Setting targets to get the most from your stock at finishing

Fast-finishing periods with high-energy diets are more efficient but breed and sex will determine their potential weight gain and carcass characteristics, writes ruminant nutritionist Brian Reidy.

Weighing your cattle is the first step to setting finishing targets for your stock.

Keeping costs down while delivering the appropriate diet requires careful planning in any yard finishing cattle. With the price of compound feed still relatively high, every effort will need to be made to keep costs under control. Protein sources have increased in price over the last weeks, which has not helped. Putting correct costs and values on all available homegrown ingredients is always a good starting point.

I know that I regularly write about silage quality; however, it is such an important element on farms each winter that it is critical to know its quality so that the diets required for each group of animals can be delivered to them.