Fenwick
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- Location
- Bretagne France
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Got any red clover silage?We are new to the organic game, have currently 43 18 month old limis cross on red clover leys and 2kg a day of crimp, motoring, also a group of younger herefords comethrough. Anyone successfully finnishing stock with oats rather than barley? would favour finnishing on grass but hard to do over winter months.
Got any red clover silage?
They won't need anything else if you have!
(Maybe a touch of fibre).
Grass only here, I here what your saying but we're running natives (Angus Herefords) they don't need any encouragement to get fat! .Perhaps things are différent in thé UK. But when we talk about fattening cattle here it means energy (céréals). We find clover is great for growth rates, gaining muscle or producing milk but not for putting on fat.
Does anyone know whats pasture species are high in energy? I aim for a fat score of 3.
Grass only here, I here what your saying but we're running natives (Angus Herefords) they don't need any encouragement to get fat! .
Certainly with continentals you may need a bit extra
Just a follow up on this.
Organic grassfed
Graded o+2 and R2
Killed out 275 - 308kg
So around £1100 each.
I think getting certified Grassfed certification will give a few pence per kg extra. But only to those companies selling pasture fed.
Would you get knocked down in market by more or less than it costs you in grain?The angus and herefords we see here certainly dont need any encouragement for fattening. Though @Chasingmytail posted
A fat score of two isn't finished. If i direct sale beef like that i risk getting complaints. But then i'd get complaints for a fat score of 4 as well. If i was to sell to market i'd get knocked down a bit too. Maybe it matters, maybe not.
I can finish some of our Salers x Charolaise on grass (but not all) for most of the year, depending on where they are and what they are eating. But why some and not others? Genetics? Feed? Should i look closer at forage, management? probably both.
Generally we count about 90kgs of grain to finish each animal.
However I can't fatten them in winter from only conserved forage. - Well I think possibly from a late harvested wholecrop but i havent yet tried.
I'd be interested in getting weaned off the grain completely. There are better things to do with it, like putting it through a pig. And it would certainly make life easier. Besides, I don't think cows are meant to eat lots of grain.
Do you need to finish them in winter?
I know what you mean, the 2nd winter is always difficult, but it depends on what your aims are, if you have to feed grain to finish during the winter but dont want to feed grain...This is a bit of a conundrum imo.
I would like to go all grass, but with a spring calving herd, finishing by 18 months is gonna take some doing, but running them a second winter then finishing off grass in the 3rd summer seems a long time to have them around. Maybe ok for some of the slow growing traditional breeds ?
Unless you go for lighter weights and finish that 2nd summer? Doable with steers and spot on grazing management?
We try to keep our cattle smaller going into second winter - weigh often, draft a forward mob early to push on and this keeps the second mob lighter/easier to feed during winter.This is a bit of a conundrum imo.
I would like to go all grass, but with a spring calving herd, finishing by 18 months is gonna take some doing, but running them a second winter then finishing off grass in the 3rd summer seems a long time to have them around. Maybe ok for some of the slow growing traditional breeds ?
Unless you go for lighter weights and finish that 2nd summer? Doable with steers and spot on grazing management?
This is a bit of a conundrum imo.
I would like to go all grass, but with a spring calving herd, finishing by 18 months is gonna take some doing, but running them a second winter then finishing off grass in the 3rd summer seems a long time to have them around. Maybe ok for some of the slow growing traditional breeds ?
Unless you go for lighter weights and finish that 2nd summer? Doable with steers and spot on grazing management?
Do you have an age limit on bulls Pete?We try to keep our cattle smaller going into second winter - weigh often, draft a forward mob early to push on and this keeps the second mob lighter/easier to feed during winter.
Compensatory growth and good pasture mgmt generally means they absolutely fly when the grass comes, the past fortnight our bulls have averaged 2.64kg/day on grass alone - and there isn't much yet!!
As soon as the grasses boot, the fibre increase/lignin tends to put fat on them, but juicy "squirter grass" just makes them grow. Balance is important
All on Angus scheme? Presumably you feed cereals on that? Unless odd very late born calf, I find heifers easy enough to finish to decent weights by around 20-22 months during 2nd winter. And I currently intensively finish bulls on barley, but would like to get away from so much concentrate usage.Its a right pain having cattle go into a 3rd summer, esp if its a small group of stragglers,
Leaving aside the costs, its a extra mob that need top quality grass, so for us that meabs competing with better paying lambs.
With the TB situation, finishing is the best option for us so we try to get as much done in the 2nd winter.
Not an official one, older bulls just get priced down severely.Do you have an age limit on bulls Pete?
I'd like to try a bunch of bulls on grass, but the 16 month age limit makes it a very risky experiment.
All on Angus scheme? Presumably you feed cereals on that? Unless odd very late born calf, I find heifers easy enough to finish to decent weights by around 20-22 months during 2nd winter. And I currently intensively finish bulls on barley, but would like to get away from so much concentrate usage.
There's now to much stock being finished September/ October off grass imo.
I think there's alot of people who don't want to over winter stock for various reasons & there's a flood of cattle Autumn time which then depresses prices.
It's worth costing what it takes to get them into the following year or pushing them quicker to avoid those months.
There can be 50p/kg difference between something finishing late Autumn to something finishing June time.