Brian Reidy: Beef finishing efficiency to optimise your returns
Achieving a margin in this economy will take a bit of planning and management
A few weeks ago I wrote about getting cattle finished off grass. For most slaughtering stock at 22 to 24 months, it will however involve a finishing period indoors. With some recent slippage in factory prices and input costs still high, achieving a margin will take a bit of planning and management.
The effect of feed efficiency conversion on profitability in beef finishing is even greater with the current and short- to medium-term concentrate costs. This is outlined by the fact that the economic impact of an improvement in feed efficiency has the potential to be much greater than the same increase in Average Daily Gain. In times of high feed cost, optimisation, rather than maximisation, of performance is a more economically achievable target.
It is interesting to watch buying habits in the marts at present. Quality lots of advanced cattle are making good money. These animals are in general better converters of feed into saleable carcasses.
Feed conversion efficiency has been measured in the pig and poultry industries for decades. In cattle, the measure is — How many kg of Dry Matter must an animal consume to gain 1kg of Live weight? The less feed required the cheaper the gain.Â
That sum must be taken further, by working out what percentage of that gain is actually saleable. Continental cattle will have a much higher proportion of each kg of gain as carcass.
Beef producers are looking at every possible alternative at present to offset high concentrate costs. Brewing and distilling by-products, along with the inclusion of beet in diets, can be very good options where they can be stored, processed and fed properly.
With a wide price spread between concentrates and local by-products or beet, dietary inclusion levels beyond what might maximize feed efficiency and average daily gain may be warranted. While performance may not be maximized, often we are able to optimize cost of gain and return.Â
Feeding higher-than-normal levels of ingredients once managed properly can yield good results. It will need careful balancing, management and planning to get it right though, in order to avoid digestive upsets and poor performance.Â
One stumbling block with this approach may well be the availability of sufficient quality straw. This approach does not include the feeding of extra silage and lower concentrate levels obviously, unless you are lucky enough to have mid-70s DMD grass silage.
There are obvious influencers on feed efficiency and a huge amount of time and effort is devoted by some to fine-tuning nutrition and management strategies. Beyond feeding, the cattle genetics, comfort/facilities and environment all play a significant and known role in cattle performance and feed efficiency.
Feed efficiency can be directly measured by feed intake over average daily gain. Another way to look at feed efficiency on the farm is to look at total feed purchased and home produced divided by the kgs of gain produced on the farm. These calculations must be done based on the dry matter being consumed by the cattle.
Doing so helps a farmer to look at a whole new set of parameters that have the potential to be measured and subsequently improved. Three areas of emphasis that might be considered include:
- How well the feed is presented and delivered to the animals. Keep it fresh and clean to optimise intakes
- Feed loss during storage. Good pit and feed store management can make a farm a lot of money
- Feed selection — Are the correct feeds being grown or purchased? Plan well ahead each year based on assessing previous years' animal performance and each ingredient's performance.
A feeding audit is a valuable tool in determining the effectiveness of your feeding practise. For those using a mixer wagon to feed it can be a very interesting process. Much consideration is given to loading sequence and its effect on ration consistency and mixer performance.
Loading sequence is just one piece of the jigsaw. A check on scale accuracy should also be part of your routine mixer maintenance. Simple things that require very little effort to change can also help greatly improve mix consistency and performance. Overloading a mixer, not loading a supplement correctly, having the mixer on uneven ground when mixing or loading all can change the performance of a mixer wagon, etc.
Feed losses through storage can represent a large economic loss in the yard that often goes unnoticed. Ensiling feeds allows for both the storage of high moisture feeds and presents an opportunity to increase the digestibility of feedstuffs grown on farm. It also provides the opportunity for shrink; unfortunately, dry matter losses of as much as 20% are not uncommon in many silage pits.Â
Proper packing at time of harvest, adequate covering of ensiled pits and proper pit face management at feed-out will all help prevent the introduction of oxygen to the ensiled feeds and lessen feed spoilage. Mouldy feed should never be fed to any animal — even in the dark.
Timing of harvest to assure proper feedstuff moisture is also critical; recognising that is often easier said than done.
Feed efficiency is a major driving factor in cattle feeding profitability. It is important to make sure all aspects of a farm are considered when evaluating a farm’s efficiency. Feed mixing and delivery, storage and shrink, and diet composition can all have significant impacts on a beef farm's overall feed efficiency and profit.
It is fair to say that measuring feed efficiency in isolation is not enough. You must look at the whole picture. Cheap ingredients underutilised may not turn out to be cheap. Perceived expensive ingredients used well can be excellent value. Ultimately your feed efficiency should be a calculation based on dividing total weight gain into total feed purchased and produced on farm. Feed not used due to wastage/spoilage must also be put down as a cost of production.
So don’t buy or grow ingredients if you can’t store or feed them correctly. It’s that simple.
