Finishing cattle off grass without meal

That is the system I use with my bullocks. Mostly AAX or HEX. A few LMX, SIX, FRX and BBX.

I follow the dairy guys rule of 'Grow in 3 weeks and graze in 3 days' as much as possible. I find I get decent results without the messing of feeding meal as you describe.

I usually have the first few fit for the factory by mid June. Last year, with the bad spring, it was mid July.

Usually get them into fat scores of 3.

No. They would be 26 - 27 months. I buy them in March/April as yearlings and have them for 2 summers.

Mostly AAX or HEX. A few LMX, SIX, FRX and BBX.

Approx 300Kg live weight when bought.

Average kill-out overall since I started (its 9 years now) is 344KG. But, this has been falling, pretty much every year for the last 3 or 4 years. Definitely, the trend is down. The type of cattle I buy are just going more towards dairy breeding every year.

Last year, the average was only 316 KG. The year before it was 332KG. Last spring really impacted our farm. It was terrible really. And I had a lot of the cattle gone before the weather picked up later in the year.

You only sell once. It will pay well to feed them this year. I let mine into the shed every day and throw the meal along the feeding passage. I’ve 6 spans of slats so it’s handy.

You must be in good land if you don’t have to feed meal.

We don’t finish but sell as stores in the mart and we would be giving meal to get them in the condition we want for the mart. Wouldn’t be finishing levels of meal of course but enough to push them on a bit. I struggle to see how you can finish well enough for the factory with no meal given our experience.

This is a suckler man, on the pension but likes to stay farming. He is very understocked. Sfp, anc and acres, say roughly 15k, he has a few sucklers, very understocked. Runs them all away together, puts the pointy nose plate, on them to wean them. I have never seen him buy a nut. He makes a few bales. The only thing I see he uses is a bucket of precalver with them all, 365 days a year.

While there is likely some middle ground and absolutely piling meal into finishing stock is probably not ideal either the argument on the environmental side that I’ve seen (and I’m open to correction on this) seems to suggest finishing stock younger is better for the environment. It’s not something I have looked into just saw it suggested in some articles on how younger slaughter is better from an environmental perspective.

Part of the issue is some beef farmers graze very short grass, others won't let cattle in until it's 12-1500 kgs an acre, the stage of grass makes a very big impact on thrive. It's nearly impossible to compare farming systems without seeing what is practiced on the ground.

Grass is tight with myself as I am on shale ground which does not retain moisture, the cattle are getting through covers quicker than normal should I supplement with 3kg until growth returns to normal, bear in mind these cattle will be on the farm until early October,usual finishing period is 90/120 days.

Thanks for that if I have to I will put put in the shed for a small while on silage to let things pick up but hopefully that won't be the case as Sunday is supposed to bring some rain,I had this issue in 2018 we have a lovely dry farm but it will burn up grass quick in times likes this,this is where the marle ground man has the advantage.

I agree with you on feeding them out but the shed system here allows cattle to get out to open yards to lie off,I have walked the place & I maybe have more grass than I thought although undoubtedly I could do with some moisture, I have included a picture of where the cattle were moved out of this morning which I consider tightly grazed,my feeling is that alot of guys would leave them there for another day.

Far too tight for my liking. Will take far too long to regrow. The saying “it takes grass to grow grass” comes to mind.
i used to graze far too tight too thinking I was doing right but I move them along quicker now and the grass regrows quicker

#42 530 kg bullocks grazed 4.13acre paddock for 48 hrs of approx 10 inches of high quality sward previously topped,they have been on this ground once before since being bought April 8th.Rotation is normally 25/30 days.The farm is limed every 4/5 years & only ever receives 150kg per acre 10.10.20 per annum(May/June).The ground you are looking at will be fertilised today.