More options and higher profits from high CBV animals
Animals of a higher Commercial Beef Value (CBV) offer beef finishers more options when selecting the most appropriate finishing strategy for their farm.
This was a key message imparted to attendees at the recent Tipperary Dairy Calf to Beef Demonstration Farm Open Day by Dr Nicky Byrne, Livestock Systems Researcher at Teagasc Grange.
Basing his presentation on the many years of research conducted at the Teagasc research centre in Dunsany, Co. Meath, Dr Byrne showcased how Angus steers – both of high and low Commercial Beef Value – performed under a grass-based system in the research setting.
“Through our research system in Grange,” Dr Byrne explained, “we’ve found that every €1 increase in the Commercial Beef Value of the Angus type steers that we tested resulted in an extra €1.85 net profit.
“Increasing CBV is one of the simplest changes that can be made which is going to have a big impact on overall profitability. As well as that, when we look at those high CBV animals, we can see that they have much greater flexibility as to the type of finishing system that we expose them too.”
Quantifying the statement on flexibility, Dr Byrne told those in attendance that the high CBV Angus steers studied were capable of finishing both indoors or outdoors before winter housing, with the latter entailing a brief period of concentrate supplementation at grass. Details of both finishing strategies are shared in table 1 below.
Table 1: Average growth and carcass performance of 2020-born and 2021-born Angus steers per feed management strategy and CBV rating
| Conventional (housed) | Supplemented at grass | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal type | High CBV Angus | Low CBV Angus | High CBV Angus | Low CBV Angus |
| Finishing age (days) | 641 | 652 | 603 | 601 |
| Carcass weight (kg) | 314 | 306 | 310 | 284 |
|
Carcass conformation |
O=/O+ | O= | O+ | O= |
| Carcass fat | 3+/4- | 3+ | 4- | 3+ |
| Finishing period outdoors and indoors (days) | 51 | 62 | 101 | 99 |
| Finishing supplement (kg) | 248 | 306 | 403 | 403 |
| Lifetime ADG (kg) | 0.91 | 0.88 | 0.92 | 0.86 |
On the other hand, however, and when exposed to the same concentrate feeding regime at grass, Angus steers of a lower CBV achieved carcass fatness quickly, but produced lower carcass weights of ~280kg, which resulted in a reduction in farm level profitability.
As a result, Dr Byrne said: “We didn’t have as much flexibility with the low merit Angus steer. The optimum system for those low CBV Angus steers was growing them at a slower rate, developing frame at pasture, and putting them indoors for a very short 60-day indoor finishing period.”
Dr Nicky Byrne speaking at the Tipperary Dairy Calf to Beef Open Day
He continued: “The differences in profitability arise due to differences in carcass performance. At Grange, 75% of the higher CBV Angus steers met overall carcass specifications, whereas only 52% of the low CBV Angus steers met overall carcass specifications.”
Dairy breeding policies
With animals of dairy origin now accounting for ~60% of prime cattle throughput, Dr Byrne also told the dairy and beef farmers gathered that what happens at dairy farm level has a massive impact on the potential of beef production systems.
“We have seen big improvements over the last number of years due to improvements in dairy herd breeding policy, a reduced need for heifer replacements and increased usage of sexed semen, we’ve seen 100,000 fewer low value male dairy calves in exchange for beef cross calves.
“One of the things we have to ensure is that when we switch to using more beef animals, we use more high merit beef animals to get the full benefit at farm system level,” he said.
Also read: First open day at Tipperary Dairy Calf to Beef Demonstration Farm