Stabiliser CC 2020 Winter Newsletter

STABILISER® NEWSLETTER Winter 2020/21

Geraint Davies – Sunset over Llanrwst

Wishing you all a safe, Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year Southburn Driffield East Yorkshire YO25 9ED UK Telephone: 01377 227790 Email : info@stabiliser.co.uk www.stabiliser.co.uk Beef Improvement Grouping Limited t/a Stabiliser Cattle Company Registered in England No 2848266 VAT Registration No 599 1558 78

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Chairman’s Report Robert Rook It doesn’t seem like a year has passed since I wrote my report for the last Newsletter, and what a year we have all experienced!

The monsoon conditions through the 2019 autumn period then progressed to the driest April and May on record, which in some areas led to the supplementary feeding of livestock.

On top of this we had the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which led to lockdown starting in March and then lasting for several months. This caused a very stressful time for everyone, and the Stabiliser Cattle Company had to respond by changing the way we operate. We are very fortunate to be involved in farming because the nature of our business is mainly one of natural isolation so reducing the risk of infection.

Early in the year the beef price slumped to a very low point. This challenged profitability and seriously compromised farmers’ development plans. This was created by the uncertainty of the major retailers marketing vision for beef due to lockdown and cheap imports. However, demand has remained strong and we now have a nearly all-time high beef price. How does a business cope with such price fluctuations during such a short time scale?

After lockdown and the subsequent drop in cattle prices, we were concerned about the possible effect on breeding stock sales. We were unable to visit farms to inspect livestock or to hold any of the usual promotional events which have normally created an ever-increasing interest in the Stabiliser.

However, overall sales have surpassed our initial expectations. Interest is growing from commercial farmers who are recognising the cost saving and efficiencies that the Stabiliser can bring to their businesses and this has led to a boost in sales to new customers. Congratulations are due to Ursula and Katie who have worked very hard to push sales forward in difficult circumstances. Thanks also go to those breeders who have helped the sales effort.

The Stabiliser Team has been able to keep Multipliers up to date through a series of on-line webinars. They have also given specialist speakers the opportunity to present future developments. It is pleasing to note that the webinars have attracted very good attendances and I must congratulate Seth on organising these successful events.

The Company continues to deliver new initiatives with ground-breaking results, whether it be the reduction in carbon emissions, today’s ‘hot topic’, or the development of Genomics along with parentage testing. All these important advances depend entirely on Multipliers sending in, on time, accurate and complete performance records from their herds.

We continue to be at the forefront of the suckler beef industry delivering efficiency, sustainability, and environmental protection, all helping to ensure a profitable industry for future generations.

After 15 enjoyable and rewarding years as chairman I have decided to stand down. It has been a privilege to be chairman of this exciting and industry leading company working with a visionary team that has made things happen.

It therefore gives me great pleasure to introduce Stephen Fell as the incoming chairman. He brings with him both experience of company development and knowledge of animal genetics. I wish him every success with his new appointment.

It would be very remiss of me not mention, on behalf of everyone involved with the Stabiliser programme, our sincere appreciation of both Richard’s and Lee’s vision, determination and ground breaking technology, which has created a breeding strategy that enables commercial farmers to make money from suckler beef production.

Lastly, I must express my huge thanks to Ursula, Seth, Andrew, Katie, and Linda who together drive the company forward. I wish them continued great success. As a director of the company and a Stabiliser Multiplier I will be keeping an eye on progress!

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Change of Company Chairman Richard Fuller After 15 years as chairman of the Stabiliser Cattle Company, Robert Rook has decided that it is time for him to retire from the position.

I first met Robert in the late 1970s on a shooting holiday in Scotland although he lived and farmed only 20 minute’s drive from Givendale where I was farm manager.

We had similar farming interests in that we both had dairy-based suckler herds. Robert soon became involved with the work we were doing to improve performance in both our terminal sire Charolais and suckler cow programs.

Robert was a member of the group of five East Yorkshire producers I established. We worked together refining suckler cow management techniques and progeny testing our Charolais bulls. As a group we marketed large numbers of high grading Charolais cross finished bulls, steers, and heifers to St Merryn Meats.

In 1997, during the devastation caused by the BSE crisis, Robert accompanied us on the first visit to the Leachman Cattle Company in Montana. The rest is well documented history.

I have worked closely with Robert in his Chairman’s role for the last 15 years and would like to pay tribute to his solid support for the Stabiliser program and in particular for the support he has given to me personally.

Starting and developing a new cattle breed, especially a composite, in the UK could have been a daunting task (many people told me that it would be impossible!) but both Robert’s and the Board’s support made it a whole lot easier.

On behalf of myself, the Board and all the Multipliers, I would like to thank Robert most sincerely for all the work he has put into the company both publicly and behind the scenes. I am very pleased to report that he will remain on the Board of Directors, so his input will continue.

New Chairman Stephen Fell In 1999 BIG held a joint conference and livestock demonstration in conjunction with Henry Fell’s Meatlinc Sheep Company entitled, ‘Leading the Way in Sheep & Beef Breed Improvement’ at Givendale Farm under the chairmanship of Don Curry. This was a very successful day supported by the MLC and SAC with about 200 delegates attending.

That was the year the very first 52 Stabiliser calves were born in the UK. Richard Fuller, John Vipond & Henry Fell Henry was a leading agricultural spokesman and a pioneering sheep Fell breeder, creating his own composite Meatlinc terminal sire. He emphatically supported performance recording to develop breed improvement to increase profitability and was scathing about the showring as a place to select superior breeding stock. At Givendale I shared his vision applying it to beef cattle breeding.

Henry, who passed away aged 90 last April would have been delighted that his son Stephen, has just been appointed the new Chairman of SCC. Here is a summary of Stephen’s history and his visions for the future.

I grew up on the family farm in Lincolnshire, where my father, Henry Fell, a first-generation farmer, rented 1800 acres. One of his key projects was the development of the Meatlinc terminal sire sheep breed, a composite breeding programme comprising 5 breeds originally, which he started in 1968. This exciting and innovative breeding initiative has continued under my management, and is now run by my son George, who at the same time as BIG, won Technology Strategy Board funding to expand the Meatlinc breeding programme by introducing top genetics from other selected breeds. The results are proving very impressive in terms of growth rate andStephen meat yield.

Fell 3

I studied Rural Estate Management at the Royal Agricultural College and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor whilst working for the Ministry of Agriculture. I went on to manage a 600-acre mixed farm in central west France for 4 years, with large sheep and beef enterprises, and am a fluent French speaker.

I subsequently managed the 2700-acre Torry Hill Estate in Kent for 9 years and was awarded a Nuffield Farming Scholarship in 1983 to study the production and marketing of prime lamb in NZ and Australia.

I returned to take over the family business in 1989 and am currently MD of HR Fell & Sons Ltd, a family farming business in the Vale of York run by my son, running sheep and cattle, growing root crops, as well as a free range egg enterprise. I am also MD of Lindum Seeded Turf Ltd (awarded Investor in People status in 1999) growing and marketing 700 acres of turf, wildflower turf and green roof vegetation.

As a farmer and experienced non-executive director, I have had a lifetime of driving innovation, seeking practical solutions, and enabling others to develop their potential, both within a work environment and personally.

I have held two key chairmanships within the farming sector - LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) and the Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust. A key part of both roles has been to engender change, and support individuals and groups to reach their full capability and beyond.

I have a wide experience of agriculture, in the arable and livestock sectors, as well as various diversifications where sales and marketing skills are key. I am acutely aware of the need for a profitable and productive food and farming industry which is truly sustainable, and which supports a thriving rural economy. How we encourage farmers to do this, whilst improving biodiversity and moving towards net zero emissions is one of the great challenges facing us.

However, I am convinced that we can achieve this through a combination of sensible reformulated support mechanisms, sound science including advance animal genetics, and clear leadership.

Royal Northern Spring Show – Thainstone, 26th February 2020 Ursula Taylor The Stabiliser Cattle Company made the decision to attend the Royal Northern Spring Show this year. It was fortunate that we went because we were able to meet potential new breeders before the March lockdown which was not even in our thoughts at that time.

The Royal Northern Spring Show and Sale is held at Thainstone Centre Inverurie and is an important pedigree bull show and sale centre which attracts large numbers of beef breeders and finishers.

It is the first major event in the Scottish Farming calendar and regarded as an outstanding business opportunity by agricultural suppliers and the farming community.

Seth, Katie and Ursula drove the 395 miles to the event leaving Yorkshire with the temperature at 12c and arriving in Aberdeenshire at -5c with snow on the mountains as we drove up.

The event was a very well attended, giving us the opportunity to catch up with existing breeders and to also meet some new potential breeders, some of whom have followed up with purchases of breeding stock.

This was a successful event which we will probably be attending again in the future, although the 2021 event has already been cancelled.

SCC stand at Royal Northern Spring Show 4

Open Day - Out-wintering Stabilisers on Fodder Beet Katie Grantham On one of the very few dry days in January the Stabiliser Cattle Company in association with AHDB hosted an open day by kind permission of Richard and Sue Evans at Stonehouse Farm, East Harling, Norfolk. The event was very well attended by 75 enthusiastic farmers, all of whom had the chance to look at Richard’s excellent herd of 133 Stabiliser cattle. Most attendees were local to the area, demonstrating the surprising number of cattle located in the South East. We also had guests travel from as far afield as North Yorkshire.

The day began out in the field where the majority of the females in the herd were strip grazing fodder beet. The cows looked extremely well and in immaculate condition considering the recent quantity of rain that had fallen in the area. Due to the very light soils Richard farms, it is possible to reduce housing costs by out-wintering. Fodder beet is the highest yielding forage at 27t/ha, along with being one of the cheapest at 4-6p/kg dry matter. Compared to concentrate at 24p/kg dry matter and silage at 12-15p/kg dry matter, considerable savings can be made through feeding this nutritious forage. In addition to the fodder beet the cows receive hay and silage over the winter period which is kept at the opposite end of the field to the fodder beet.

There is a handling system situated in the centre of the field which the cattle have to walk through daily to access the different feed type, this allows Richard to gather the cattle up easily if need be as they are familiar with the handling system. It only takes twenty minutes from leaving the farm to feed all the 133 cattle, this includes moving the fence, and taking forage out. The system not only reduces feed, straw and fixed costs it also reduces labour costs too. Currently, all the bull calves are weaned and sold to a repeat customer 20 minutes away who takes all of them through to finishing. In a trial Richard is carrying out, the heifer calves have been left on the cows this year and Richard is planning to wean them off 2-3 weeks prior to calving. Richard is carefully monitoring how this effects cow and calf development. The hope is that the calves will self-wean and the cows will then have chance to produce sufficient colostrum for their new-born calves.

Stabiliser cows on fodder beet Whilst out in the field the Stabiliser Cattle Company’s, Seth Wareing, gave an informative talk on the benefits of using the Stabiliser breed to many new faces. It was reassuring to see that everyone in the group had heard of the Stabiliser breed. This is most likely due to the increasing popularity of the breed in recent years and the publicity it has received. Seth highlighted the superior KPIs the Stabiliser breed has over the top third AHDB producers, producing an extra 6 calves per 100 cows mated per year on average.

Next up was Francis Dunne from Field Options who discussed the benefits of grazing fodder beet including the reduction in feed costs.

We then returned in convoy to Richard’s farm a couple of miles away. Nerys Wright from AHDB spoke about colostrum management and highlighted the importance of feeding 10% of the calf’s body weight within 6 hours from birth. Trials have shown immunoglobulin transfer in sucker cows is surprisingly comparable to 5

that in dairy cows. An average calf requires three litres of colostrum, if this is not achieved the immunoglobulin transfer is likely to be unsuccessful, leaving the calf vulnerable to disease. If you are interested in this further there is a webinar available on the AHDB website.

We were also joined by Steve Trickey from Chapelfield Vets who spoke about the importance of analysing data gathered on farm and the benefits it can bring.

Once the talks were finished everyone was welcomed to a warming hot beef stew.

For attendees who were interested in discussing handling systems and outdoor corals, talks continued after lunch. All in all, it was a very well attended The Evans family and successful day, we were approached with a lot of interest regarding the Stabiliser breed by many new people. This event would not have been possible without Richard Evans and family and we would like to thank them for being so accommodating.

Slow Cooked Roast Beef (serves 4) Best cut to use is a joint of topside

Ingredients 1 kg Givendale Prime topside 2 carrots roughly chopped 3 tbsp tomato puree 1 tsp pepper 1 tbsp olive oil 187.5 ml red wine Âź bottle

500ml beef stock 1 onion sliced 2 tsp sugar 6 tbsp cornflour 1 tsp salt

Instructions

1 Add the carrots and onions to the slow cooker, then add 3 tbsp of cornflour and stir to ensure an even coating. Rub a little oil all over the beef and season well with salt and pepper. Sear the beef all over in a hot pan, and transfer to the slow cooker.

2 Add the beef stock, red wine, tomato puree and sugar, ensuring that the beef is mostly covered by the liquid. Cook on low for 6 hours, or high for 3 hours. Once cooked, remove the beef from the slow cooker and cover with foil to keep warm. Rest the beef for up to 30 minutes.

3 Reduce the remaining liquid and vegetables in the slow cooker to a gravy consistency, adding 3 tbsp of cornflour to thicken (remove a little liquid, mix in the cornflour to make a paste, and mix it back into the gravy). Transferring the contents of the slow cooker to a pan.

4 When you are ready to serve, slice the beef with a sharp knife and coat with plenty of red wine gravy!

5 Serve with roast potatoes, carrots and green beans.

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Rosie Hetherington, Stabiliser Account Manager at SellMyLivestock SellMyLivestock is an online marketplace where farmers can market their livestock, genetics, forage, and bedding, amongst other things. Currently we have over 83,000 registered users mainly across the UK and Ireland but have an increasing number of European users as well. We work with our farmers to help them advertise their stock to a wider audience and enable them to buy securely without having to leave the farm.

Since 2019 we have been delighted to work with the Stabiliser Cattle Company to both promote the Stabiliser breed and the wider work of the company. We have found a huge interest in Stabiliser cattle, particularly in females with commercial buyers increasingly looking for economical, long lasting cows that get on with the job and perform. This year, we have had success helping Stabiliser market their breeding bulls especially to new buyers. I think a huge part of this was the data behind the animal, which was highly visible on the adverts.

SellMyLivestock can pull breeding data and performance figures directly from ABRI, allow pictures and videos of the animals and provide a wide range of health data. Buyers know they can buy with confidence, animals that are high health, have the performance data and are exactly as described which makes it easy for them to choose Stabiliser, and that’s what we have really seen on SML this year.

This year has shown the importance of good marketing of stock and that farmers are willing to buy cattle unseen with enough visual evidence and security. In order to make it even easier for farmers to buy, I would really like to encourage sellers to take time with their adverts and advertising. Quality pictures and particularly videos are the easiest way to demonstrate to the farmer you have the animals they require and therefore get your stock sold quickly. If you can demonstrate an animal's quiet nature, locomotion, and general wellbeing, you are halfway to a sale once combined with the EBV data. Some easy ways to improve the images you take is to wait for a clear day and take photos in good light with space to see the animal fully. Turn your phone horizontally to capture the entire animal and hold it level to the animal's body, rather than the lens looking up or down at them. Save yourself some time and pain by having ear tag data to hand when you start the advert process, which in all should take 5-10 minutes.

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Another Stabiliser Milestone - Genomics are here!

Seth Wareing In November we moved over to genomically enhanced EBVs. Another first for the Stabiliser as we are the only beef breed in the UK to deliver genomics for all EBVs. What is genomics and why should we get excited about its introduction?

Before we look at genomics, let us have a quick recap of how EBVs are calculated.

EBVs are calculated using performance records and are currently the best predictor of expected animal performance. They provide a measure of the breeding potential of an animal for a series of specific economically important traits. They take account of performance data collected from the individual animal itself and from all known recorded relatives in the breed. They also take account of the relationships between performance traits (correlations) of individuals and the degree to which those traits are inherited from one generation to the next (heritability).

When an animal is born its EBVs are solely based on the average EBVs of its dam and its sire. As data on that animal is recorded over time it adds to the accuracy of its predicted EBVs. This takes time and can result in changes up or down to the original predictions The common assumption is that a calf gets 50% of its performance from its sire and 50% from its dam. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes one parent can contribute 80% of its genes with the other parent contributing 20%. Sometimes the offspring can vastly out-perform or under-perform either of their parents.

In other words, one parent can have much more influence on the performance of the offspring than the other.

Genomic measures are calculated when the animal’s DNA is analysed to identify its genetic makeup. This is compared with the other DNA of all the other animals in the database. This comparison identifies which of the parents’ traits, and to what extent, will be expressed in their progeny.

The genomic data adds accuracy to the EBVs, and it allows for animals to be selected with more Can you identify which one of these calves will be the confidence. This will enable breeders to earlier best performer? – Genomics can select breeding animals or to earmark animals for sale or slaughter. It will also enable breeders to plan better mating decisions using high ranked animals to rapidly improve their herd performance.

Enhancing EBVs with genomics results in much more accurate EBVs. This is equivalent to animals having performance data only, recorded from 30 progeny.

This means that we can DNA sample a calf at birth and have the genomic EBVs by the time it is 6 weeks old.

Genomics also enhances the accuracy of the EBVs which are more difficult and expensive traits to measure such as feed to gain, milk, carcass traits, calving ease direct, calving ease maternal, hoof score, and teat and udder score.

Some of these are currently measured, with the rest in the pipeline due for delivery in the next couple of years.

Thinking further into the future this advanced system will allow us to look at new traits by combining the historic phenotypic data with the genomic data. We will be delivering indicators on health, longevity and beef eating quality.

In short, using genomics identifies the best animals for breeding at an earlier age. This will enable the breed to make greater performance gains at a much faster rate and will increase the returns for everyone along the supply chain who is using Stabiliser genetics.

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AI on the Moooove Katie Grantham Geraint Davies farms with Guto - one of his three sons at Ty Mawr near Llanrwst, North Wales. Originally a beef and sheep farm, Geraint has changed his system to being 100% beef. Originally running Limousin cross cows, in 2009 they purchased 20 Stabiliser heifers. Also, in recent years, the regular use of embryo transfer has enhanced the genetic base of their herd. Now in 2020 they have artificially inseminated 230 Stabiliser cows. Throughout this time fertility has been a key focus. They have used a strict culling policy which has enabled them to calve over an 8-week period, compared to their previous 15 weeks on their old system.

You may wonder how the Davies family have grown their herd so quickly, and not only quickly but also producing quality suckler cows as well, please continue and all will be revealed. The Esgair herd progress has been recognised by the Stabiliser Cattle Company when this year their bull, Esgair Uchelwr, was selected by Cogent for semen collection.

Guto Davies

A key tool Geraint and Guto have used over the last ten years to accelerate herd improvement has been the use of AI (Artificial Insemination), now administered by Guto. This has allowed them to access some of the best Stabiliser genetics available. However, AI can be difficult and time consuming when you have a spring calving herd of 230 cows grazing in fields at up to 1,200 ft above sea level. They have also embraced the use of techno grazing, moving the whole herd daily from cell to cell. This means they can keep a higher number of animals on a given area because the system encourages increases in grass growth of high quality due to longer resting between grazing sessions.

However, mob grazing could have been another barrier to their AI ambitions, but Geraint and Guto have taken advantage of these daily moves to design a system that works extremely well and has enabled them to DIY AI all their cows with a high degree of success and automation.

Geraint said: ”The effort required to get a group of sometimes 20 or more cows with young calves to the AI crush daily, and doing so without causing stress and trauma to the cow, calf and farmer alike is a huge constraint on AI for suckler herds.”

Guto went on to explain: “We graze all of our cows in one mob which is a key part of our production model, so we were not going to change that. We wanted a system which would allow us to carry out AI in the field, which the cows would move through freely - but we could not find anything on the market to fit our requirements. So, we set about designing our own system”.

Geraint said: “Cows are naturally greedy and will do anything for their daily dose of fresh grass. So, we based the system around the principle “if you want fresh grass – go through the race!”

After 12 months of careful design and build they ended up with a portable system which includes a crush, race, personnel kiosk, EID tag reader, auto-drafting gate, and a side holding pen of Prattley aluminium gates to hold however many cows required. The whole setup can be fully set up in 5 minutes by one man.

Geraint said: “We fit pedometers to a front leg of every cow, these record increased movement of the bulling cows and send a signal to a base station which is positioned in an old 4x4 which is moved the cows around their daily shifts. The electronics in the base station are solar powered and pick up the ID numbers from the pedometers of all the bulling cows. The ID numbers are recorded and entered in the EID reader on the crush, as the cows move through the crush the numbers are picked up triggering the draughting gate to open automatically. The target cows are then shed off into the side pen, AI d and returned to the main herd, often with their calves waiting just by the head yolk. They start grazing immediately – there is no stress.”

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The pedometer (pictured below) costs £80 per cow and are removed each winter with new straps fitted every spring.

The whole system improves the timing precision of AI and the results speak for themselves. In 2019 86% of 180 cows conceived to the first cycle, only 27 cows then went to repeat to their second cycle and 1 went to the third. Prior to the development of this innovative system, cows were walked back to the yard for service and conception rate averaged 65% to 75%.

However, all this success has come with a considerable amount of hard work and cost. The handling system was designed by Geraint and Guto and fabricated by a local engineering company. It is fully portable and works using the tractor hydraulics. If this design were to be re-made it is estimated that it would cost about £18,000.

This may seem expensive, but AI is a key part of their business, allowing them to continue using techno grazing and the best genetics available are pivotal to improving profitability. To put it into perspective they have been able to AI 120 cows this year to Givendale Black Sebastian, a top 3% Cogent AI bull, and from these matings the offsprings’ average £Profit Index will be £18,500. The progeny can either re-enter the Esgair herd as replacement heifers, the bulls used as sweepers or sold for breeding as they will be ranked in the top 10% of the breed.

Due to the familiarity of the race bulling cows are extremely relaxed when secured

Once secured, AI is then administered

What is next for Geraint and his family? Currently calving 230 cows, the plan is to have 350 cows by 2022. Their key focus now is on improving feed efficiency and reducing cow size. They are selecting bulls with low feed to gain EBVs to reduce cow dry matter intake to improve their feed efficiency. In 2018 cow size averaged 585kg, however with a strict culling policy and the use of EBV’s to select smaller mature cow weights they have managed to bring this down to 570kg whilst at grass.

Esgair herd Grazing at 1200 feet 10

The ‘Green’ Stabiliser Cow – The most carbon efficient suckler cow Seth Wareing Reducing the carbon footprint of beef production goes hand in hand with increasing profitability The UK suckler industry is under immense pressure to reduce its carbon footprint while still providing consumers with high quality beef at affordable prices, and at the same time ensuring profitability. While one of the strengths of suckler systems is converting marginal grassland, unsuitable for growing crops, into a high-quality protein for human consumption, there is scope to do this more efficiently from both an environmental and financial standpoint.

For the last 20 years the Stabiliser Cattle Company has promoted the gains that the breed delivers by focusing on animal efficiencies. These gains have been measured in terms of physical (kgs of output) and financial (£s returned). While we were aware the system would reduce carbon output, we did not have factual evidence until the results of a recent research project was published. We now have the proof that: The Stabiliser breed is the most carbon efficient suckler system for beef production. This applies to all categories of animals: cows, heifers, bulls and steers.

By benchmarking 10 separate criteria of suckler herd performance against industry performance data published in AHDB’s Annual Stocktake report, we have calculated carbon savings from both data sets using Alltech E-CO2’s Carbon Trust approved life cycle analysis model.

These comparisons included, the benefits of selecting animals that eat less for the same gain (feed efficiency) leaving bulls entire for finishing, reducing cow size, calving heifers at two years old and weaning more calves per 100 cows mated.

The research found that significant carbon savings were quickly achieved by improving all criteria incrementally rather than one criterion 100%. This is because when one component is made more efficient, that efficiency will resonate across the whole production system enabling reductions across the entire life cycle.

For example, the Stabiliser steer finishing system had a carbon saving of 31% while the Stabiliser bull finishing system had a carbon saving of 40%.

The Stabiliser system, which includes calving ease, calving at two years, improved fertility, growth rate, uniform carcase quality, excellent eating quality, improved feed efficiency, reduced cow size, all forage-fed cows, plus the genetic gains the breed is continually making, combine to offer the UK suckler industry a ground-breaking opportunity to become more efficient and therefore more profitable AND to radically reduce the long-term carbon footprint of producing beef.

If you are running Stabiliser cows you can now proudly state that your genetics allow you to produce the lowest carbon suckler beef in the UK, and potentially in the world.

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Feed Efficiency Unit – Wold Farm Ursula Taylor The first Feed Efficiency trial at Wold Farm, Givendale started in January 2012 after BIG won ‘Technology Strategy Board’ funding under the heading: ‘Improved protein production and efficiency from beef cattle with reduced Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions’.

The £1.2 million, five-year project was designed to improve feed efficiency and profitability by identifying those animals which eat less feed for the same rate of liveweight gain and at the same time reduce GHG emissions. The main aim of the project was to produce an EBV for Feed Efficiency and then use it in calculating a multi-trait selection index to help to identify the most profitable animals. Both these aims were met when £Profit Index was launched.

Feed Efficiency EBV Feed to Gain Ratio is calculated from individual daily feed intake and weight gain records and indicates the feed conversion efficiency of animals. Animals with larger negative figures are more favourable because they require less feed per kg of gain.

Total animals tested to date Stabiliser bulls 1299 Stabiliser steers 517 Shorthorn bulls 39 Total 1855 Two trials of 80 young bulls are run through the Growsafe feed intake unit per year, December to February and March to May. Data collected from these trials is regarded as highly valuable information in the Stabiliser selection process.

The Growsafe system at the Feed Efficiency unit has recently undergone a significant up-grade to enable us to have easier access to the data and to improve management processes.

The 25th trial started in November 2020 receiving bulls from 4 high health herds from across the UK. It is imperative that bulls that enter this unit are of high health, strict health and vaccination protocols have been put in place to maintain the quality of the stock. The bulls have been selected from different sire lines and born within a 6 - week calving period ensuring the bulls are on a level playing field, so minimising the effect of environmental factors in the trial.

We are planning to resume our annual Open Day at the unit next May, providing COVID 19 provision allows.

Many of the bulls in the unit have breeding potential and will be for sale after the trial has finished towards the end of February.

Visits to the unit to view the bulls are welcome with prior appointment only. Please contact 01377 227790 or info@stabiliser.co.uk

Feed Intake unit at Wold Farm - JSR Givendale 12

Charolais used as a terminal sire on Stabiliser cows Graham Robinson, Commercial Breeder Graham Robinson farms near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire with his wife Suzanne, son Edward and youngest daughter Alice.

Historically, we ran Hereford cross Friesian cows but over the years this cow type had changed with the increased level of Holstein genetics in the dairy industry. This change was having an impact on the productivity of our herd by reducing fertility levels and undermining the ability of the cows to maintain the correct body condition throughout their breeding cycle.

We have approaching 150 commercial cows and run a small herd of pedigree Charolais cattle producing bulls for our own use and selling surplus bulls to other suckler producers. My son Edward, AI’s the Pedigree Charolais herd this enables us to bring in new genetics.

We are in a TB4 area but most of our replacement heifers were coming from TB1 areas. This was becoming difficult to justify and we were becoming increasingly protective of our health status, so we needed to make some changes.

We had been considering the Stabiliser for some time, but it is always a difficult decision changing to a new breed, but a change was necessary.

In July 2015 we purchased our first 10 Stabiliser cows with calves at foot from Richard and Sue Evans from West Harling in Norfolk. Further purchases from Richard and Sue as well as from John Coverdale near Scarborough have helped us to build a foundation herd of cows enabling us to be in control of breeding our own replacements resulting in performance and health benefits.

Currently, we have two Stabiliser bulls. These are Stonehouse Sidney who is in the top 10% of the breed for £Weaning and Weighton Wold Utu who is in the top 10% for £Finisher Index but also with a good £Weaning Index.

These two bulls are ideal to breed good herd replacements. The first bull we bought was a previously used bull from Richard Evans bred by Harri Parry from Crugeran in North Wales and as his daughters came along, the Stabiliser Cattle Company sold him on for us which was very helpful.

We breed our first and second calvers to Stabiliser bulls with the heifer progeny retained as replacements. This strategy ensures that the younger females benefit from the easier calving Stabiliser. Third calvers and upwards are put to our homebred easy calving Charolais bulls.

I am very impressed with the accuracy of the Stabiliser EBVs, easy calving MEANS easy calving, but unfortunately this is not the case with all breeds.

Stabiliser cow with Charolais cross calf

The cows are out wintered on deferred grazing but in very wet conditions they are supplemented with hay, fed in ring feeders on free draining limestone brash. They calve outside from mid-March.

The calves are fed creep from August and they are sold as stores after weaning. This year the calves were weaned abruptly at 187 days of age due to the flooded marshes. When they left the farm, they were put over a weigh bridge at 203 days of age.

The Charolais cross steers and heifers on one lorry averaged 330kg and on the other lorry the Stabiliser steers also averaged 330kg. They were all bought by the same buyer.

Charolais cross Stabiliser weaners 13

The Stabiliser steers made 14p a kilo less than the Charolais crosses but that is a small price the pay to secure an efficient, low cost and easy to manage herd of cows.

We have not seen anything yet that we do not like about the Stabilisers. They happily winter outside on deferred grazing or on lower quality July made hay. They calve easily with hardly any assistance and they are excellent, fertile mothers.

Apart from the need to regularly buy new herd sires to introduce superior bloodlines, we have been able to secure a closed herd with clear benefits for improved herd health status.

GB Beef Pricing Ursula Taylor

The start of 2020 was uncertain with Brexit looming and the beef price had fallen since June 2019 with a slight rise at the end of the year. Then prices nosed dived in the third week in January. This was the lowest it had been since 2016 and caused apprehension within the industry triggering concern for breeding stock values later in the year.

Another sudden reduction of prices in April, coming strangely at the same time as Polish beef was on offer in some of the retailers. This certainly caused serious concerns for producers expecting support from the retailers, especially as the beef price at that time was the lowest it had been for four years.

We had been in Covid-19 lockdown for a month, and there had been a big drive on buying British and supporting local businesses. An example of this is SCC supplying W.F. Burton Butchers in Pocklington. His beef sales had increased by nearly 50% and Mike (the owner) called this spike in demand “Christmas without the Turkeys�.

During the Covid-19 lockdown beef sales had fallen as restaurants and catering outlets were closed, but a steady increase in demand from consumers materialised as more people cooked at home and the good weather in April and May brought the BBQ’s out.

A brisk rise at the end of May/June brought some stability back into the market encouraging farmers to be more confident about buying breeding stock and store animals.

Beef prices have thankfully been steadily rising since then, let us hope this trend continues.

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A Story on Susan’s Switch to Stabilisers Susan Hallifield I farm with my husband, Joe, and his elder brother William in Derby. The farm is a National Trust farm, which has been organic for 16 years. Like many farms the business is split into two halves. William farms 260ha of conventional land, 200ha of this is arable, as well as this he buys cattle in for fattening. In the other half of the business Joe and I look after 450ha of Organic land. 250ha with the National Trust under Higher Tier, as well as woodland pasture and flower meadows and 100ha of park land. The rest is permanent grassland. We also grow 25ha of red clover leys.

Susan with some of her Stabilisers In total we farm 130 Stabiliser cows, 25 Longhorn cows which run in the parkland, along with 450 ewes and 8 Berkshire sows. We also have an on-farm Butchery, which we stock with meat from the farm, our son Daniel runs this enterprise.

Stabiliser cattle have been a life changer for us here at Standleys Barn Farm. What we were doing before seems to come from a different time, mix matched cows, big udders, big cows, big calves, and most importantly big bills.

It all changed 16 years ago. Wheat was £60/ton, the land is heavy clay, ultimately meaning there was no profit in trying to grow it. Standleys Barn Farm is a National Trust farm which adjoins Calke Park (SSSI and National Nature Reserve). A meeting was being held in the park advising farmers on Higher Level Stewardship, and we decided to go for a nosey. The advisor waved his arm in the direction of our land and said “£204/Ha for arable reversal”. A quick calculation! “How many hectares? The whole farm?”

It ended up a large chunk of the land we rent from the National Trust entering into HLS, another quick think, no sprays or fertiliser were going on much of this land, convert to Organic and get the conversion money. This money made it possible to rethink the suckler cows. A ride up to Givendale to meet Richard Fuller, he kindly showed us something that resembled a fawn, some mutterings about weighing and Signet recording and low and behold by default we became a Stabiliser Multiplier. Out went the old cows and in came two Stabiliser bulls, we managed to purchase 40 Sussex/ Limousin heifers, 10 Lincoln Red/ Limousin heifers and some Simmental/Aberdeen Angus heifers.

This was in 2005, calving all those heifers was a doddle, could it get any easier? Yes, it could.

Over the 16 years the breed has changed and improved, I no longer feel the need to defend it. After many sceptics rolled around and laughed, they are now picking themselves up and have started to run. What makes me proud is to tell everyone that we are a Multiplier, producing the best, and that there are no “fishermen’s tales”. the breed does exactly what we say it will do, with the evidence to back it up.

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Stabiliser Cattle Weight Trait and Index Trends Andrew Southwell When making breeding decisions, the goal is to produce superior animals to the parents. What separates the Stabiliser breed from every other breed is that SCC is running a co-ordinated approach to breed improvement to improve the overall performance of the breed. But is this working and if it is how quickly is the breed improving?

One of the benefits of the Stabiliser is that breed improvement is driven by data. When we look at the improvements that have been made over the last 10 years, all the performance criteria have moved in the right direction in an upward trajectory. This means that the profitability of running Stabiliser cows has been increasing.

Weight Trait Trends WEIGHT EBV (KG)

100

This graph shows that the average Birth Weight EBV has been kept constant, and even dropping slightly while the Weaning Weight EBV and the Yearling Weight EBV have continuously improved year on year, by almost 25% in the last 10 years.

80 60 40 20

BW EBV Avg

WW EBV Avg

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2019

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0

YW EBV Avg

Average Weaning and Finisher Index by Birth Year 100

INDEX VALUE (£)

This graph shows that Weaning and Finisher Index values have improved over the last 10 years. The Finishing Index has seen more rapid improvements, almost doubling in the last 10 years. However, since 2014 the rate of improvement in Weaning Weight Index has almost doubled.

80 60 40 20

Avg Weaning

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

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Avg Finisher

Average £Profit by Birth Year 14000

This graph shows consistent annual improvements in the £Profit Index, currently at an average of over £13,000 for 2020 born animals. This is an improvement of £7,000 on the Index or over 100% since 2010.

10000 8000 6000 4000 2000

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2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

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£PROFIT VALUE (£)

12000

Developments in sexed semen technology for the beef industry Hannah Crawford, Cogent Gender selection has been utilised for two decades in the dairy industry, and the number of beef bulls with sexed semen available from Cogent has increased during the past 10 years.

Producers can now utilise the technology to selectively breed certain cows to a desired bull and to be able to determine the sex of most of the offspring. This is beneficial if the producer wants replacement heifers from his best cows or bull calves from certain matings.

“The number of beef bulls with sexed semen available in the UK has increased tremendously during the last decade and we currently have 18 beef bull sires listed in SexedULTRA 4M in our current Signature Beef catalogue, of which 4 are Stabiliser sires” explains Cogent Beef Programme Manager Boomer Birch.

Sexed semen has beneficial applications in several areas of the beef industry, such as in replacement heifer or bull production. Work that researchers have done demonstrates that sexed semen can also be used effectively in embryo transfer and in vitro fertilization systems. With cost of recipient cows, this can be a useful tool. Sexed semen gives producers the opportunities to either produce bull calves or heifer calve depending on their target markets.

It can be a handy tool to increase heifer numbers or steer numbers. Producers may want replacement heifers from certain genetics or steers/bulls from a terminal cross. The option of sex determination could be useful for reducing calving difficulty in first-calf heifers or for producing a higher number of replacement heifers if herd expansion is the goal. If breeders want their best cows to have heifers, using sexed semen can provide faster genetic progress in improving the cow herd, enabling them to keep more good females and to cull the poorer end. A producer may want heifers from the top 10% to 15% of the cows and steers from the rest of the herd. When the market is good for replacement females, breeders may opt for more heifers, and when the market is better for steers/bulls, they may choose to produce mostly male calves. This technology gives producers the choice and enables them to develop an early strategy for a potential future market.

When selling females, some breeders are finding their in-calf cows and heifers are worth more when bred with sexed semen. Bred heifers guaranteed to have heifer calves and fewer calving problems may bring a premium.

Other buyers may want females that will produce only male calves.

NEW 4M High Purity When a producer is using sexed semen, the results have up to now been predictable at around about 90% or greater with SexedULTRA 4M. However, following the global success of the product and further R&D we are now able to offer 96-97% gender accuracy with NEW 4M High Purity. Boomer explains, “This breakthrough brings opportunity, accuracy, and profitability and we are excited to launch this on select Signature Beef sires in 2021“.

Did you know? The Stabiliser breed is the No.2 selling breed in the Signature Beef range. .

The No1 selling Stabiliser sire available in SexedULTRA 4M, Esgair Uchelwr Nobleman

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18

The Future of Grazing Looks Techno for Sion and Alwyn Williams Katie Grantham The agriculture industry has been required to change and adapt considerably over the last decade, and it seems it must continue to innovate to meet new challenges. Consumers have become more conscious of the possible negative effects that agriculture may have on the environment. This has put pressure on the farming community to look at production methods and how better practices can evolve.

Sion and Alwyn Williams have decided to embrace the challenges by looking at ways to improve the output, profitability, and sustainability of their Stabiliser herd. It was clear from speaking with Sion that he is extremely keen and open-minded, and ready to implement the most effective changes: a concept which is so important in the younger generation of farmers.

Sion Williams

A father and son duo farm in partnership in Denbighshire, North Wales.

They run a 700-acre sheep and beef farm, in a high rainfall area, stocked with 176 Stabiliser cows and 600 ewes.

Farming at 1,100-1,450ft has its challenges, but fortunately for Sion and Alwyn one thing which does grow well is grass.

In 2019 they identified an opportunity to improve output and profitability in their Stabiliser cattle enterprise. The hardy breed converts forage very efficiently, so it seemed obvious that it would be a real asset to increase the productivity of the grazing season by improving forage output and quality.

The Cappele herd on techno grazing

Sion decided to put 100 acres of relatively unproductive older grass leys into a precision grazing system. Sion explained: “We approached Precision Grazing about our intentions, and they came and mapped out the 100 acres for us. The plot was originally separated into smaller paddocks with fences, we removed all of these and had a blank canvas to start with.”

Precision Grazing provided a digitised plan of the plot splitting the area into four lanes. Each lane consists of 50 cells all of which are 0.16 hectares each. Cattle are then moved from one cell to the next, depending on stocking density and grass growth per cell.

Sion explained that: “Moving fences daily was a concern, however, the job has proven to be extremely easy and not at all time consuming. The cattle would have been checked daily anyway, so it means no extra journey time, and reeling out the electric fences is quite a slick operation. For the extra output we are gaining in grass growth the extra 10 minutes is worth it!” Sion explained that if there is a busier time of the year when they are away from the farm contracting, they can simply allow the cattle more cells to ensure they have enough grazing.

Sion went on to say: “By doing the rotation grazing we have increased grass growth so much that the farm can keep one extra livestock unit per hectare. This means we can keep an additional 39 cows on the existing 39 hectares. We also noticed an improvement in the calves with them using the electric fence almost as a creep gate. Calves went under the fence to go ahead and selectively graze the more nutritious grass, improving their growth rates.”

Sion measures the grass height weekly to ensure that the pasture quality is being optimised. Cattle are moved from a cell when the grass is at 1500kg/dry matter, and the cattle return to that cell when it is at 3000kg/dm.

Sion explained: “The area received 40kg/ha of urea in March and 40kg of KayNitro in June. Previously we would have spread an additional 60kg/ha of KayNitro, but it has not been necessary since installing the techno grazing system”.

Sion explained how some farmers sometimes top patches of un-grazed grass to clean them up, but he has decided not to do this as his cattle do a very tidy job. When the cows come in around October time the sheep will graze the 19

plot. The ground will then need to be rested until mid-March when the cattle return. It turned out that during the 2020 spring drought, the techno grazing system was a real saviour for Sion and Alwyn.

The water infrastructure is extremely simple. An electric pump has been installed which draws water from a dam constructed in a stream. Electricity had to be wired to this water point, which supplies 100 acres. Water pipes run across the cells and there is one water tank per group. This tank can simply be pulled to the next cell when the cattle are moved.

Costs Initially it was estimated that it would cost £263/hectare, however Sion added additional gates, so it cost more like £358/hectare. The infra-structure for 100 acres cost £14,000, this is broken down to £3,800 for fencing installation, £5,000 for water installation and £5,000 for fencing materials. It was estimated that to fence the same plot of land with standard stock fencing would have cost £20,000, including materials.

Lanvalley herd wins the ‘Richard Fuller Annual Award’ for the Most Improved Stabiliser Herd Richard Fuller Many congratulations to Richard Brown, owner the Lanvalley herd based at Saltash, Cornwall for winning this progressive award.

SCC presents the award annually in recognition of the breeder whose performance recorded herd has made the greatest genetic gain in the previous twelve months.

Richard was a founder member of the South West Stabiliser Group in 2004. After a visit to Givendale to see Stabilisers on the ground, the group bought 12 bulls to set up herds in Devon and Cornwall.

Richard Brown at an open day on his farm in 2014

Richard started a grading-up program from his mainly Blonde cross cows and now runs 120 mainly pure Stabiliser cows on his 450-acre farm. He also grows about 100 acres of cereals and 180 acres of his grassland are in a Stewardship agreement.

He sells his finished steers to Dawn Meats and his yearling bulls to ABP and most of his heifers are either sold for breeding or retained as replacements.

To improve the rate of genetic gain in his herd Richard has used top ranking bulls such as Givendale Gold and Givendale Resolution through AI and he intends to use more AI as new bulls become available through Cogent.

Replacement Heifers

Richard has been a staunch supporter of the Stabiliser breed over the years and has gone out of his way to help promote the breed in the South West. He has done such a good job that some South Devon breeders have asked to buy bulls from him!

Richard is very pleased to have won the Award and comments: ‘’I am delighted to be given this Award. I have come a long way from my original Blonde cross cows and it just shows what can be achieved through grading-up and by progressing with strict selection and culling policies. The Stabiliser is a great breed to work with and SCC does a fantastic job managing the central breeding and marketing programmes’’.

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Genetic Selection News Lee Leachman It is an exciting time to raise Stabilisers! Our global database grows every day with more animals and more phenotypic data that will help us make better breeding decisions.

New Selection Considerations First and foremost, we continue to fine tune our $Profit system - which includes your £Weaning, £Finisher and £Profit Indexes. The models that we developed with Zoetis match or improve on those that we were using with Bio in Canada. All traits are now enhanced by genomic information.

In addition, we have been able to implement multi-trait analysis on every trait. These two changes particularly impact traits where we only have data on a small percentage of the overall database. Two traits that stand out are mature weight and feed intake. On these traits, the genomics and correlated trait responses give us significantly different results than those we get using a single trait, non-genomically enhanced model. It is important to remember that the new estimates include MORE information. That makes the predictions more likely to be correct.

Overall, that makes our new £Profit predictions better than the old ones.

Lee Leachman

We also continue to add tools to our selection toolbox. New to the UK will be EBVs for docility and udder quality.

As you score animals for these traits, the solutions will become increasingly useful to you to eliminate undesirable animals.

We are also investing significant resources to develop a fertility EBV that will be the best prediction of a female’s lifetime calf production potential. This EBV will allow us to eliminate sires that have poor fertility. This is particularly important as we continue to select for £Profit. The post weaning traits in £Profit are antagonistic to (impact negatively) fertility and maternal function. This new fertility EBV will help us ensure that our progress on growth and carcass traits will not diminish the maternal advantages of the Stabiliser breed. Look for release of our fertility EBV early in 2021.

We have also performed hoof scores on several thousand animals. We will generate EBVs for claw structure and hoof angle. Again, our goal is to breed away from the cattle that are undesirable on these traits.

New Ways to Accelerate Progress We have several new strategies that will accelerate progress in both the US and the UK. We are now starting to utilize sexed semen to produce male sexed embryos. For us, the male calves are more valuable as we can sell them for an expected average price of nearly US$5000. As such, we are making sexed male embryos out of elite females to go into our bottom third cows. By putting embryos out of our top cows into our bottom cows – we will increase our average $Profit by over $3000 doubling our annual rate of improvement!

Of course, we can do the same with females. If you have a market to sell off females to other farmers, then you might consider a strategy to implant sexed female embryos in your bottom third cows. Then you will have higher quality females to keep and more excess females to sell off to other farmers.

Finally, we continue to rely heavily on AI to spread the genes of our top sires across all our herds. This accelerates our genetic improvement by getting more calves out of the top young sires. It also gives us much more accurate EBVs as it strengthens the comparisons between herds. UK breeders should try to AI up to half their females. Fixed time AI programs should yield 60% conception rates per AI service. But be sure to keep one bull per 30 – 40 females to cover those cows that cycle back.

Lisa and I hope that 2021 gets us past the pandemic so that we can join you again in the UK in the fall. Warm wishes!

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BCMS Numbers The figures show the total number of Stabiliser cattle registered on the BCMS database along with the 2020 calf registrations up until 01/10/2020. Yet again the Stabiliser growth in 2020 has been significant proving that the Stabiliser Genetics are performing both efficiently and financially on farm. The registration figures have the highest growth percentage of any other breed.

GB Stabiliser Cattle numbers as of October 1st 2020

Country

Stabiliser Females

Stabiliser X Females

Stabiliser Males

Stabiliser X Males

Total cattle

England

20,382

16,625

8,380

6,846

52,233

Scotland

3,353

6,548

1,340

3,028

14,269

Wales

6,871

5,060

2,494

2,353

16,778

Total

30,606

28,233

12,214

12,227

83,280

Increase on 2019

3,167

1,713

1,616

793

7,289

11.54%

6.46%

15.25%

6.94%

9.59%

% Increase

GB Stabiliser Calf Registrations as of October 1st 2020 Country

Stabiliser Females

Stabiliser X Females

Stabiliser Males

Stabiliser X Males

Total cattle

England

5,534

3,979

5,708

4,254

19,475

Scotland

796

2,056

804

2,013

5,669

Wales

1,809

1,500

1,739

1,484

6,532

Total

8,139

7,535

8,251

7,751

31,676

834

1,310

776

1,228

4,148

11.42%

21.04%

10.38%

18.83%

15.07%

Increase on 2019 % Increase

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Multipliers in the UK The Stabiliser Cattle Company works closely with all Multipliers, more details can be found at www.stabiliser.co.uk

Stabiliser Contacts Ursula Taylor Sales & Marketing Manager 07790 018637 01377 227790 ursula.taylor@stabiliser.co.uk

Seth Wareing Business Manager 07496 415984 01377 227791 seth.wareing@stabiliser.co.uk Katie Grantham Sales & Marketing Assistant 07792 036866 01377 227789 katie.grantham@stabiliser.co.uk

Andrew Southwell Data Analyst 01377 227792 andrew.southwell@stabiliser.co.uk Office Mon, Wed, & Thurs

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Linda Woodall Data Administrator 01377 227792 linda.woodall@stabiliser.co.uk Office Tues & Fri