The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Cattle weight gain winners announced
A nationwide competition to find the UK’S fastest growing cattle saw the winner’s group of 46 animals average a daily liveweight gain (DLWG) of 1.88kg between the beginning of November 2020 and the end of March 2021.
Andrew Hyde from Ludlow in Shropshire, who won the over 12-months category of the Breedr Weigh to Win competition, buys British Blue x dairy calves from a dedicated rearer at 12 weeks of age and finishes them on contract for a large supermarket.
He buys the calves in at about 130kg and finishes them at 20-22 month old at around 600kg liveweight, and attributes his success to “grazing them last summer, growing their frames so they were ready to respond to a fast-growing diet over the winter.”
Most of the calves are finished at the target R3 or 0+3 grades, which commands a price premium.
The competition saw 240 farmers recording their cattle weights on a regular basis, in order to tailor feed rations and management.
His farming enterprise comprises a mix of arable, beef and sheep, with sugar beet supplied to a local anaerobic digestion plant as well as for cattle feed.
The winner of the under 12-month category was Jamie Paterson of Little Spott Farms, Dunbar.
He manages 130 Limousin x Charolais suckler cows across 400 acres of grassland, rearing the calves to sell as stores at seven to eight months old and 400kg liveweight.
The calves are creep-fed at grass from August onwards, and this year he replaced his barley and mineral mix with a specialist high-quality calf blend. His winning batch of 35 animals averaged a DLWG of 1.44kg.
“It pushes them on a bit quicker; if we can sell calves a month or more earlier, then at an extra cost of £30/t of feed it’s a worthwhile return,” he said.
Mr Paterson weighs the youngstock once a month, moving them into different groups according to their size and weight
He said: “Using Breedr to record the weights with EID tags is really easy.
“Plus it predicts their weights – so if you haven’t weighed for a while you can still see which ones to pick and sell; it’s pretty much bang on every time.”