| The British Charolais Cattle Society |
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Measuring, monitoring and collaboration
A group of Dumfriesshire
beef producers have developed a collaborative marketing blueprint which is
helping to ensure they’re maximising both their cattle’s potential and their
margins throughout the chain and meeting market requirements.
Rory Shennan centre, with Margaret Kingan and Scott Henderson
Rory Shennan with some of his Charolais crosses
The finishers
Scott Henderson and Margaret Kingan are committed to finishing quality
cattle; between them they turn over an annual 3,000 head of mainly Charolais
crosses. Where to source the appropriate suckled calves could have been a
major issue, however they have developed a successful collaborative
blueprint which features 15 suckled calf producers farming within a 20 mile
radius of their steadings – Scott at Carswadda, Beeswing and Margaret, at
Lochhill, New Abbey. The arrangement supplies the majority of their
requirements, the remainder being sourced from the auction marts.
“Scott and I have been working together since 2001 when live markets closed
and we were forced to turn to buying privately; trading with local farmers
made common sense. We’re able to purchase relatively large batches of
animals of the same age from a minimum number of known sources, which has
enabled us to reduce transport costs, along with stress and potential health
issues,” Margaret explains.
Calves
are purchased at between 11 and 12 months of age and taken through to
finishing from 18 months. “Our preference by far is to buy Charolais
crosses, simply because of their superior performance; we target steers to
achieve a DLG of 1kg and go on to meet with processor requirements at 360kg
to 370kg deadweight while heifers are targeted at a DLG of 0.9kg and 310kg
deadweight. The majority grade with within the R and U specification.” The
entire throughput is marketed direct to Stoddarts, based at
“The ongoing partnership is working really well. We spilt each batch of
suckled calves by gender according to personal preference, says Margaret. “I
just happen to prefer working with steers, while Scott is happier with
heifers. We’ve both adopted semi-intensive finishing systems in which the
beasts are grazed and fed a semi TMR.
“The venture has also enabled us to develop some very strong working
relationships with our suppliers. We keep in frequent contact and return to
each of them the performance data and kill sheets from every individual
animal purchased,” she says.
The data includes calf weight at purchase, guide purchase price, number of
days to finishing, liveweight at point of sale, deadweight, grade, KO% and
sale price together with margin per day and overall margin. The margin
figure purely reflects purchase and sale figures and does not contain the
finishers’ fixed or variable costs. At the end of each year, the data is
averaged across the group of 15 suckled calf producers and those figures act
as a benchmark for each individual.
“It’s a routine that enables each suckler producer to work through the
figures, identify their strengths and weakness and take responsibility for
their own individual system as they wish, while for us, this data enables us
to see whose cattle are performing and those who aren’t. Every supplier
thinks they have the best! “
Scott adds: “The critical thing for us is to be able to buy in the correct
raw material. We depend on these suckler men, our suppliers, buying a
terminal sire that will deliver a calf to finish, not for replacement
purposes, and yes, we prefer Charolais crosses, however there are times when
supply doesn’t always match demand.
“There are also instances where we’ve found cattle sired by other
Continental bulls have not achieved target daily liveweight gain and we’ve
had to recommend he is replaced by another within the breed’s top 10% on
performance data.”
The suckler producer
Rory Shennan trades a portion of his Charolais cross steers and heifers to
Margaret Kingan and Scott Henderson from his family’s 200 cow split calving
suckler herd based at Carsegowan, New Abbey, a 230 ha LFA holding which he
farms in partnership with his grandfather, William Barbour.
“We’ve
used Charolais here as a terminal sire for more than 30 years simply for the
growth factor. My grandfather has always been a great believer in the fact
if the calves weigh, then they pay and it’s one I can’t dispute. I’m rearing
our calves to
“However, our system has moved with the times, and we’re using various
advancements in technology to improve our efficiency and run a profitable
business,” he explains. “For example, we implement a proactive approach to
herd health and also vaccinate the cows for BVD and IBR. We attempt to keep
a tight calving pattern and carefully manage our cows in the run up to
calving.
“When we buy a new Charolais bull, we continue to select for scale and
scope, however we are now using Breedplan data as a back up tool; since the
data has become more accurate, it means we’re no longer going in blind,
we’re able to select bulls with more of a chance of breeding fast growing
calves.
“We’re now investing in bulls within the breed’s top 10% of performance
indices, and in particular for 400 day weight, muscle depth and ease of
calving Estimated Breeding Values. In future, we’ll also take in 600 day
weight in order to help Margaret and Scott achieve target finishing weights
faster.
“They come back year in year out for our cattle; we put them into large even
batches which have the growth rates, and they’re leaving the margins. In
fact our cattle are consistently performing better than the average for the
entire group which they’re benchmarked against.
“For me, the initiative offers plenty of real benefits: I can put away a
large batch of beasts in one day, and there’s no preparation required
clipping, it takes less than 10 minutes to transport them to Lochhill where
they’re put over the weigh bridge, and then another 10 minutes to take the
heifers on to Carswadda. Staying local, I’m able to keep an eye on how
they’re performing, furthermore checking through the final performance data
and kill sheets is really useful.
“This detailed information measuring the performance of every single beast
keeps the pressure on me to ensure I continue to improve my cattle, their
genetics and management. I look carefully at the top 10 and bottom 10
performers, that’s about one third of a batch, and check their sire and dam.
If one of the bulls is consistently breeding poorer performers, then I would
look to change him, and there have been occasions where a Continental bull
was leaving calves with growth rates that failed to match the finishers’
targets.” He adds: “What’s left is for me to do this year is to go and see
the carcases hung up and make that final detailed appraisal.”
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