Research and better breeding factors in Irish beef success
Obtaining cutting edge research is not easy when you are in the middle of autumn calving and it involves trawling through endless scientific papers in an attempt to make results relevant to your system. So how do farmers make sense of research?
Targeted at progressive Irish beef farmers keen to develop systems to maintain efficiency, a recent beef open day at the Teagasc Beef Research Centre at Grange, Co Meath attracted over 2000 producers.
Exports
Exporting more than 90% of their beef to the European market, Irish beef farmers were advised to take notice of market requirements and the demand for lean animals with good conformation.
Payments were based on yield and percentage of high value cuts, said Michael Drennan, Grange Research Centre. “There is no value for bone or fat, carcasses must be lean and have good conformation.”
To illustrate this, research to establish the differences in profitability from conformation has been carried out by Grange Research Centre, with results presented at the open day.
“Animals with the same carcass weight, classified as U3 and O3, showed definite differences in terms of value. The U3 carcass produced 270kg meat, 30kg fat and 60kg bone; whereas the O3 carcass produced 240kg meat, 43kg fat and 77kg bone, resulting in a difference in value of the U3 carcass of +37c/kg (25p/kg),” said Dr Drennan.
And the difference in profit to be made from suckler beef in comparison to Holstein/Freisian steers was also investigated in the project.
“Sucklers achieved higher conformation classification, R+3+, in comparison with H/F steers, 0+3+, resulting in a difference in price of +44c/kg (30p/kg),” he added.
“The difference in price is equally as considerable in mainland Europe, with differences ranging from +23c/kg (15p/kg) in the UK to a significant +79c/kg (53p/kg) in Italy.”
Recommendations made by Dr Drennan included broadening the grading scale from 5 to 15 points, resulting in more achievable conformation premium steps of 6c/kg (4p/kg) instead of jumps of 18c/kg (12p/kg).
“Using muscular scoring and scanned muscle and fat measurements are good indicators of carcass meat percent and, therefore, carcass value,” Dr Drennan told farmers.
“Sires with good, instead of average, conformation score produce progeny with better muscular score, greater eye muscle area and better carcass conformation, in some cases equivalent to 16 versus 48% Us for bulls.”
Meanwhile, following the theme of providing what the market wants, Aidan Moloney presented emerging technologies, among which was adding value by enhancing health qualities such as Omega-3 through diet.
“Health is a big influence in consumer markets,” Dr Moloney said. “Through feeding different diets, we can produce lean beef to produce ‘something-special’ products.”
Annulling claims that tenderness was caused by animals’ diet and nutrition, Dr Moloney showed evidence that ageing post-mortem had more effect on tenderness than anything on farm.
“We have to produce a consistent product. At the moment we have a real variation in tenderness. There is no magic in producing tender meat, just hanging time,” he added.
Going on to explain how authenticating geographical origin of beef has now become possible, Dr Moloney highlighted the importance of maintaining geographical ownership of beef. “We can now prove what is Irish and what is imported.”
Alongside these pieces of research, considerable work has been done in all areas of beef production – breeding, feeding, management, yield and quality.
Cross-breeding
Spanning four years, an experiment showing comparisons between half, three-quarters or full Continental breeding and Simmental cross Limousin suckler cow genotypes showed the clear advantages of cross-breeding for hybrid vigour.
Examining immune status, pre-weaning daily gains and carcass weight per day, crossbred progeny achieved more desireable traits for the modern beef farmer, said Mark McGee of Grange Research Centre.
“In contrast, best carcass confirmation and lowest fat scores were among pure Limousin and Charollais animals.”
Those following the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) had great interest in what Dr McGee had to say about spring calving systems for both producers who were REPS-compatible and those who followed a more semi-intensive system.
“Producers using the REPS system grossed higher margins and are set to be better off when nitrates legislation comes in,” said Dr McGee.
“Further research has to be done, however, to establish optimum ways to finish from pasture or alternative forages. Genetics will also play a huge part in the future, with the development of an alternative measure of feed efficiency – residual feed intake [RFI].
“The RFI is a measure of animals’ actual intake minus predicted intake, which will, with selected breeding, result in a more efficient suckler cow,” concluded Dr McGee.