Beef cow focus for profitability

Carleen and James Lowry: “Our returns are low, our costs are rising and a lot of the flatter beef farms are drifting towards dairying, but it’s not what we want to do.”

01-09-2010 | Mike Bland

Like many sheep and beef farmers, James and Carleen Lowry have been thinking hard about ways to increase profitability.

While a fair chunk of their Glen Murray farm would be suitable for dairying, they feel improving the efficiency of their present system is a more palatable option.

Not that they haven't considered dairying - especially since a neighbour converted - but access and water supply issues would be a major constraint.

James says they also have no real desire to milk cows.

"The sheep and beef industry has some major problems. Our returns are low, our costs are rising and a lot of the flatter beef farms are drifting towards dairying, but it's not what we want to do."

Other options such as supplement supply, dairy heifer grazing or growing vegetable crops like squash or pumpkins are also under consideration as possible forms of diversification should sheep and beef returns continue to dwindle.

James is the fourth generation of his family to farm the property, bought by his great grandfather, an Irish immigrant, in 1905. Back then the farm was covered largely in tee tree and fern which was cleared by hand. Many of the farm's original kauri and rimu trees were milled and used to build the homestead but surviving kauri along a ridge at the front of the farm have been fenced off and protected. The Lowrys now trade under the Kauri Ridge name.

About 550ha of the 620ha farm, west of Te Kauwhata, is in pasture. The remainder includes native bush and a 10-15ha pine plantation.

James returned to the farm in 1990 after five years of shearing locally and overseas. He met Carleen, a self-confessed townie, while shearing in western Australia. Leaving the warm climate of western Australia for a farming career in western Waikato was a culture shock, but she adjusted quickly to the new lifestyle.

After marrying, James and Carleen bought half the sheep and formed a farming partnership with James' parents. They worked alongside James' dad, Clive, for several years until his sudden death from a heart attack in 1998. Clive was only 57 when he died and in seemingly good health. His death was a major blow for the family.

James and Carleen now own all the stock and lease the farm from a family company which is overseen by James' mother, Margaret, who now lives in Pukekohe.

James says his parents bought 40ha from a neighbour in the mid-1980s but otherwise the farm's scale has remained the same as it was in 1905.

It has a good mix of contour with about one-third flat to easy rolling, one-third rolling to medium hill, and one-third in steeper faces. Some of the flatter country sits on the farm's eastern edge and this land is prone to flooding when overflow from the Waikato River enters nearby Lake Whangape.

About 2-4ha is flooded on a regular basis in winter and every two or three years a flood will put 16ha under water for up to a month. While this makes it difficult to maintain pasture quality in this area, James says the peaty soils on these flats make them good summer country for cattle.

Soils on the rolling and steeper contour are mostly Mairoa Ash.

The farm carries about 7000 stock units and James and Carleen run it with the help of Tom Foote, a former farmer, who has been full-time for 18 months. While they have employed younger staff in the past, Carleen says they are lucky to have someone as experienced and reliable as Tom. His grandchildren also provide a good source of casual labour.

James and Carleen have three children who also help out when they can. Their eldest daughter Emma is at Auckland University and daughter Michaela and son Liam are at Tuakau College.

Stock wintered this year includes 2400 Romney ewes, 750 replacement ewe hoggets, 600-700 winter lambs and 125 breeding cows. The farm is also carrying 10 R2 bulls, 30 R3 steers, 60 R2 steers and 62 R1 steers, along with 100 R1 heifers and 50 R2 heifers.

James says they are running about 140-150 fewer cattle than they have in previous years because of the drought and difficulty in procuring replacement stock.The flipside of this is that the ewes and cows are in good shape for the new season.

"We got caught out badly by the 2008 drought and the cows really suffered," James says. "This year's drought was just as bad or possibly even worse, but we were better prepared because we were lightly stocked."

Annual rainfall in the region is typically 1200-1400mm and dry summers are a feature of the north Waikato. This year's lengthy summer and autumn drought caught many farmers out.

James was thankful to have supplement to feed out: "I've never been brave enough to go all grass."

Winter supplement this season included 1400 conventional bales of hay and 150 large bales of silage. Most of the silage was fed out in autumn and the cows were supplemented with hay during winter.

This year the Lowrys also bought in 10 tonnes of palm kernel which was fed to the steers, bulls and some of the lighter cows which had been drafted off for preferential treatment after weaning.

By the time the palm kernel was fed it had cost almost $300/tonne but James believes it was worth it because it helped hold stock condition.

The farm has traditionally run a breeding herd of either Hereford or Angus cows. James and Carleen stuck with cows through the 1990s when many other farmers were getting out of them. Their current 125-cow herd has a mix of Hereford-Friesian, Angus-cross and South Devon cows.

Heifers go to an Angus bull and most of the whiteface mixed-age cows go to a Charolais. Some are mated to a Santa Gertrudis.

James says the past three years have been tough on crossbred cattle and he and Carleen are now looking to breed back towards the Angus to improve hardiness and increase returns.

Male progeny from the herd are steered and carried through with bought-in weaner steers to between 21⁄2 and three years of age. They are typically finished at 320-340kg carcaseweight (CW).

Heifer calves from the beef herd are either retained as replacements or sold local trade. In the past James has bought up to 150 weaner heifers but this year he bought only 40. At Tuakau saleyards he has been a regular buyer of Santa Gertrudis-cross heifers from Great Barrier Island but this year they were in big demand and he was able to buy only 16.

Up until last season the farm also finished up to 140 Friesian bulls, with most sold by Christmas at two years old and finished at up to 340-350kgCW. Only a handful of R2 bulls were wintered this year.

Steers are easier to manage and give more flexibility and James says bull returns have been less attractive.

"The good thing about bulls was that you could buy a yearling for $500-$600 and kill it a year later for $1000-$1100, so you got a pretty good margin out of it, but the bull schedule has become a lot more fickle in the last few years."

Securing stock at the right price means improving the performance of the breeding herd is a key priority.

"An efficient beef herd is valuable if you are paying $450 for reasonable heifers and $550 for steers. So for us I think there are some big gains to be made in increasing the efficiency of our herd."

It has worked for the sheep.

"Ten years ago we were running 3000 ewes but now we are getting the same amount of lambs out of 2400 ewes."

James believes selecting good Angus-type replacements will help improve herd performance. The Lowrys also plan to start vaccinating for BVD.

Increasing the size of the breeding herd is another option in future.

"We could increase cow numbers to 200-300 and sell some progeny as weaners. That would be a simpler system."

All cattle are run behind a wire from late in May until calving begins late in August.

James says spring grass growth usually begins in September.Last season the farm sold about 300 head of cattle, including 56 bulls, 103 steers, 40 R1 heifers, 70 R2 heifers and 25 cows. It also sold 3000 lambs and 600 ewes.

The average lamb price was about $75-$80, "which was reasonably good". While the sheep-to-cattle ratio is around 60:40, James says it has been closer to 50:50 previously, but cattle returns in recent years have been disappointing.

"We'd like to have more cattle but the sheep have been more profitable in the last two years. We also have to be careful with cattle because we have a lot of papa country that can get very wet in winter."

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