Farmers wanted for ‘Beef-Quest’ to reduce finishing age
Dr Paul Smith, Research Officer in the Teagasc Climate Centre, tells us of a large-scale, on-farm study that aims to identify the most efficient on-farm measures for reducing the finishing age of Irish beef cattle.
As will be outlined at the Teagasc Beef Open Day in Grange on June 26, reducing the mean finishing age of the ‘prime’ beef cattle population to 22-23 months of age by 2030 is one of the main greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategies for the Irish beef sector.
Earlier finishing of beef cattle not only has the potential to decrease the quantity of GHG emissions (predominantly methane – CH4) an animal emits over their lifetime, but can be economically advantageous, by lowering total costs associated with rearing an animal, and thus is a key contributor to on-farm profitability.
Since 2010, the average finishing age of the Irish prime beef cattle population has reduced by ~2 months, with minimal negative impact on average carcass weight. For example, the average finishing age of suckler-bred steers has reduced by ~1 week/annum with a slight increase in average carcass weight.
Although the finishing age of the prime beef cattle population has greatly reduced over the last decade and a half, currently the national mean age at finishing is some three-six months older than achieved on high-performing, grass-based, commercial and beef research farms.
To expedite a reduction in finishing, there is an urgent need to identify and quantify the key factors currently impeding Irish beef farms from achieving potential live weight targets. Understanding the large variation in the lifetime animal performance on Irish beef cattle farms is a key focus of the Teagasc lead Beef-Quest project, a recently funded project by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). In collaboration with ICBF and UCD, this project, which will be launched at BEEF2024, will use data currently available within the industry to map the lifetime live weight gain performance of the national beef herd. Some initial results, from the national data sets, will be presented at the live finishing demonstrations at BEEF2024.
Also as part of Beef-Quest, a new large-scale, on-farm study is planned that will aim to generate new data to investigate the effect of nutrition, health and on-farm environment on the lifetime live weight gain performance of cattle on commercial beef farms. Data generated from the project, will be utilised to determine both the environmental and economic benefits associated with the optimisation of animal nutrition, health and on-farm environment, and subsequently aid the identification of the most effective on-farm measures for reducing the finishing age of Irish beef cattle.
Interested in participating?
Expressions of interest from both suckler and dairy-beef farms interested in participating in the Beef-Quest project are currently being sought. Benefits for signing up to the project include free live weight recording of growing cattle (weighing conducted at key stages over the animal’s lifetime), forage analysis as well bench mark reporting of your farm’s performance with that of other farms within the programme. Regular live weight recording of growing cattle is the only way to accurately monitor the live weight gain performance of growing cattle, so why not avail of free live weight recordings as part of the Beef-Quest project.
More information
To express an interest in getting involved in Beef-Quest and to learn more about the project, be sure to look out for Paul Smith (paul.smith@teagasc.ie) in the GHG village at the Teagasc Beef Open Day in Grange.