By Chrissie Lawrence
With its easy calving, docile and milky characteristics
and ability to thrive well off grass and forage, the Simmental
is proving an ideal female replacement for a
suckler producer in Kent.
Paying in excess of 7000gns at Perth
Bull Sales for a commercial bull rarely used to be heard of,
but the demand for a quality terminal sire with strong breed
performance figures or a good female producer has meant some
suckler producers have started to buck that trend. And Ian Mclean
from Rochester is one doing just that.
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| Ian McLean with some of his herd |
His latest acquisition
to the 300- cow suckler herd run on 1200 acres of marginal marsh
land is Blackford Tonka, a bull bred by Billy and Anne McPherson
bought back in Perth at the February spring sale for 11,000gns. “I
have no concerns paying good money for a bull, even for a commercial
herd - you can soon spread the cost out when you’re producing
quality homebred replacements,” says Ian. “I’ve
had Blackford bulls in the past and have been incredibly impressed
with them and Tonka had different breed lines to the daughters
I have kept back from previous bulls, so I was happy to pay the
money for him.” Although Ian takes breed figures in to
consideration, it’s the visual impact of the bull that
carries more weight with his overall choice. “The other
appealing fact about Blackford bulls is that they are incredibly
active. In his first season Tonka ran with 40 cows and I have
no hesitation putting him with 60 next season.”
The herd
is predominantly Simmental bred, with a few Charolais cross cows
that had to be retained during the foot-andmouth period of 2001
- due to restricted movements off farm - as well as a few traditional
black Hereford cross cows. “We run a mixture of bulls including
Charolais and Blondes, but the majority of the replacements are
Simmentals due to their exceptional mothering ability and calving
ease.” Operating what Ian describes as an incredibly extensive
system - with cows living off grass and a few supplement magnesium
nuts in the spring and never being housed - breed choice for
replacements has to be right.
“I’m looking for a
cow that is good on her legs, has a good bag and that calves
well. In this system they also have to be able to fend for themselves
and live off a strong clover mix while rearing a calf on milk
alone.” The system works by running Blondes on first calvers,
Simmental bulls on those cows he wants to breed replacements
from, while a Charolais runs with everything else. “Cows
are kept in groups of 40 or 60 depending on the age of the bull.
And to maintain a tight calving pattern bulls only run with cows
for eight weeks,” he adds. And although Ian has adequate
yarding and straw from his brother’s arable enterprise,
labour is in short supply with just him and a full time stockman
employed for cattle work, so cattle remain outside.
The relative
cheapness of the Simmental means we’re operating at a profit.” And
in an era where all input costs continue to rise, running at
profit weighs even heavier on Ian’s mind. So much so he
has changed his feeding regime for his finishing cattle and has
ceased with running adlib hoppers of a barley concentrate and
has replaced his feeding system with a snacker wagon. It’s
something of a new concept for suckler producers in the south
of England, although many northern producers use them. Not only
has it saved me £40,000 in reduced feed bills by providing
them with exactly the right feed requirement, it has made moving
groups of 100 cattle prior to marketing far easier, as they are
trained to the snacker following the 4-wheel vehicle.” Joking,
he even told market buyers he reckoned he could have enticed
his cattle down the motorway behind the snacker to the sale ring!
Reduced intakes have meant we’re finishing a month slower,
but the overall reduction in feed costs has more than paid for
that,” he adds. And while the Simmentals are proving their
worth as suckler replacements, the finished steers are equally
matching the Charolais for weight and finish in the sale ring,
where every week until Christmas Ian regularly sells a batch
of 10 finished cattle at Ashford market, which are currently
hitting the £850 mark.
The other key to the system is the
way Ian operates his grazing policy. “Deferred grazing
is certainly the buzz phrase at the moment and we’re doing
all we can to maximise it by shutting up fields to maximise grass
intake around calving time when cows are split in to three groups
according to body condition score. Those that are classed as
poor condition are put out on the best deferred grazing, followed
by medium cows needing to lose one body condition score and those
needing to lose two scores follow up on what is left.” And
costs are continued to be stripped by limiting the amount of
fertiliser used, meaning Ian more than qualified to turn his
ELS ground in to ESA ground and capitalise on environmental scheme
payments.
Having previously carried 400 suckler cows alongside
2000 ewes, labour shortage and rising input costs has seen Ian
restructure his suckler enterprise to suit the resources he has
in terms of labour, feed and grass and produce a quality animal
from that. |
