Lu in sucklers

Kevin the sheep

Just wonderin is there a breakdown of lu within sucklers as in a dairy cow is 1lu and a suckler is 0.9lu we'll within sucklers is it broke down more Simmental cow 0.9lu well what would that make an aa cow in lu 0.6/7 or is there any differ

J.O. Farmer

In what sense are you talking about breaking down livestock units.
I think for stocking rates suckler cows are counted as 1. Cattle are 0.6 units until their second birthday or first calving whichever is sooner. All suckler cows are the same regardless of breed.
If you're looking for something like feed requirements then maybe there is a system but given the rate of crossbreeding it may be difficult to find a practical scale for commercial cattle.

Kevin the sheep

What I mean is if I had 50 Simmental and 50 Angus cows on same amount of ground the Angus would not eat the same amount so would they equate to a different lu per hec or as you say is it just 1lu and different stocking rate per hec

J.O. Farmer

They will both count as one livestock unit and you will probably be able to stock at a slightly higher rate although when you come down to lu/ha the difference will be marginal. It might make a difference if you are talking about the amount of ground for the 50 but I imagine that the ability to produce grass between fields will have a bigger impact than breed.

Zr105

Kevin the sheep wrote: »

What I mean is if I had 50 Simmental and 50 Angus cows on same amount of ground the Angus would not eat the same amount so would they equate to a different lu per hec or as you say is it just 1lu and different stocking rate per hec

Livestock unit will still be 1 for any cows, but the feed demand will be different alright, it's generally considered that a beef animal anyways(not sure on dairy) will consume 2% of there body weight in dry matter each day.

Kevin the sheep

Zr105 wrote: »

Livestock unit will still be 1 for any cows, but the feed demand will be different alright, it's generally considered that a beef animal anyways(not sure on dairy) will consume 2% of there body weight in dry matter each day.

Just a taught I had this morn didn't know if it changed with cow size on another note my neighbour and brother in law both got out of most of there suckler cows today rest goin next week sad to see they we're making noting from them not much better here

frazzledhome

Zr105 wrote: »

Livestock unit will still be 1 for any cows, but the feed demand will be different alright, it's generally considered that a beef animal anyways(not sure on dairy) will consume 2% of there body weight in dry matter each day.

Would kg live weight per ha be the way to calculate SR? They eat a % if their body weight

Zr105

frazzledhome wrote: »

Would kg live weight per ha be the way to calculate SR? They eat a % if their body weight

It's probably a slightly fairer way to look at a beef sticking rate alright,

But as far as i know for nitrates/reps it's still calculated on the basis outlined above

Cow=1
Animal greater than 2years or under 2year but has calved =1
Animal under 2years and not calved = 0.6