THE IMPORTANCE OF QUESTIONING YOURSELF AND OTHERS

From a standing start in 1987

with 12 Hereford cross dairy

cows, Mike Powley and father

Tom have built their 100 head

suckler herd on the principals of

having a system which is easy to

work with and produces the

quality and type of finishing

animal which suits the current

market, writes Fiona Sloan. Tom

and Mike Powley will be familiar

to many beef farmers as the first

winners of the Farmers Weekly

Beef Farmer of the Year Award, which they won in 2005. Since then, as well as developing his 100

head suckler herd, he has become involved not only with ASDA as one of their training farms but

also works closely with their main suppliers, ABP and with EBLEX as a member of their Board of

Management.

Tom had previously managed suckler herds, which were primarily traditional Hereford Cross dairy

animals and using his experience, they aimed to produce quality finished stock from a crossbred

suckler herd. The first move was to look at improving the terminal sire they were using and with this

in mind; they hired a British Blue to improve the conformation of the finished animal, without

adding any calving complications either for the cows or themselves. Following some promising early

results, Mike decided that using a British Blue as their terminal sire of choice was the way forward

and relying heavily on the EBV information available, chose a bull which had good terminal figures,

combined with an easy calving score. “It’s easy to find a selection of British Blue bulls, which have

the EBV figures we were looking for in the top 10% of the breed. We finish all of our youngstock and

use the Blue as a terminal sire only, milk and maternal figures are therefore irrelevant to us.” says

Mike. “Our work with ASDA and ABP

ensures that the beef we are producing

is what the market wants and our

involvement with these two

organisations has allowed us to develop

the suckler herd in a way which suits

our system and suits the market.” he

adds.

Having decided that the British Blue was

the way forward to produce the kind of

cattle the market wanted, Mike and

Tom started to look at their cows and

further develop the female side of the

herd. Bearing in mind that they wanted to use a closed herd system as much as possible, to avoid

health issues and to end up with a cow which was easy to manage, they looked toward the South

Devon. The two had long been admirers of the breed and their mothering ability, milkiness and

docility encouraged them to look closer and start a small foundation herd of pure cows from which

to produce their suckler herd. The Limousin cross dairy cattle which they had started with were

Mike with one of the” Elm House Reds”

Wearing her electronic collar

5 month old British Blue calf out of a Red cow

phased out although the Limousin is still the preferred cross onto the South Devon. “We have always

been careful of the temperament of the bulls we use,” explains Mike “ and by using the likes of

Ronwick Hawk, we now have a very quiet and easy to handle herd of South Devon cross Limy cows

which we call “Elm House Reds. “

All of the cows are calved at 2 years old

to either the Aberdeen Angus or the

Wagyu for easy calving with some

Angus cross cows being kept as

replacements depending on the breed

lines of their “red mother” but all

Wagyu are taken through to finish. The

aim being, to have a crossbred cow

which has a good deal of hybrid vigour

as the base cow to the British Blue

terminal sire. “What we are doing is

pretty much a traditional way of

farming with crossbred cattle, while

very much focusing on the muscle

depth and growth EBVs of the Blue bulls we use to suit the market for finished cattle.” says Mike.

The herd is spring calving and as long as the cows are in calf and correct they remain in the herd,

with some producing 10 or more calves. With depreciation being much less than it used to be on a

cull cow, any which are calving out of season will be culled. The herd is also monitored by Heattime

system adapted from the dairy herd, which monitors the head movement of the cows allowing Mike

and Tom to pin point when each of them are coming into season, making it easier and more

accurate for AI. The main unit is located in a central area in the fields and has a 400 metre range.

Each cow carries a collar with a radio antenna which beams the information back to the central unit

where it is collected and processed.

BLUEGRASS CYCLONE BALLYGRANGE ALEX

Average daily weight gain 1.03kg

16 @ E = 84% 3 @ U =16%

EAR

NUMBER

AGE IN

MONTHS

DAILY DEAD

WEIGHT GAIN

FINISHING WEIGHT

KGS

GRADE

756 13.6 1.05 436 E2

764 14.6 0.95 423 E2

EAR

NUMBER

AGE IN

MONTHS

DAILY DEAD

WEIGHT GAIN

FINISHING WEIGHT

KGS

GRADE

753 12.6 1.17 449 E2

795 11.8 1.09 390 E3

770 12.5 1.16 442 E3

793 12.5 0.98 376 U+3

743 13.4 1.08 439 E3

749 13.7 1.02 428 E2

748 13.7 1.01 423 E2

744 13.7 1.04 435 U+3

765 13.9 1.00 425 E3

775 13.7 1.04 437 E3

777 13.7 1.07 447 E2

796 13.1 1.04 414 E3

779 13.7 1.03 428 E2

773 14.4 0.98 433 E2

798 13.8 0.99 415 E2

783 14.3 0.94 411 U+2

799 13.8 0.97 408 E2

816 13.7 0.94 391 E2

766 15.6 1.11 525 E2

The same“experimental” 15month old bull as the picture above

which killed at 525kilos and E2

Average daily weight gain 1.00kg 2 @ E2 = 100%

EAR

NUMBER

AGE IN

MONTHS

DAILY DEAD

WEIGHT GAIN

FINISHING WEIGHT

KGS

GRADE

757 13.2 1.11 446 E2

751 13.7 1.10 460 E2

763 14.6 1.00 447 E2

752 14.7 0.83 370 U+1

755 14.6 0.87 387 U+3

760 14.6 0.96 428 E2

824 13.2 1.05 425 U+3

810 13.8 1.06 447 U+3

837 13.2 0.92 368 E1

TAMHORN WARRIOR

Average daily weight gain 0.99kg 5 @ E 4 @ U+

The use of sexed semen for both the Red Cows and the Blues has also become common place on the

farm, following an initial trial with the support ASDA and ABP and is proving to be very successful.

When sexed semen was used from a British Blue two years ago for the first time, he produced 26

bull calves and one heifer calf which is a major advantage in a system such as this which produces

more profit from bull beef. The herd is now on its second round of Limousin sexed female semen to

produce the red cow replacements. There is more of a consideration in using male sexed semen as it

is expensive and with the increased cost of barley,( currently £220 a ton in the area) and soya rising

in the past year from £260 to £420 currently, overhead costs need to be taken into account. “While

grain is becoming expensive, the bulls we have are very fast growing and will eat around 10 kilos a

day towards finishing which at

£200 a ton is £2 per day to feed

them and we are achieving 1Kg

DDWG worth £3.50 a kilo ” says

Mike, “so they are still giving us a

good return. The target average

for the bulls produced this year is

1 kilo deadweight gain per day

and we’ve achieved that, which

equates to 1.56 kilos of

livewieght gain per day

throughout their lives and taking

birth weight off.”

While bulls are generally finished

around 13 months of age, some

work is being done with ABP to look at taking them on further. Around 6 years ago, with the British

Blue bulls being used at that time, the herd was averaging 340 kilos at 355 days. Now the bulls are

finishing at around 425kilos on average but Mike and Tom still think there is potential to finish the

bulls at bigger weights, so long as they are not penalised by the slaughterhouse. With agreement

from ABP they have recently taken one Bluegrass Cyclone bull through to 15 months to test the

water. He killed at 525 kilos to an E2 specification showing a Daily Dead Weight Gain of 1.11 kilos

and returning over £1800. “In three months he had added 140 kilos” explains Tom “and as he was

still growing and not laying down fat he would have moved up at least one conformation grade so

we were getting paid more per kilo as well.” With this information, it is possible to try to change the

supermarket view of the ideal carcass weight as the boning out percentage is much better. The work

with ABP allows them to gather information on farm and disseminate this to other producers. The

main issue for the supermarkets is that a carcass this size does not fit into the conventional pack size

but the family have begun to make them see that there is a potential gain to both the farmer and

Elm House Red and British Blue Calf

Red cows with calves at foot

the supermarket to at least consider the possibility of producing larger carcasses without penalty.

The carcass grade is also important to the return on the cattle and with a national figure of 1.2% of

cattle killed being E grade the farm is currently running at around 60% with some bulls achieving

over 80% E grade with the rest killing at U- or U+. The farm aims to produce fat class 2 & 3 which

gives a maximum bonus of 30p per kilo. “The beauty of using the genetics which we do, “explains

Mike, “is that they can grow quickly to more kilos, without laying down fat, which is often the case

when you take animals to bigger weights.”

Mike is particularly keen on working with suppliers as well as producers and having worked with

various suppliers in the past is currently working with their grass supplier on improving the forage

quality of the grass. The introduction of Red Clover as an 18% source of protein is already looking

like it may be the way of finishing heifers on a forage based feed regime without concentrates.”It is

important to keep questioning what you do.” says Mike. “The challenge for us is to continually

improve our system and we work with both suppliers and customers to achieve this.”

As we walk through the field of Limousin cross South Devon cows with their British Blue calves at

foot, few of them stand or take any notice, unless they want their head or back scratched. The basis

of a simple system is working well here. Quiet easy to handle crossbred cows producing fast growing

quality finishing animals for which the market will pay a premium.

A good start ensures a good finish...........ask Usain Bolt!