Sourcing calves for next Spring
As we head into December, now is the time to reflect on how and where we should be sourcing are calves next spring. Having the right calf in place is one of the main ingredients in having a profitable and sustainable dairy calf to beef system on your farm.
How often does it happen, where two identical looking calves are bought from the same source at the same age and are treated the exact same way throughout their whole life but when they reach slaughter age, have very different levels of performance. One animal may have performed so well, that you say to yourself if all my cattle were like this one, I’d be a wealthy man/woman. Whereas with their compatriot, you grimace looking at the slaughter report showing the poor performing animal’s weight, grade and most importantly the final price. This applies to all systems no matter if you’re in a Holstein Friesian steer system or a late maturing steer system there is massive variation in the beef merits of calves.
Research conducted by Teagasc has shown that calves bred from higher genetic merit beef bulls have higher carcass weights, better conformation and are more likely to meet factory specifications than calves bred from lower genetic beef bulls. However discovering which calf is likely to exhibit good beefing qualities over their lifetime can be difficult when they visually all look the same at a month old.
This is where the new Commercial Beef Value (CBV) will make it easier for farmers to know how this calf will perform over their lifetime and as result can determine a realistic value that the calf is worth at a month old.
The CBV is a value that ICBF is now generating on all cattle that are likely to be finished as beef cattle. The CBV comprises five traits from the Terminal Index that are important to farmers that are rearing stock that are destined to be slaughtered. The CBV of each animal will be based on the genetics of their parents. The five traits are Carcass weight, Carcass conformation, Carcass fat, Docility and Feed intake but does not include the traits for Calving difficulty, Gestation length and Mortality as these traits are not needed when the stock you are buying is not going to be bred from. So if for example we look to buy an Angus bull calf and two are presented, one has a CBV of €120 and another has a CBV of €185. The calf with a value of €185 has better beefing characteristics than the one at €120 and should deliver €65 more than the calf with the lower value. The extra value will come as a result of possibly better feed efficiency, carcass weight, conformation etc.
CBV values will be a lot more useful to the buyer if they compare like with like. Each animal is labelled under one of three breed types: dairy x dairy, beef x dairy or suckler. So if you are in the market for Dairy bred bull calves you should be comparing within the Dairy X Dairy type and likewise if you are purchasing Angus calves you will be looking under the Beef x Dairy Type. Knowing whether animals are high or low for CBV allows the buyer to make a much more informed decision about how much should be paid for each.
Table 1 Commercial Beef Value (CBV) cut-off values for top 20%, average and bottom
Beef x dairy | Dairy x dairy | |
Top 20% (5-star) | >€124 | €44 |
Average | €69 | €24 |
Bottom 20% (1-star) | >€44 | <€1 |
In order for a CBV to be generated for a calf, a sire must be recorded against the calf when he is born if you are buying animals directly from another farmer, you can ask them for a print out of the CBV of the stock they are selling. If they don’t record the sires and you want to continue buying their stock, ask them to record sires on all births in the future. ICBF is currently working with marts to get the CBV displayed for eligible animals.
While genetics is obviously a very important factor when selecting which herds to buy your calves from. Another key consideration is how the calves were looked after on the dairy farm. Questions to ask source farmers are, how much colostrum calves are getting at birth, are they being fed adequate levels of milk in the first three weeks of life, are they being offered concentrates. When on the source farm, check that calves are well bedded, check a proportion of calves’ navels and do they look generally healthy. If a calf is compromised in its first three weeks of life, no matter the genetics the calf will likely exhibit poor performance over their lifetime.
Teagasc Beef Specialists issue an article on a topic of interest to suckler & cattle farmers every Wednesday here on Teagasc Daily