Beef and Sheep Notes May 2010

It is reckoned that a quarter of all bulls are sub fertile.  Have you had your bull put through a breeding soundness examination?  Just because he worked last year is no guarantee he will this year!  Have all foot paring completed well in advance of the breeding season.  Ensure the bull is not excessively fat as this will affect his ability to repeatedly mount cows over the bulling period.  

If purchasing a young bull, ensure scrotal circumference is acceptable for the breed, typically at least 31cm at 15 months and 34cm at two years of age.  Identify your target market for calves and the strengths and weaknesses of your cow herd.  Choose a bull with appropriate Estimated Breeding Values (EBV`s) that will deliver suitable calves and complement your cows.  Only purchase bulls that have an equal, or higher, health status to that of your own herd.  Ensure the bull is included in your herd vaccination programme.

If your calving season has been excessively prolonged, identify the reasons.  Typically a bull leading to difficult calvings, poor cow body condition, a defective bull and a disease outbreak are the common risk factors.  Take steps to correct these this year to avoid the same problem next year.  It is important to identify a date you want the last calf to be born and remove the bull to achieve this.  If the cow can’t produce a calf when you want her to, just remember who owns who!

Identify your best performing cows and mate them to maternal bulls.  Remember to retain the resulting heifer calves as potential replacements.  Select an easy-calving bull to mate with your replacements.  If you are currently calving heifers at three years of age, try to take steps to reduce age at first calving as this will improve your profitability with proper management.

May is a difficult month to manage grass, as growth can very quickly surpass demand. However, after a late spring, grass covers will only be starting to build up. Controlling grass quality now will have a major bearing on lamb performance over the remainder of the grazing season.

Allowing swards to get too strong reduces growth rates later in the summer, therefore delaying slaughter. Sward height is a good indicator of the supply and suitability of grass for grazing. During May, if set - stocking a height of about 6 – 7cm is the target when the grass is leafy, while paddocks should be grazed down to 4 – 5cm. If grass is too long in May (8 – 9cm)   it becomes stemmy in June and results in reduced lamb growth rate.

Forward creep grazing increases weaning weights by 2-3kg, which will result in lambs finished two weeks earlier.

If grass covers are still low on farm, feeding concentrates to lambs is viable, provided lamb price remains high. Depending on breed type, it takes 10-14 kg of concentrate to gain 1kg of carcase. With meal costed at £260 per tonne, it costs between £2.60 and £3.64 of meal feeding to achieve 1kg of carcase. Creep feeding 300 to 400 grams per head per day is well justified when grass is in short supply.

Lambs will start to graze from five weeks old and will therefore come into contact with parasites. The main parasites that will reduce growth rates are Nematodirus and Coccidia. As Coccidia has similar symptoms to Nematodirus, it is often mistaken for it and the wrong worming product is used. Older sheep will have developed immunity to these parasites.

Nematodirus is common in lambs five to 10 weeks old but the first wave of infection is delayed this year due to the cold spring.  Symptoms include diarrhoea and wasting, as well as dehydration and eventually death. Dose in May, but do not move onto clean pasture for a few days after dosing to reduce the spread of worm eggs onto “cleaner” pasture. Wormers have no residual effect against Nematodirus, therefore a cheaper white or yellow drench can be used.

Coccidia affects lambs from three to eight weeks old and is common in areas where lambs are using creep feeders. It has similar symptoms to Nematodirus, but usually causes blood scour. Use a suitable product to control. If not controlled early, lambs will have permanent digestive damage, causing poor thrive over the season.

If you have a substantial beef or sheep farm it is very useful to take stock of how your farm business faired in 2009.It may not be a very attractive picture but getting a handle on costs of production and value of sales will indicate how the farm is performing and level of income being achieved. With the Single Farm Payment up for review, it is important to assess your own situation and plan for the future. Contact your local Beef and Sheep adviser to set benchmarking in motion.   It’s a free service but you could gain a lot from it.