Beef farmers offered discounted sexed semen

BeefLink farmers supplying Asda are being offered a £15 discount on sexed Stabiliser semen from Givendale Norseman.

Semen supplier Cogent, together with the Stabiliser Cattle Company, are offering the top-end semen for £20/straw instead of the original price of £35.

Pearce Hughes, Asda agricultural manager, said: “Using Stabiliser genetics offers BeefLink farmers the opportunity to develop highly productive suckler herds or medium-sized, fertile cows.”

When Stabilisers replace conventional suckler breeds, productivity can be increased by 30% and feed costs can be slashed by 25%, experience from Beeflink farmers running Stabiliser herds has shown.

See also One farmers experiences with farming Stabilisers

Using sexed semen offers an even better route to increased profitability, said Mr Hughes. Using top-ranking Norseman will greatly speed up the rate of genetic gain by targeting better cows for breeding replacements, he added.

“Using Stabiliser genetics could save the industry millions of pounds a year in feed costs due to improved feed efficiency and less reliance on concentrates. This in turn will lead to significant carbon savings for the beef supply chain and it is already recognised that reductions in carbon emissions in agriculture go hand in hand with improved margins,” said Mr Hughes.

Farmers breeding pure-bred Stabiliser cattle will have a ready outlet. Mr Hughes explained: “We accept finished bulls up to 16 months old with a carcass weight of up to 450kg, so there is a market ready and waiting for all progeny.

“Those farmers not wanting to finish the cattle themselves have the option to send them to the Asda/ABP BeefLink progeny testing/finishing unit at Adam Quinney’s Worcestershire farm. The added benefit of this system is that they will also get the feed efficiency data back so they can identify their superior sires. On top of that a 10p/kg premium is being paid for Stabiliser-sired cattle finished through the progeny testing unit,” said Mr Hughes.