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Ever since the development of
the ‘barley beef’ system by Dr T.R
Preston at the Rowettt Research
Institute during the late 1950’s
there has been an intensive beef
system at Harper Adams. The beef
unit rears Holstein and Continental
cross Holstein bulls from the 400
head dairy unit and provides three
resources.
Firstly the beef cattle are used for
teaching purposes for students to
monitor performance and learn how
to select cattle for slaughter. Secondly
to provide a research facility for
‘production focused’ experiments for
final year BSc students and over the
years we have evaluated numerous
breeds, feeds and supplements. Thirdly
to show ‘best practice and make a
profit’. Thankfully we exceed ‘top 1/3rd’
performance targets but this is done
with attention to detail with husbandry
and management.
We have recently finished a batch of
over 30 Simmental x Holstein bulls.
 |
| Simon Marsh, Beef Specialist & Senior
Lecturer, Harper Adams University
College, Newport, Shropshire |
They recorded a DLWG from 3 months old
of 1.48kg to slaughter weights of 591kg at
13.3 months old. They killed out at 55.3%
with R grade carcasses weighing 327kg
having consumed 2.28 tonnes of feed at an
FCR of 4.74. This performance significantly
exceeds the EBLEX targets for continental
bulls and is some of the best performance
we have achieved when compared to
other continental breeds reared through
the Harper Adams beef unit. I would
comment that the Simmentals were bred
from bulls with top 10% Terminal Indexes
with positive Caving Ease Direct EBVs.
This is always the type
of beef bull we
use on our dairy herd, and is based on all
of our research evaluating progeny from
beef bulls with different Terminal Indexes.
The performance
of the Simmentals is
shown in the table below in comparison
to the Holstein bulls reared alongside
them. The Simmentals as we would expect
produced significantly higher DLWGs,
slaughter weights, grades and FCRs and were obviously so much ‘easier on the eye’
compared to the Holsteins!
The bulls were weighed at slaughter ‘gut
full’ so therefore
the killing out percentage appears relatively low. If they
had
been weighed ‘gut empty’ as per at market or in
the abattoir
then the killing out would be increased by approximately 2
percentage units.
In 2009/10 our cereal fed Simmental bulls
recorded gross
margins of £343 per bull which was very respectable.
We are
of course well aware of what has happened to cereal prices
this last year which is going to put pressure on margins
for intensive finishing systems but thankfully as I write this
article (May 2011) finished beef prices are starting to rise
and climb over £3.00/kg which is ‘good news’. |
