autumn Calvers – Calving starts at the end of July and again is tight, the bulls being in with the cows only 8 weeks, the Autumn herd was created to ensure a plentiful supply of replacement heifers for the spring herd. Cows calve outside on very bare land. Like the spring calvers the autumn cows are over wintered on slats with a bedded area for the calves, last winter sawdust was used as bedding and proved very successful reducing bedding costs by 20%. Cows are fed silage/straw and minerals and 1kg of barley in a TMR, calves are crept earlier than the spring calves and are self weaned before turnout.
This extremely efficient operation is based on the values of Simmental cross cows being good fertile and natural mothers producing calves that are easily got and then grow very fast.And as Raymond said “Simmental cows work with you, and most importantly, for you.”
by Iain | Dec 29, 2011 | Uncategorised
Ever since the development of the ‘barley beef’ system by Dr T.R Preston at the Rowettt Research Institute during the late 1950’s there has been an intensive beef system at Harper Adams. The beef unit rears Holstein and Continental cross Holstein bulls from the 400 head dairy unit and provides three resources.
Firstly the beef cattle are used for teaching purposes for students to monitor performance and learn how to select cattle for slaughter. Secondly to provide a research facility for ‘production focused’ experiments for final year BSc students and over the years we have evaluated numerous breeds, feeds and supplements. Thirdly to show ‘best practice and make a profit’. Thankfully we exceed ‘top 1/3rd’ performance targets but this is done with attention to detail with husbandry and management.
We have recently finished a batch of over 30 Simmental x Holstein bulls.
They recorded a DLWG from 3 months old of 1.48kg to slaughter weights of 591kg at 13.3 months old. They killed out at 55.3% with R grade carcasses weighing 327kg having consumed 2.28 tonnes of feed at an FCR of 4.74. This performance significantly exceeds the EBLEX targets for continental bulls and is some of the best performance we have achieved when compared to other continental breeds reared through the Harper Adams beef unit. I would comment that the Simmentals were bred from bulls with top 10% Terminal Indexes with positive Caving Ease Direct EBVs.
This is always the type of beef bull we use on our dairy herd, and is based on all of our research evaluating progeny from beef bulls with different Terminal Indexes.
The performance of the Simmentals is shown in the table below in comparison to the Holstein bulls reared alongside them. The Simmentals as we would expect produced significantly higher DLWGs, slaughter weights, grades and FCRs and were obviously so much ‘easier on the eye’ compared to the Holsteins!
The bulls were weighed at slaughter ‘gut full’ so therefore the killing out percentage appears relatively low. If they had been weighed ‘gut empty’ as per at market or in the abattoir then the killing out would be increased by approximately 2 percentage units.
In 2009/10 our cereal fed Simmental bulls recorded gross margins of £343 per bull which was very respectable. We are of course well aware of what has happened to cereal prices this last year which is going to put pressure on margins for intensive finishing systems but thankfully as I write this article (May 2011) finished beef prices are starting to rise and climb over £3.00/kg which is ‘good news’.
by Iain | Sep 29, 2011 | Uncategorised
Dennis Mitchell runs the family business at Station Farm, Thursford, Fakenham in Norfolk on behalf of the Mitchell Partnership Family Trust, and trust is exactly what they have put in Simmental for many years.
120 Simmental cows are split into two calving groups, half from mid January until the end of March and the back-end group from mid August until October. The enterprise runs on 260 acres of mostly meadow type grass (poor quality ground) with 75% of the grass in Stewardship Schemes. Straw is sourced locally on a straw in and muck out agreement. 350 tons of grass silage and 700 tons of maize silage are produced annually. The herd is run commercially but most of the cows are Pedigree Registered. 10% of heifers are retained annually and the herd is relatively young.
All cows are over wintered on a TMR.
Spring calving cows – calves are weaned in the middle of September, creep is introduced when the calves are two months old, it is a 16% protein finishing blend and maize silage is fed after weaning. Last year’s spring bull calves averaged 400kg with a top of 430kg dead weight, coming to an average of £1075 and a top of £1204, all were away before they were 13 months old. Heifer calves are also weaned in September, and then over wintered on a TMR containing grass and maize silage, minerals and protein balancer.
Autumn calving cows – bull calves weaned at the end of March at 7-8 months old then finished on the same finishing blend and maize silage, the silage intake is 7-8kg per head per day.
Heifers are also weaned in March, turned out onto grass then over wintered the following year in open yards on the same ration as spring born heifers.
The autumn bull calves are always slightly heavier and also younger than the spring born bulls when slaughtered.
3 or 4 bulls are retained every year and brought out for breeding. Some Heifers are sold privately off the farm.
Bulls are traded through H G Blake of Norwich. Live cattle are traded through Newark market with the majority at one sale in the spring. Sale toppers from last year’s spring store sales included 10 yearling heifers @ £1050, 10 of 14 month old heifers@ £1350
The minerals used at Station farm are specific to the farm to balance any deficiencies in the grass.
The herd is in the SAC cattle health scheme but they do not routinely vaccinate for anything other than regulatory blue tongue.
All females over 6 months are treated with a pulse release bolus and copper and selenium boluses before going to the grass and then dosed for fluke at housing and a low cost mectin wormer two weeks after housing.
The system is simple and profitable or as Dennis says “the cows keep me, not me keeping the cows.”
“As either a terminal sire or for breeding replacements the Simmental ticks all the boxes.”
by Iain | Sep 15, 2011 | Uncategorised
Semex UK are delighted to add a show winning Simmental bull to the ‘Semex Beef Team’ range of bulls.
Chyanhal Amos bred by Mrs Penny Lally won several breed Championships through the summer and culminated with a big win at the Royal Cornwall Show in Wadebridge taking Supreme Champion Simmental under the expert eye of Mr Chris Martindale in strong competition.
Philip Halhead purchased Amos at the Royal Cornwall show on behalf of Semex to continue the aggresive expansion of the Beef stud. ” Semex supply the very best Holstein genetics to dairy farmers in the UK and Ireland and increasingly these same farmers are seeing the added value of using easy calving but high value beef sires on the dairy cows, no longer needed to breed dairy replacements” commented Philip.
“Amos is the ideal bull for crossing onto dairy cows as he exhibits good muscle development with a medium frame score and easy calving traits. Combine that with excellent EBVs for eye muscle area, retail meat yield, terminal production index and self replacing index, you start to understand the appeal of this modern Simmental bull”
Simmental is growing in popularity for use on dairy cows and Amos will help Semex to grow its market share.
Philip makes the point ” Dairy farmers are using more Holstein sexed semen than ever before and beef semen sales are growing every year, Semex can provide the complete package to dairy farmers and we are sure Amos will become very popular”
Semex with the help of Norbreck Genetics will put Amos through there young bull testing scheme to assess the calving ease and calf quality of calves born from dairy cows. Meadow Quality the calf purchasing company are keen to watch a bull like Amos develop and will have no hesitation in placing him on a reccommended Superior Sire list with the EBV data he exhibits.
“Cairnview Snazzy the sire of Chyanhal Amos is sired by the much admired Popes Laird a bull we have watched with great interest since his sale in Perth Auction and one that is breeding very well” stated Philip.
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