Suckler producers can now use a free Profitable Suckler Cow calculator to help drive breeding decisions alongside using their own judgement and stockmanship.
The easy-to-use online calculator helps assess which heifers and cows are of most value in a farm’s system. It was developed in Scotland – although suckler producers in England will also find it useful.
The Excel-based calculator uses straightforward data such as cow weight and body condition, alongside calf performance and feeding information to model profitability on an individual basis.
Innovative tool
“This is an innovative tool for farmers,” said Lorna Shaw, a ruminant nutritionist with SAC Consulting (part of SRUC) who developed the calculator.
“It means that alongside physical traits used for heifer selection and a farm’s culling policy, the feeding costs of a cow over winter and calf performance can be used for a robust decision-making process.”
Scotland’s Monitor Farm programme is managed by Quality Meat Scotland with support from the AHDB. The aim at the Argyllshire Monitor Farm is to improve herd performance and reduce costs of production.
Farming at Craigens Farm on Islay, host farmer Craig Archibald and family run a 2,000ha (4,940ac) tenanted unit. Their cattle enterprise has 220 suckler cows, with the focus on producing Angus and Charolais yearling stores.
Mr Archibald had already been trying to select for smaller cows to suit the farm’s outwintering system. “Our cows looked decent, but we always had a few empty and some that had twins. The cows were doing alright, but just alright.”
Data collection
The farm was collecting plenty of data but Mr Archibald hadn’t done much with it. It was difficult to select the ‘best’ cow type as there were so many variables, he said. “Mainly I just wanted a profitable cow.”
As a nutritionist, Ms Shaw first worked with the Archibalds on ration and mineral planning. She then focused on the data needed to identify profitable animals that best suited the system at Craigens.
“Having the weight of cows and calves is probably the easiest and simplest data you can collect, and you can do a lot with it,” she said.
“These figures alongside ration data and bedding costs plus calf sale values can be fed into the online calculator. It will produce a margin over feed costs and an efficiency score for animals.”
Comparing options
As a comparison tool, the calculator allows producers to compare options such as outwintering vs housing, age, breeds, different grazing systems, and how creep feeding would affect performance.
“It’s a really good benchmarking tool too,” said Ms Shaw.
Mr Archibald only started using the calculator this year. But it is already impacting decisions, with a traffic light system introduced for initial selection – helping him to retain the breeding females which scored well.
Ranked green, these females also met other requirements such as temperament and mobility. Those scoring less well were put in an amber group (retain for breeding if necessary), while the poorest performing were in a red group (do not retain).
Lower costs
Retained females were split into an A and B herd, with the highest performance females (the A herd) put to a maternal sire to breed heifer replacements. These females are likely to be suited to the preferred system of outwintering and calving outside.
The calculator shows these cows cost about £184/head less to keep in terms of overall calf margin. They included some cows which Mr Archbald had previously thought were borderline performers.
The B herd – the lower ranking females who are less suited to the system so may need more feed or winter housing – will be put to a terminal sire to produce store calves. The split approach means the herd can be improved without losing too many females.
Ms Shaw said: “The main aim with this project was to develop a tool for starting to look at profitability. Tools like this can often grow arms and legs, but we wanted something which required minimal data input. It will work for all suckler systems.”