ANGUS THE VOLUME 2
Switch from Charolais to Aberdeen-Angus pays dividends for Angus farmers
Next to no assisted calvings, lower finishing costs, and stronger calves at birth are just some of the benefits enjoyed by the Mather family since switching from Charolais to Aberdeen-Angus genetics.
Graeme Mather, who runs a beef, sheep and arable enterprise alongside family at Shandford Farm near Brechin, has moved the family’s entire herd over to Aberdeen-Angus in the past eight years and his only regret is that they didn’t make the move sooner.
The farm’s burgeoning beef enterprise, which supplies prime cattle to Dundee-based butcher Scott Brothers year-round, is home to a herd of 400 Aberdeen-Angus and Aberdeen-Angus cross cows, alongside a 1,000-ewe sheep enterprise, and 750 acres of arable cropping.
The move to Aberdeen-Angus started in 2017 after the Charolais cattle were proving too labour intensive and expensive to run.
Ease of calving
Mr Mather says they first decided to trial an Aberdeen-Angus bull on some of their cows to see how they performed, having already had success with him on the heifers.
“The difference with calving between those put to the Aberdeen-Angus and those put to the Charolais bull was like night and day," explains Mr Mather.
He says when they previously calved 300 cows, put to a Charolais bull, outside in May and June, they were having to assist at least one in 10 with either calving or getting their calves to suckle.
“Since moving to Aberdeen-Angus, this is completely different,” says Mr Mather.
“Last year, for example, I calved 200 cows outside over three weeks in May and I only had to use the calving aid twice and help one calf with suckling.”
Strong calves
The herd is run in two groups, with approximately 120 cows calved from the end of February until April, and the remainder calved from 10 May until the end of June.
The spring-calving herd and heifers are brought inside for calving, but the main block is calved outdoors.
“Previously, the biggest challenge with Charolais calves was getting them strong enough to tag them; I used to wait a few days in case they didn't survive,” says Mr Mather.
Fantastic maternal traits
The farm had struggled to produce decent home-bred replacements from their Continental cross cows crossed with a Charolais bull as well as getting bought-in replacements back in-calf after they had calved.
Now, all replacements are home-bred due to the strong maternal traits offered by Aberdeen-Angus and Mr Mather has established a small 15-cow pedigree herd under the Shandford prefix, to produce home-bred bulls for the commercial cows.
This includes foundation females from the Scotsmill, Coul and Belhaven herds.
“Aberdeen-Angus have given us the chance of being selfreplacing because they’re easy calving and milky, with more maternal characteristics than we had before with the Charolais,” explains Mr Mather.
Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) are the driving factor behind all bull purchases, and Mr Mather says he looks for bulls with good figures across the board – with a focus on calving ease, gestation length, birth weight, and milk.
Impressive performance
Cattle are finished at an average age of 17.5 months old and an average deadweight of 355kg – similar weights to those achieved by Charolais cattle in the past – but with the need for less feed.
“We have great performance on grass where they’re achieving more than 1kg daily liveweight gain,” explains Mr Mather.
“We weigh them regularly and when they reach around 490-500kg liveweight, we start them on our finishing system where some can achieve daily liveweight gains over 2kg a day on hard feed.”
The time cattle spend in the finishing system averages 60 days, and Mr Mather says his need for bought-in feed has drastically reduced.
“They’re eating a third of what the Charolais had for the same weight gain, and they require 50% less feed barley,” adds Mr Mather.
A stickler for numbers, Mr Mather uses electronic identification (EID) tags on all his cattle and records various data to monitor performance including birth weight, how milky the cow is and her behaviour at calving, calf vigour, and monthly calf weights.
This data has enabled him to link calf performance – in terms of daily liveweight gain, kill weight, and days on the farm – to its sire, highlighting the value of EBVs in optimising bull selection.
Calf performance by
sire at Shandford
Mr Mather says the fact the cattle cope well outdoors for large parts of the year means less labour is required for jobs like bedding, and the polled nature of Aberdeen-Angus gives the added bonus of them not needing to be de-horned.
“The cows also perform really well outside on fodder beet, along with a bit of silage and straw. Aberdeen-Angus cattle are meant for outwintering, and we really only have to bring the tractor into the field three times a week over winter to give them some fresh silage,” he adds.
“The real Aberdeen-Angus premium isn’t in the price you get paid but in what the breed can do for you; even if the premium disappeared tomorrow, we wouldn’t change what we’re doing on the farm.”
Benchmarking Aberdeen-Angus steers against the Continental cattle:
After introducing Aberdeen-Angus genetics, Mr Mather noticed a marked difference and wanted to quantify this through robust costings. He compared the performance of the 15 AberdeenAngus steers within that year's cohort against the different groups of Continental cattle.
The percentages indicate how the Aberdeen-Angus steers performed relative to each Continental cattle group, with positive percentages showing improvements in output and negative percentages showing beneficial reductions in costs.
With the exception of total fixed costs, which were slightly higher due to cattle being on farm longer as they were finished at 18 months off grass opposed to intensively on concentrates at 13 months, the Aberdeen-Angus steers outperformed the Continental cattle across all other parameters.
Crucially, they delivered 35% more net margin than the Continental bulls and steers, and 43% more than the Continental heifers.
Farm facts:
• Family business run by Graeme, with his brother Alastair, cousins Grant and Scott, his father Graeme, and uncles William and David
• 400-cow herd of Aberdeen-Angus and Aberdeen-Angus cross cows which are calved in two groups
• 1,000-ewe commercial sheep enterprise comprising Texel, Suffolk and Cheviots
• 750 acres of arable cropping
• Cattle finished at an average of 355kg deadweight at 17.5 months old and sold to Dundee-based butcher Scott Brothers
• Aberdeen-Angus cattle require a third of the feed the Charolais needed for finishing, and feed barley usage has halved
KPI
AA Steers vs Continental bulls (36)
AA Steers vs Continental steers (15)
Steers vs Continental heifers (10)
Aberdeen-Angus was ‘obvious choice’ for profit-driven beef farming family
A desire to breed easy-calving cattle that flesh well led a Northumberland farming family to the Aberdeen-Angus breed with the cattle taking priority in their profit-driven sustainable farming business.
John Renner believes he runs one of the most environmentally responsible beef herds in the country and is proud to run his business, Renner Farming, as a LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) demonstration farm.
The business, run across 500 acres at North Bellshill and Amerside Farms in Northumberland, is home to just under 110 home-bred Aberdeen-Angus cross cows.
"We're a disease-free herd and acheiving some really strong gross margins," says Mr Renner, who farm in partnership with his wife Helen and their three children Charlie, Alice and Sarah. He is passionate about running a profitable farm business that works in harmony with the environment and believes the Aberdeen-Angus breed is key to his success.
An analysis of the business' various enterprises 10 years ago –in anticipation of an expected removal of direct subsidy support in the future – led to a decision to cease sheep production, in favour of increasing cattle numbers.
“At that point we realised we had to decide between sheep or cattle,” explains Mr Renner.
“We knew we could make the cows more profitable, so we got rid of the sheep, and we now manage the land just for the cows.”
Aberdeen-Angus the ‘right choice’
The Aberdeen-Angus breed was introduced to the farm in 2010 with the purchase of Aln Elite from the late Duff Burrell's Alnwick-based Aln herd, now run by his sons.
There are other breeds out there, but it was glaringly obvious to us that AberdeenAngus was the right choice
says Mr Renner
“Aberdeen-Angus carries a premium and so much is known about the breed because people have been keeping up with it and monitoring it for so long.”
He says Aln Elite, which was purchased based on his Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) for calving ease, was a huge success in the herd and there have been no assisted calvings in the past 10 years.
Thereafter, another Aln bull was purchased from the Burrells –Aln Black Boy – to deliver maternal calving ease in the herd.
“My understanding is, Elite gave us a slighter calf, while Black Boy has given us a larger pelvis in his daughters,” says Mr Renner.
“We then decided we would improve other areas in the herd, so I went back to the Burrells and said I wanted a bull that delivered better 400-day weights, so we purchased Aln Patriot who is still with us today.”
More recently, the Renners have purchased Australian semen from the Te Mania herd to introduce genetics to the conversion of forage into beef.
EBVs are key
EBVs drive bull purchases at Renner Farming and Mr Renner says they would never entertain looking at a bull if his figures are not what they are looking for.
“We look at EBVs first and see what the bull's performance is, and if that fits, we'll then go and see the bull,” he explains.
“With the Aberdeen-Angus EBVs, it does exactly what it says on the tin.”
Calving takes place from the start of March, and Mr Renner says the focus on selecting bulls with good EBVs has boosted fertility with 100% of cows getting in-calf every year and 90% of the herd calving in the first 80 days of the calving period.
Impressive performance
As well as paying close attention to data when selecting bulls, the Renners carefully record information on all their cattle to keep a close eye on costs and performance.
“We have a huge spreadsheet of all the cows that have calved, and to which bulls, since 2013,” explains Mr Renner.
“We know we don’t need to worry about calving ease because everything’s had easy calving bred into it, but we can now focus on things like growth rates and we’ve started monitoring how Patriot's offspring are performing, which shows they're achieving average daily liveweight gains of up to 1.5kg.”
He adds: “Our data also shows Black Boy, for example, has given us 300 calves over 10 years.
“Taking into consideration his purchase cost, this works out at just £6.60 per calf born which is well below the industry average.”
Mr Renner believes data not only drives improvements in the herd, where longevity is a key focus, but it also ensures performance can be maintained.
“If you can't measure it, you can't manage it – data is key,” he adds.
“We collect data on everything we’re doing all the time, which informs everything; we never do anything on a whim.”
This focus on detail ties in with the family’s involvement in various environmental initiatives and projects including being
a LEAF demonstration farm, and more recently participation in a trial with Aberystwyth University investigating nitrogen utilisation of legumes.
Grazing system cuts fertiliser costs
A crop rotation has been developed for the land, which works alongside the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme, and a rotational grazing system is in place.
The rotation comprises two years of perennial ryegrass with a clover mix, followed by two years of herbal leys, and then either a low input spring barley crop or spring whole-crop silage.
Explaining how the paddock grazing system works, Mr Renner says: “Each paddock is approximately six hectares in size, and we put in a group of 30 cows and 30 calves to graze that down, before moving them on after about 15 days.
“We keep rotating the cows around these paddocks throughout the summer and the way the grass has reacted is incredible; our fertiliser costs have dropped by 66% in the past three years.”
All cattle are currently housed from November to March, however the Renners are considering outwintering youngstock in the future – something they know Aberdeen-Angus cattle are well suited for.
Calves not retained for breeding are sold as yearling stores off the farm direct to a cattle dealer.
In the future, Mr Renner says the family hopes to take on more land and further increase cattle numbers, while maintaining performance and profitability.
Farm facts:
• 500 acres farmed across two units – North Bellshill and Amerside Hill in Northumberland
• 110-cow herd of Aberdeen-Angus crosses put to Aberdeen-Angus bulls
• Strong focus on EBVs and data
• No assisted calvings in 10 years
• 90% of cattle calve in the first 80 days
• LEAF demonstration farm
Aberdeen-Angus
genetics help add value to calves on Cornwall dairy farm
Aberdeen-Angus genetics are delivering multiple benefits for Cornwall dairy farmer Chris Knowles – including ease of calving, and calves which are much sought after by finishers.
Chris Knowles, who runs Trink Dairy near St Ives in Cornwall, is enjoying multiple benefits since making the switch from Belgian Blue and Limousin genetics to Aberdeen-Angus.
Together with his wife Rachel, and their daughters Naomi and Maddy, Chris milks 300 cows at the 500-acre Trink Farm.
The herd is mainly Friesian, with a quarter of the cows Jersey, and 10% of the milk produced is processed and sold from a vending machine on the farm and to local coffee shops, with the rest sold to Arla.
The herd gives average annual yields of 5,250 litres at 4.9% butterfat and 3.9% protein, and a spring block calving system is in place.
“The herd is housed from mid-November until the middle of February when they start calving,” says Mr Knowles.
“We have a very unusual milking regime where we milk 10 times a week on a 24/48 swingover parlour – so twice on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and once every other day.”
He adds: “The idea is that a cow will generate milk in her udder constantly for about 18 hours, after which she won’t generate any more, so you ideally want to milk her every 18 hours.
“However, that’s obviously not very sociable or practical, so we’ve devised our own milking system to try and get as close to this as possible.”
Calving ease
Sexed dairy semen is used on 120 cows with the aim of producing 60 dairy replacements every year, and the remainder of the herd is put to Aberdeen-Angus – either through bulls sourced from Cornwall breeder Mark Pilcher’s Gear herd or served with Aberdeen-Angus semen through AI.
“I used to use Limousin and Belgian Blue but they're just too big,” says Mr Knowles.
“We've only got small cows – weighing around 525kg mature bodyweight – so the absolute number one priority for us is ease of calving. That's why I went for Aberdeen-Angus because the main thing I was looking for was ease of calving.”
He says ease of calving not only makes life easier at calving time but ensures the best possible performance from a cow once she is milking.
“Ease of calving means the cow isn’t stressed and she cleanses more quickly,” explains Mr Knowles.
“This is huge in terms of that cow’s future because it means she's on the road to being fit for breeding again.”
Since making the move to Aberdeen-Angus, Mr Knowles says he has only had to assist a handful of calvings – mainly with heifers.
“Some heifers can be a bit narrow in the pelvis and that would be the only time we would assist really, on a very rare occasion,” he explains.
Mr Knowles says the calves have noticeably more vigour than previous beef breeds he worked with.
“They're very thrifty calves, and within five minutes of being born they're up suckling,” he adds.
“This is really important for us when we’re calving a lot of cows together, because knowing they will suckle the teat straight away is handy when you go to feed them with milk the next day.”
Market demand
Beyond fertility benefits, Mr Knowles says the market premium paid for Aberdeen-Angus genetics has benefitted his farming system.
“All our dairy beef calves are sold at a month old to local finishers and the guys that buy calves from me have good outlets for Aberdeen-Angus whether that be selling them on as stores for finishing or keeping them as females that could go on to work in suckler herds,” adds Mr Knowles.
“They’ve also got a bit of hardiness for outwintering, and two of the finishers that buy them from me outwinter them when they're 10-11 months old.”
He says a small amount of sexed male Aberdeen-Angus semen has been used because buyers will pay up to 30% more for male Aberdeen-Angus crosses, than females.
“This is really important, especially if you’re breeding from a smaller cross-bred Jersey type cow, because if I can make sure
Auction Marts Information
that a male's coming out of that cow, it adds value for me,” explains Mr Knowles.
“In the past, some of these calves have sold for as little as £1-3 at two-weeks-old, but at the moment every calf is achieving quite a good value, and my Aberdeen-Angus crosses are selling for an average of £200 at one-month-old.”
In the future, he plans to maintain Aberdeen-Angus as the beef breed of choice for his herd and may even finish some cross calves to produce meat to sell alongside milk from the farm.
Farm facts:
• Family farm run by Chris Knowles alongside his wife Rachel and their daughters Naomi and Maddy
• 300-cow herd of mainly Friesian and Jersey cows run across 500 acres
• Average annual yields of 5,250 litres at 4.9% butterfat and 3.9% protein
• 10% of milk processed and sold on the farm through a vending machine enterprise run by Maddy and her boyfriend Lawrence, with the rest sold to Arla
• Spring-block calving herd
• Aberdeen-Angus genetics introduced to bring ease of calving, with bulls and served with semen through AI on approximately 180 cows every year
• Aberdeen-Angus cross calves sold at a month old for an average of £200 to regular buyers
Marts
Mowbray
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