Farmer Focus: Worry as beef price takes a dive

We have begun weaning spring-born calves on our farm. Our protocol for doing this is to remove some cows from each batch and house them while leaving all calves at grass.

Upon housing cows are fed straw for a few days and then put on restricted silage. We have weaned calves using this method for the past few years and have had great success with it; calves remain settled and healthy in the field and no setback can be noticed.

In mid-September all calves were dosed with a wormer to reduce lungworm levels and vaccinated against respiratory viruses IBR and Pi3. With fewer cows on the ground and the good spell of weather, we hope calves will be able to remain at grass for another few weeks.

See also: Read more from the livestock Farmer Focus writers

A dry and fairly warm September gave a welcome chance for us to get our third-cut silage harvested. After a difficult July for silage-making, with a wet second cut, it was crucial to make a dry third cut so we could mix the two silages to get the required intake levels.

During the past month, forward store cattle have been arriving fairly steadily for fattening. Upon arrival on the farm these cattle are vaccinated against IBR and clostridial diseases, as well as receiving a liver fluke dose.

We plan to take a few pooled faeces samples to assess the level of stomach fluke in these cattle.

All cattle are weighed upon arrival. Our first-cut silage is earmarked for feeding to the finishing cattle and we try to make this as good quality as we can. This year’s analysis is 11.8ME, 12% protein and 27% dry matter. Ideally we would have liked it slightly dryer.

Beef prices have fallen during the past week and this is disheartening when it comes to buying cattle to finish over the winter months. The constant volatility facing the beef sector makes budgeting very difficult. Despite cheaper grain prices this year, a rise in beef price will be required to make this enterprise financially viable.

Matthew Brownlee farms 121ha alongside his father . They run 100 Limousin cross suckler cows and buy in store cattle to finish.