Contract rearers give supply certainty

Graham Smith switched to bull finishing to develop a simple but highly productive system that could be easily managed by two people.

01-05-2009 | Not Specified

Having the bulk of calves contract-reared for a fixed price is usually more expensive than buying on the spot market, but it gives the Graham and Diana Smith certainty of supply and quality.

"Mark Bocock is a very good rearer and we know he's going to be there next year," Graham says.

While he may have been able to pick up some weaners for $100 less at auction this year, Graham says paying a fixed price for replacements makes planning much easier.

"It gives us a really good handle on our margin, so ultimately weight-gain becomes far more important than replacement cost."

After arrival the spring-born calves are fitted with EID tags and grouped into three mobs of about 70 based on age and weight. Autumn-born calves are run in a separate mob.

The farm is split into about 45 paddocks and the front third is flat to gently rolling. Another third is easy-medium hill and the rest is steeper sidling-type contour.

Generally bulls start off on the rear half of the farm and move forward as they near finishing. Graham says the weaners are held in big mobs "for as long as we can get away with it" then split into mobs of 30 in late autumn. By spring the mob size will reduce to 12-15, depending on weight.

Bulls are weighed regularly and as the two-year bulls continue to move towards their target finishing weight, Graham and Diana will pick off 3-5 from each mob for sale.

This sometimes means reshuffling the remaining bulls into new mobs. While some farmers might not agree with mixing bulls from different mobs, Graham says it helps keep things simple. "The bulls might push each other around for a couple of days, then they settle down after that."

Last year they got a handful finished between July and September, but the bulk were sold from October to January, with about 20-30 sold per month on average. All go to Greenlea Meats in Hamilton.

"I prefer to deal with one company and I trust them to get the best price for me," says Graham.

The more bulls he can get away during the spring, the better. Based on the information he receives from his own liveweight monitoring and killing data received back from Greenlea, the spring-sold bulls are yielding at around 53-54% compared with 49-51% for those sold in late summer or early autumn.

Bulls are typically finished at an average of 650kg LW and any rising three-year bull that hasn't reached that weight by late January goes out the gate anyway.

"I learned a good lesson a couple of years ago and that is not to keep trying to push weight into them just because you are fixed on achieving a certain margin. If you are not careful you will overlook the big picture, the cattle will go backwards and next season's production will suffer. The hardest thing to forget is the previous year."

By mid-January this year the tail-end mob of 25-35 bulls were still 50kg LW below target but they were sold anyway.

"It was a big relief to get them away. With the good autumn we've had this year it might have seemed like an obvious one to keep cattle longer, but I'm glad I wasn't tempted."

The region is traditionally summer-dry, so the Smiths aim to make the most of the strong spring growth that usually kicks off in late September. During spring and early summer the bulls will pack on around 1.5kg-3.0kg/day but this falls to about 0.9kg/day during late summer and early autumn.

In winter the farm's 2.5ha paddocks are split into about six segments with the bulls grazed behind an electric fence. Graham uses a rising plate meter and eye assessment to monitor pasture covers and the older bulls are fed baleage and hay when required. This year the Smiths bought in about 36 bales of baleage and they also made about 280 small square bales of hay - a little less than they had hoped for.

Graham says the small bales are easy to feed and he has no qualms about buying in supplement to top up the diet of the winter finishing mobs.

"If I can put an extra 20kg on a bull at a cost of just $3-4/bull, it is well worthwhile."

During winter the younger cattle are rotated mainly around the easy-medium hill and sidling contour. In recent years a crop of chicory has also been used to provide extra feed for the weaners. This year the farm has 9ha of crop-up by 3ha on the previous season. A mix of chicory, clover and plantain, the crop is sown in November as soon as soil temperatures exceed 15degrees Celcius.

"Last year we hoped to squeeze two years out of the crop, but with the hiding it got in the drought last autumn, it didn't really work out. This year we are going to leave it in and drill two of the paddocks in Kamo and one in Pacific ryegrass."

The crop provides good summer feed for young cattle and is also handy for eczema control in the autumn. Eczema is still a big issue in the region and all the young stock are zinc bolused as soon as spore counts start to rise.

Plantain is included in the crop mix to provide extra feed in winter.

"In the past we've breakfed it, but this year we just grazed it without putting a wire up and I don't think the utilisation is any less."

While the cropping programme provides the ideal opportunity to renew old pastures, Graham says he wonders how the new grasses will perform in the long term. That is why he has gone for varieties he thinks will last the distance.

He says he is still learning how to manage these pastures.

"I've got two good dairy farmers on either side of me, so I try to keep an eye on what they are doing."

Urea is sometimes used to boost pasture growth, but no more than two tonnes is applied annually.

Graham has also reviewed the fertiliser policy in recent years after coming to the conclusion he wasn't getting the return from fertiliser expenditure. P levels on the farm range from 20-40 and after taking advice from independent soil and fertiliser consultant Doug Edmeades, he has decided he can afford to cut back on phosphate applications to an "if money allows" basis.

Doug Edmeades identified molybdenum and potash as the main limiting factors and this year Graham plans to apply about 100kg/ha potash and about 300kg of superphosphate/ha, "again depending on cashflow".

But, fertiliser costs aside, he is very confident about the future of bull beef. With the demand for takeaway food in the United States increasing, he sees strong potential for meat industry growth.

"Its just a matter of our industry getting the returns back to the farmers."

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