A bonus in once-bred heifers

14-07-2010 | Anne Hardie

Once-bred heifers enable Waipuna to lift lighter animals to steer weights with the bonus of a calf.

From 300 Angus breeding cows, Ken and Robyn Ferguson finish a range of heifers, steers and bulls, with lighter heifers calved before slaughtering at 2½ years.

The Fergusons mate the entire 150 yearling Angus heifers each year, selecting replacements, then slaughtering the remainder that reach 230kg carcaseweight (CW) by the beginning of winter.

Lighter heifers that do not reach the target weight are farmed through to the next winter after they have calved in November and December.

At 2½, the heifers still have their milk teeth so are paid out on heifer schedule but have reached 270-300kg CW.

"It can be $300 maximisation with the price and we've got a calf at about $300," Ken says. "The disadvantage is carrying those smaller calves through winter, but they're not too hard to winter because they are small and once spring comes they're well ahead of the spring calves."

Last year they carried about 30 once-bred heifers through to slaughter, but Ken thinks there's potential to drop the 300-cow breeding herd by 50% and lift the number of once-bred heifers. He concedes more research is needed to establish figures, but sees huge potential for Waipuna in once-bred heifers.

ANZCO Foods Ltd, in conjunction with AgResearch, applied for funding from the Sustainable Farming Fund to research the concept and was turned down, but Invermay's team leader of farm systems, Dr Jason Archer, says they will continue to look for funding.

"My gut feeling is there probably is money to be made out of it," he says.

Research was done late in the 1980s and early 90s, focusing on meat-quality issues of once-bred heifers, but Archer says nothing has been done on farm systems and timing of supply to see how it compares with other options. Waipuna is a suitable property for a trial of once-bred heifers because of its ample autumn grass growth and continued feed through winter.

West Coast and Northland are two regions Archer views as potentially suitable for running once-bred heifers because they are both areas where they would not have to compete with sheep. Though the heifers calve, they are still a finishing animal.

He says replacing breeding cows with once-bred heifers would depend upon the grass those cows normally grazed.

On Waipuna, the heifers are mated later so that they calve early summer and are slaughtered as soon as the calves are weaned. Slaughter of all the beef animals on the property is aimed at the rising schedule that follows the end of the cull cow kill from about June 10, which means they carry stock into winter but not through it.

By targeting that period, Ken believes they add an extra $27,000 to their income and that's before they add in the extra kilograms the animals have gained on good autumn growth.

On Waipuna's autumn growth and barley baleage it can mean another 20kg of beef an animal if they are carried that little bit longer, Ken says.

About 30 cents a kilogram is also added to the base schedule for the Angus-based cattle, while all heifers and steers are part of the quality assurance Aleph programme and are tagged to vouch for their source when they are killed at CMP's Kokiri plant.

"We're after those premiums wherever we can get them," Ken says.

Marketing strategies such as Angus Pure and McDonald's Angus burgers provide a good future for the Angus breed, Ken believes, with about 60% of the herd's calves from an Angus bull. The remainder are a mix of Charolais, Limousin and Simmental to provide hybrid vigour and enhance carcaseweights.

When the heifers are mated as yearlings, those that will be kept for replacements are mated with Angus bulls, while the remainder this year have been put to Hereford and Limousin bulls.

"I'll see what does best out of them for ease of calving and weight at slaughter as well as fecundity."

About 60 of the bull calves each year are retained as bulls, the remainder are castrated. The option of supplying the dairy industry with bulls to follow artificial insemination programmes can give a return of $1100 for a yearling bull.

It's a gamble though, as prices depend upon the dairy payout. Bull calves are selected on temperament and those that do not go to dairy farms are farmed on through winter and sold at the beginning of their second winter along with the other beef finished.

While they pose more of a management issue than steers, Ken says they're normally not a problem and once they are through their first winter it's a fairly easy run to the next. Meanwhile, the steers are all gone at 18 months around 300kg/CW before winter really sets in.

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