Stabiliser open day.

[Mrfarmjunk]

Been to the stabiliser open day today at JSR farms at Givendale York.
I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed my day there. Not had anything to do with stabilisers before today but read up about them,
Iv learned so much today about the breed and feeding regimes they require. Less inputs and fast growing cattle.
Even looking at introducing them into my own herd of sucklers now by looking to buy some bulling heifers.
Anyone else go today or involved in a stabiliser herd. What's people's thoughts on the breed?

 

[JP1]

Richard is very good at putting the case

Lee Leachman is a clever guy too

 

[Grass And Grain]

You say less inputs and fast growing cattle.

How do they compare to other breeds for these two metrics?

 

[Bill dog]

If you are finishing your own cattle , then they are fine. But if you want/ need to sell some store , expect the WTF are they chat at the market. We went to givendale for a look round 6 or so years ago with Ursula and Richard. The contradiction for me comes when they want to sell you a bull that will perform on a forage diet, yet the bull you will get is a 14 month old animal that's straight out of their bull beef unit. 3 of the 6 bulls we have had from them performed ok. 2 arrived as fat barrels, and turned into red razor blades of things. The last one I had to return to his breeder as he was so hen toed he couldn't walk after cows. So after a day trip to north Wales I got palmed off with another barrel who melted into sod all when he met grass.
So good luck if you go for them, but not for me . Also the temperament of some left a lot to be desired. Back to Angus , Hereford and Simmy for me . Rant over !

 

[hillman]

What sort of carcase weights are the steers coming into on the hook ??

 

[Whitepeak]

I'm very sceptical but intrigued by the stabiliser tbh. My main concern is that to maintain the hybrid vigour they claim you get from them, you will always need to go back to BIG or Leachman for F1 bulls or semen. Otherwise you have simply created a breed and lose the hybrid vigour. In effect you are tied into a contract with them in my eyes.
But fair play to them for concentrating on the commercial aspects and in particular doing all the feed efficiency trial work.

 

[Paul E]

I'm sure they're OK for deadweight cattle but I think they've put a lot of effort into re-inventing the wheel.

Nothing wrong with a decent lim/ blue x, or sim if you've a good farm and can stand something bigger.

 

[GTB]

I went to see a few herds and went to James Evans' open day a few years back and was very impressed. The main thing that put me off was the fact that there's no demand for store steers, in fact stabilisers don't make nice steers at all so bull beef is the best option. Just about the same time Hereford and Angus breed societies were pushing the 'huge' price premiums for native beef so we went down the Hereford route initially and later started criss-crossing with angus to maintain some hybrid vigour. Both Hereford and Angus X stores sell well as buyers obviously have access to the price premiums that I could never seem to get my hands on however hard I tried.

 

[tinsheet]

Neighbours going into them in a big way, aiming to finish everything, nice cattle, look like big red angus to me.
No demand in the store ring is what puts me off them.
Nice cattle though..

 

[topground]

I don't sell breeding stock and I don't recognise the negativity sourrounding the breed. I have never been disappointed with the returns from the sale of my steers at Sedgemoor and a 2 year old heifer that was pd in calf last October but slipped the calf subsequently made £1050 in April havng had nothing but hay outside overwinter. As far as I can establish through the destination holding number on CTS, my steers have gone to the big feeders up north and they know what will do well. I do understand that summer graziers in this part of the world might prefer to buy stores with the same breeding that they have always bought but that is their loss in my view.
Sexed semen for replacements for those that AI and cracking calves when put to blue or limi from cows that do what those who are looking for the modern equivalent of the Friesian X Hereford.

 

[Grass And Grain]

What about buying heifers. So stabiliser cows with a terminal sire. I suppose you may as well just use a different breed/cross that is probably cheaper to purchase.

 

[neilo]

What about buying heifers. So stabiliser cows with a terminal sire. I suppose you may as well just use a different breed/cross that is probably cheaper to purchase.

Price of heifers is agreed across the whole breed IIRC. I had someone trying to sell me some last year, @ £1300 for bulling heifers. They'd want to be something special at that......

As for the store price, have BIG not got a scheme where they take them back and contract finish them? I don't know what the charges are for that, but another option perhaps?

 

[Grass And Grain]

Expensive bulling heifers aren't they.

I suspect there would be an opportunity for someone to do a similar scheme, but with totally different breeds/genetics that were more conventional. Don't ask me which breed/cross that would be!

 

[M-J-G]

Yeah @JP1 I saw that video before, all I see there is a sales man with something to sell and he'll tell you what he has to, in order to sell it.
I have heard it said by some involved that "There are real facts and there are stabiliser facts"

I do not believe for a minute that the two cattle in his example had such variation in intake for any length of time, the numbers just don't stack up, but I guess if they did it, even for a day or two, it's based on the truth.

I am shocked that they restricted their choice of genetics based on cosmetics though.

 

[digger64]

Ķ,,

What about buying heifers. So stabiliser cows with a terminal sire. I suppose you may as well just use a different breed/cross that is probably cheaper to purchase.

The whole point is to forget the terminal sire , put 2 similar types together , r+ r /o+nd you get r or o+
E + p or o- you get r or o+ and alot of problems and costs , if you get growth rate and reasonable weight with the top one you might get profit as well
as an easier life , cant see any continental bulls coming back here but I wont say never , depends how you want to spend your time and maybe money. When cattle prices are high the quality £ value becomes wider as in a 10p bonus between grades becomes 13p ,but when lower weight/cost is more important , which why you see they use these types of cattle in unsubsidized places as they are more sustainable and much lower cost particularly regarding labour . As cattle go I suppose they are boring , as for uniformity I find counting the calves hard they all look the same

 

[Gav]

The place I used to work on runs a herd of Stabiliser cattle, they made the switch to them around 8 or so years ago from using Limousin bulls. Resulting cattle were a lot quieter and did gain weight quicker, they were out wintered as well on forage rape prior to spring calving then back out onto forage rye so winter feed costs were lower. No one seemed to have any regrets there about making the switch.

 

[hillman]

Always here about the female side and merits they bring , the other angle the male side on hook not as commented on

 

[Spartacus]

There was a sale at J36 (Kendal) a while ago, think they got as far as 3/4 bred stabilizers, the cows themselves looked real fit, the calves with them all looked to be lacking milk to us so we didn't buy any.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Always here about the female side and merits they bring , the other angle the male side on hook not as commented on

IME many get into stabilisers with the intention of working a terminal on the worst half the herd once they've bred up, but find finishing the males as bulls works really well so carry on running them pure.
Heard several say it and certainly is my experience. No you won't get the U+ & E grades but growth rates are good, as is fat cover, and grading is generally the better end of R into lower end of U.
I haven't bothered to put a terminal bull on my remaining blue x cows, seeing as the stabiliser grows well and is perfectly respectable grading. Got a couple 25 month ish heifers out of blues here ready to go now round the 680-690kgs. Not been pushed until last 3 - 4 months.

 

[digger64]

IME many get into stabilisers with the intention of working a terminal on the worst half the herd once they've bred up, but find finishing the males as bulls works really well so carry on running them pure.
Heard several say it and certainly is my experience. No you won't get the U+ & E grades but growth rates are good, as is fat cover, and grading is generally the better end of R into lower end of U.
I haven't bothered to put a terminal bull on my remaining blue x cows, seeing as the stabiliser grows well and is perfectly respectable grading. Got a couple 25 month ish heifers out of blues here ready to go now round the 680-690kgs. Not been pushed until last 3 - 4 months.

Same here and every thing much less work/cost