"During the last 12 months we’ve taken through to finishing 55 head of Charolais cross cattle. Heifers finished at between 15 months to 17 months to average 545kgs liveweight and realise £565 a head including slaughter premium, while same age steers finished at 610kgs liveweight," explains Richard Tudor. "We regard ourselves essentially as suckled calf producers – we cream off the top 25 steers which in the last two years have averaged 485kgs at 12 months and sold after first claim to level at £575.

"However, we maintain a flexible system, and we’ve found this finishing regime is working for us, simply because our cattle reach target weight at 17 months or earlier, so it hasn’t been cost effective to keep them on to claim the second BSP payment in return for an extra five months in terms of feed, labour and accommodation. It also enables us to claim extensification premium at the higher rate," he says. "It’s a system that we plan to continue after the single farm payment is introduced, albeit with a few changes to further improve the enterprise’s efficiency."

Richard farms in partnership with his parents, Tom and Ann, at Llyssun, a 700 acre owner occupied hill unit based at Llanerfyl, near Welshpool. The farm carries 120 suckler cows that have recently moved from split calving to a focused April May calving herd, plus a complementary flock of 1,300 Welsh Mules for finished lamb production.

"Our objective is to maximize kilos of beef and sheep per acre and subsequent returns from grazed grass," he says. "We expect steers to achieve an average 1.2kg daily liveweight gain during the first year and heifers 1.1kgs DLG, figures that includes a respective1kg and 0.9kg DLG solely off milk and grass, and we’re able to realise those gains quite readily by using Charolais as the herd’s terminal sire.

"In fact, the farm was among the first to introduce Charolais to the region 30 years ago and the breed has remained on the unit ever since because its progeny’s growth rates are consistently higher than those left by other Continental terminal sires we’ve used.

What’s more, they’re quiet and easy to handle cattle, and even the bottom 10% of a crop of Charolais cross calves will achieve the performance levels we’re targeting. Above all, regardless of the difference in premium of a carcase grading E or U, it’s weight that always pays at the end of the day. All processors pay on p/kg."

Llyssun’s calves are reared solely off milk and grass during their first summer, they’re winter housed in November and creep fed, and weaned in late January before turnout 12 weeks later. After another season’s grazing they’re housed for the final two months to finish.

Plans are to further tighten the herd’s calving to a compact six week period in spring, a move designed to enable both cows and calves to make the most from grazed grass. In future, any cows that fail to conceive within the first two months after introducing the bull will be culled, says Richard. "It’s an indication of the level of efficiency we’ll need to adopt post CAP Reform. The beef industry has been subsidy driven for so long, however in future we’ll be operating in a market led economy and producers will need to know exactly how much it costs to produce a kilo of beef."

The Tudors have recently focused on breeding their own quality damline in response to the Holstein’s impact on the suckler industry and the difficultly in sourcing quality replacements. "We decided to breed our own replacements and have introduced Simmental genetics selected carefully for motherability, in particular milk, and their ability to calve at two years," says Richard who last year was awarded an HCC Beef and Sheep Scholarship to study rearing systems in South America.

"In Argentina I saw vast herds of cattle carrying native bloodlines and finishing off low cost grass based systems. It’s given me the idea to introduce a native breed to our damline to help further step up our cattle’s feed conversion efficiency from grass. Our ultimate goal is to finish more cattle off grass and thereby make savings to bought in feed."