Youngstock gain kilo a day

Sep 30 2006 By Jennifer Mackenzie, The Journal

Improved feed conversion rates and live weight gains have been the result of altering the diet for beef breeding and store cattle on an upland farm.

Monthly weighings of youngstock in the past two years have shown that heifers and commercial bullocks at Poldean, Wamphray, near Moffat, in Dumfries and Galloway, have averaged more than 1kg daily liveweight gain while pedigree bulls have easily achieved 1.75kg.

Willie Davidson, who runs Poldean with his wife Jennifer and son Alisdair, attributes the improvement to the switch from a pelleted feed in his complete diet feeder to a custom-made meal geared to optimising rumen function.

The Davidsons farm almost 2,000 acres, which ascends from 270ft to 1,760ft, running 300 cows, including a few pedigree Charolais alongside a majority of Salers, a third of which are now pedigrees.

The French Salers breed has been at Poldean since the early 1990s, but when the farm's beef cattle and sheep were culled in the 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic the Davidsons had to re-establish their herd.

This created the opportunity to buy foundation stock from France, including the bull that was champion at the local show in the Salers region.

Now the aim is to minimise disease problems by running a closed breeding policy, with only Charolais and Salers bulls bought in as well as rams for the 500-ewe Lleyn flock.

Willie said: "Currently the cattle are a mix of pedigree and commercial, although the aim is to go totally pedigree Salers. We're finding that there is a big demand for Salers bulling heifers, whether pure bred or almost pure bred."

The main calving period is May and June, with bullocks and Charolais heifers not for breeding sold the following May as yearling stores in Lanark, Lockerbie and Castle Douglas.

The calves are introduced to creep feed in September while still outside to get them eating feed and to reduce stress at housing time, helping to prevent pneumonia.

At housing, which can be from late September to the beginning of November, they are fed a complete diet of silage and the specialised meal.

"We switched to the meal two years ago on the advice of Bill Souter, nutritionist with Davidson Brothers, of Shotts, Airdrie.

"He advised using the meal in the mix with clamp silage to prevent the cattle sifting out the concentrate.

"We have also weighed the calves every month for the last two years.

"Previously the calves were fed concentrate twice a day, but under the new system the cattle are more content. The improvements we have seen have come about through the combination of all these components."

The meal contains three types of cereal to provide a balanced energy release from starch, plus digestible fibre for slow energy release in the form of beet pulp.

There is also a concentrated alfalfa extract to simulate eating quality akin to grass fed beef, a rumen protected high-energy oil, and seaweed meal to promote health. Improved rumen function is achieved through the inclusion of Alltech's live yeast culture Yea-Sacc1026.

This product works by stimulating the fibre-digesting bacteria in the rumen and so improves the utilisation of the ration, and in particular the forage component. In beef cattle the proven effects are to improve intakes, increase growth rates and generally boost the condition of the animal.

A past chairman and current president of the Salers Cattle Society, Mr Davidson, along with his wife Jennifer, also shows pedigree cattle.

In 2005 they won the bull of the year title awarded by the society with their imported bull Portos, which was male champion at both the Royal Highland and Royal shows and reserve supreme champion at the Highland last year.

They also won female of the year in 2005 with their cow Chapelpark Trudy, now carrying her third calf, which was Royal Show supreme champion.