Forage and Finishing at the Deeside Monitor Farm
With help from a variety of speakers and with SAC forecasts for his enterprise, Duncan Morrison, the Deeside Monitor Farmer answered his question, ‘Is finishing bulls at grass better or worse financially than finishing intensively?’
Finishing beef bulls at grass cuts costs
Duncan and Claire Morrison finish their mainly Stabiliser beef bulls at grass. The Summer 24 Open meeting shows how good grass management, supplementary feed and hitting the target at the abattoir are critical to profit.
-high feed prices can make indoor finishing expensive.
-Ingliston’s breeding bulls do well off grass and are at a good weight by 16 months.
-outdoor finishing has cut variable costs from £712/head to an estimated £377/head.
-estimated margins are £466 compared with £214/head, an additional return of £252/head
-key is rotational paddock grazing, moving every 2-3 days
-Duncan uses Farmax grazing software to plan rotations.
-swards must be high quality with good ME (12.7 MJ/kg at Ingliston in May
-sward protein is boosted by red and white clover (27% in May)
Duncan commented “I am really pleased with how this has gone, and the weight gain so far has been very good, so I am cautiously optimistic. But I would caveat this by adding that we are not finished yet and will need to see how they grade.”
| Timing | Feed | Av Weight |
| 200-day avg | Adlib silage & wholecrop | 273kg |
| Turnout 17th April | Grass fed + 1kg blend | 375kg |
| 12th June | Grass + 2kg blend | 484kg |
| 8th July | Grass +4kg blend | 540kg |
| Groups at turnout | Egg countper gramme | DLWG-pre worming | DLWG – post worming* |
| Light Group Below 350kg | 570 | 1.75kg | 2.21kg |
| Heavy GroupAbove 350kg | 330 | 2.02kg | 2.25kg |
Detailed costings (by Kirsten Williams, SAC)
| OUTPUT | 2023 | 2024 |
| Sale Value | | |
| 347kg @ 483p/kg | £1,676.01 | |
| 337kg @ 475p/kg | | £1,602.51 |
| | | |
| Less value @ weaning | | |
| 300kg @ 250p/kg | £750.00 | £750.00 |
| | | |
| TOTAL OUTPUT | £926.01 | £852.51 |
| | | |
| VARIABLE COSTS | | |
| Concentrates | £546.17 | £149.50 |
| Whole Crop@ £45/t | £113.00 | £0.00 |
| Whole Crop/Silage @ £40/t | £0.00 | £120.00 |
| Grass @ 6p/kg DM (70t) | £0.00 | £87.12 |
| Bedding Straw @ £12/bale | £51.25 | £28.75 |
| Vet & Medicines | £1.25 | £1.25 |
| Commission, haulage, levies | | |
| TOTAL VARIABLE COSTS | £711.67 | £386.62 |
| | | |
| GROSS MARGIN £/head | £214.34 | £465.89 |
