Dairy Event 2010: Keenan study shows beef margin benefits
A study of 14 beef farmers using Keenan’s PACE feeding system has found that a switch to the system has the ability to boost beef finisher margins by an average of 35p a head.
Central to this improvement is a significantly lower number of days to slaughter than the industry average, with finishing steers on Keenan user farms averaging a reduction in the time spent on finishing units of an average of 65 days, according to the study.
This reduction in slaughter period results from an average 12% improvement in daily gain from 1.23 to 1.40kg a head a day, along with a significant improvement in feed conversion efficiency from 115 to 130g of liveweight gain for every 1kg of dry matter fed.
Speaking at the Dairy Event and Livestock Show, Keenan beef specialist Seth Wareing said reducing the time to slaughter yielded a number of benefits for farmers. “Firstly it cuts feed and overhead costs for every beast finished in farm, secondly it means more cattle can be finished every year using the same resources, further reducing costs for every 1kg of beef produced.”
But, he admitted it can be difficult for farmers to see any immediate gains from improved ration use on dairy units. “Unlike dairy units where you can see the change in the bulk tank the next day, for beef farmers the results can take longer to be seen. However, with regular monitoring the benefits can be clearly seen.”
One producer seeing those benefits on a regular basis is Mary Burgess who finishes 170 cattle at Wakefield, West Yorkshire. “In the last five years we’ve reduced finishing age by 12 months from 30 months to 18 months, with cattle now reaching target slaughter weight of 650kg liveweight at a gain of 1.8kg a day and grading at R4L from 13 months old onwards.”
On top of that feed costs have been cut since adopting the PACE system, with margins rising from £1.12 a day to £1.98 a day in the last 12 months. “Feed conversion efficiency has moved from 123g of gain for every 1kg of dry matter fed to 167g of liveweight gain, resulting in an improvement in liveweight gain of 0.4kg a day,” she added.