Finishing cattle

• If sufficient grass is available consider extending the grazing season by rationing the grass through the use of a block/paddock grazing system.
• As grass supplies fall below 7cm (3 inches) at the end of the season there is merit in feeding concentrate at pasture. Work at Grange has shown that feeding up to 2.5 KG of concentrate/head/day led to a concentrate feed conversion of 8.3:1 KG of carcase. This is economic where cattle are selling at 145p/KG of carcase and concentrates can be purchased for less than £175/tonne. Concentrate feeding will extend the grass supply.
• Indoors select cattle close to finish and feed more concentrate to shorten the period to slaughter and save good quality silage.
• Feeding competitively priced maize gluten will allow male cattle, close to finish, to cover over more quickly.

	Ad lib silage	Silage restricted by 20 percent	Straw based ration
Silage	22	17	N/A
Concentrate	4.5	5.5	7.5 (2
Straw	N/A	N/A	3

	Ad lib silage	Silage restricted by 20 percent
Silage	29	23
Concentrate	2.5 (1)	3.75 (1)

• Feeding more supplement along with good silage reduces the silage requirement (Table 12) and is a much cheaper option than purchasing average quality silage. To compete with the restricted ration based on good silage (£14/t), average quality silage would need to be bought for less than £6.50/t.
• If carcase beef is sold for 145p/kg then the maximum price paid for average and good quality silage to allow a break even feed cost is £12/tonne (£6/big bale) and £19/tonne (£9.50/big bale) respectively.
• In the straw based rations if the concentrate fed was a competitively priced maize gluten + mineral mix @ £90/tonne then straw would need to be obtained at no cost to break even with the restricted good quality silage diet therefore straw is not an option for finishing beef cattle.
• The optimum level of concentrate fed along with ad lib silage diets will depend on the type of cattle and the quality of silage fed as shown in Table 13.

	Silage quality Good	Silage quality Average	Silage quality Poor
First cut taken	Before 25 May	1-10 June	After mid-June
Regrowth taken	6-7 weeks	8-10 weeks	Over 10 weeks
Average D value	Over 70	62-68	Less than 62
Young bulls	3.5	6.5	8.2
Heavy steers of high growth potential	3.0	6.0	7.5
Steers of lower growth potential and heifers of high growth potential	2.2	4.5	6.0
Heifers of low growth potential	1.0	2.5	3.5