Young bull beef finishing system is delivering big results for farmers

Sviewed as being impossible to meet the required market specs. While the ‘industry’ has been telling farmers that the demand for bull beef from Ireland is limited, farmers have had to focus on the profitability of their enterprises and on a lot of beef farms under 16 month bull production is topping the profitability charts.

In 2016 nearly 200,000 young bulls were slaughtered in Ireland, accounting for approximately 20pc of finished male cattle.

Anyone that regularly reads Robin Talbot’s pieces on these pages will learn that a carcass weight of 400kg+ and fat scores of 2+/3s are attainable, even where Belgian Blue predominates in the breed mix.

While this system is input heavy, it affords home bred or purchased weanling animals to be brought to slaughter at a much younger age.

This in turn obviously can allow for an increase in overall farm stocking rate, a quicker return on investment and better use of farm buildings.

To quote Robin, the secret to success in under 16 month bull production is to get sufficient milk and plenty high quality grass into the calves pre and post weaning.