Good health and nutrition are key to fertility success

Successful suckler beef production relies on being able to produce a calf from every cow every 365 days, and the key factors behind ensuring this actually happens lie in a stockman’s ability to get herd health and nutrition right.

For 2011 Farmers Weekly Beef Farmer of the Year Sam Chesney, an impressive calving index of 353 days depends on getting these two factors right. He believes a lot of the infertility found in beef herds is a result of underlying health problems and poor nutrition.

What’s more, he says the three most important people behind any beef farming enterprise are the contractor, vet and feed merchant, and close collaboration with all three is the key to success.

Prevention is better than cure

Maintaining a high herd health status is crucial to Mr Chesney’s beef farming operation. In fact, he is so concerned about keeping disease out of his farm, a ditch runs around the whole perimeter and any bought-in animals are quarantined before being introduced to the rest of the herd.

But the real key to maintaining a high health status, according to Mr Chesney, is knowing the health status of your herd in the first place. At Cool Brae Farm this is determined by annual blood testing; samples are taken during yearly TB testing and the herd is screened for diseases and mineral and vitamin deficiencies.

The herd is given a full vaccination programme against Johne’s, Leptosporosis, BVD and IBR. In addition, last year Vitamin A injections were administered, although usually this is covered by the use of a high-trace dry cow dairy mineral.

“A neighbour who is a very progressive farmer had a calf born lacking in Vitamin E, so rather than testing cows, we did a jab; all the cows and heifers get it,” explains Mr Chesney.

And good herd health starts from day one, adds Mr Chesney, who has undertaken a rigid pneumonia prevention programme with youngstock for the past five years. He describes this as a “no-brainer”, as the cost of prevention is significantly lower than the cost of treatment.

He says the total cost of this preventative treatment programme is about £20/calf, but for every calf that comes down with pneumonia, there is a loss of approximately £65.50 in terms of treatment and weight loss.

Making the most from grass

Good grassland management is also at the heart of Mr Chesney’s beef enterprise, where a rotational paddock grazing system, using a grass budget calculator, is in place.

“We have been rotationallygrazing for four years and it came about following a visit to farms in southern Ireland. I first tried it with portable fences and wire, and the cattle did better and were happier; they were also more docile because I was moving them every three days,” explains Mr Chesney.

“We are producing more grass – the average farmer produces 7-8t DM/ha and we think we are doing 10-12t DM/ha. We aren’t keeping the cattle out any longer, but we are keeping more stock, so we can have a higher stocking rate.”

He says it’s easy to train the cattle to get used to rotational grazing, and the infrastructure – tracks, fencing, water troughs – doesn’t all need to be done at once. It can be installed in phases to spread costs.

“We just string an electric wire – run from electric mains fencing – across the field to make paddocks. If you’re interested in doing this, start with strip grazing for a while and the cows will get used to it very quickly. And if the weather’s really bad, as soon as cows lie down, let them stand in the house,” he adds.

The grazing system is based around the 21-day wedge – three day paddocks averaging 1-1.2ha in size – and includes clover to reduce fertiliser use and increase growth rates and fertility.

A total of 28ha are used for first-cut silage, 20ha for second-cut and 16ha for third-cut and bales. Thereafter all those fields come back into grazing.

“All the silage ground is the same grass variety, because it all matures to the one date, and the grazing fields are sown with a high-sugar and clover grass mixture,” says Mr Chesney.

“We graze the grass right down so the clover comes back quicker. But the key is soil sampling every three years, and reseeding every five to six years.”

The benefits in numbers

Through his focus on making the most from forage, and tackling animal health with a “prevention is better than cure attitude”, Mr Chesney’s gross margin a cow is well above the Northern Ireland average (see the table left).

In fact, in 2010/11, his concentrate costs were 35.5% below average, his vet and sundry costs were 4% lower, and his gross margin a cow was 34% above average.

And in terms of physical performance, the total amount of concentrates fed to cattle was drastically less than the average NI beef producer, while the kg liveweight produced for every hectare was nearly double at 85% more.

“We are trying to feed a cow as cheaply as we can, and the more cows you keep on grass, the more money you are going to make,” adds Mr Chesney.