Quality shows in heifer rearing enterprise

The highest possible standards – in terms of selection, rearing and management – are at the heart of a specialist beef-heifer rearing enterprise under way at Mark Towers’ Colt Park in south Cumbria.

But the biggest winners from this copy-book venture are those suckler herd owners who use this system to source their “purpose-bred” herd replacements.

The Towers family’s well known Aldingham Holstein herd was dispersed in 2004.

Now the buildings on this coastal holding west of Ulverston are full of beef-bred heifers of outstanding quality – all hand-picked to be reared under a strict management regime, calved and sold with calves at foot to buyers who acknowledge the true value of improving the standard of UK suckler females.

About 150 carefully chosen beef-bred heifers, about 12-16 months old, are bought each year from leading auction marts in Cumbria – starting in March and running into summer – to provide the annual throughput of the business.

“I was determined this would be a regimented system from the start and one totally underpinned by quality, both in the heifers and their calves – but it’s been a big learning experience, too,” says Mr Towers.

Only top quality threequarter-bred Continental beef heifers are bought-in.

“They must be Limousin based with some British Blue for extra shape and quite often they have a dash of Blonde. We’re using several Continental cross-bred bulls containing some British Blue in the breeding and each one with the conformation superiority you would expect in a superior pedigree sire. But conformation traits for easy calving are a priority – I need live calves.

“And every heifer, depending on the component breeds of its parentage, is individually assessed before it’s bulled and put to a sire that will complement its breeding and conformation.”

All the purchased young heifers – to be served the following spring/summer – are housed in October.

“I don’t want them to lose one day’s growth, even though I could probably leave them out for another three weeks on the kind of land we’ve got here.

“Avoiding any growth check is absolutely critical. For the markets we’re aiming at, size is king in terms of conformation and power,” he says.

At housing the young heifers are weighed, clipped – heads, tails and backs – and dosed. They are wintered in cubicles on a mix of top quality silage, maize silage and alkalage. It’s an ad-lib ration, but troughs are always “licked clean” overnight. The alkalage is considered vital to ensure the correct pH level in the gut.

The 150 heifers are turned out to grass in April, but only after they have been individually assessed and moved into groups for bulling to particular sires. They are scanned regularly, starting at about 40-50 days and stay out until early December.

“We make two different silages – one for the growing heifers and one for the in-calvers. Pit-silage feeds the growing heifers, but it’s got to be good enough to feed to dairy cows. It’s not just gut-fill we’re in the job of growing cattle and silage has to be top quality.”

In-calf heifers are wintered on big-bale silage. It’s fed with minerals first thing in the morning and by lunchtime it’s eaten.

“The in-calvers only get feed for six hours a day. It’s a fine balance on intake, but we will tweak it and increase the rate slightly if we need to, but it’s absolutely controlled.

“This system is all about getting live calves and we certainly don’t want those calves to get too big inside the heifer. If you put your hand in the in-calf heifers in September you can’t feel the pelvis they are so fit.

“Put your hand in again in early spring and although they look externally fit they’ve actually lost all their internal fat.”

A tag-number list of all the in-calf heifers gives details of the bull they are in-calf to and, based on the scanning data, the estimated calving date.

“If we left scanning until heifers were three to four months in-calf we couldn’t be as accurate and that would have serious consequences for the tight management we need. I don’t want any heifers calving in the cubicles so we move them into the calving pens in good time for a minimum of a week before they calve.”

Once calved, heifers are switched to a complete diet mix of silage, maize silage, alkalage and a bought-in concentrate. Heifers stay on this ad-lib diet until the day they are sold – even while at grass.

“I’m feeding these heifers just as I’d feed freshly calved dairy heifers. I want each outfit to look as good as it possibly can and the only way to get those calves to really motor-on is to get heifers to milk as hard as they can.”

The big May sale of beef breeding cattle at Carlisle is always an important day in Mr Tower’s calendar and this year, with every heifer washed and clipped and calves washed, too, he will be taking a wagon load.

Heifers will also be sold at other Cumbria sales until September, each suckling outstanding 9-10-week-old calves that have become a hallmark of this innovative enterprise.