Forage analysis, feed budgeting and flexibility helped the Strathspey Monitor Farm last winter, so what’s planned for this year?

For the Smith family, Strathspey Monitor Farmers, precise rationing used to be a way of life when they were dairy farmers. The results of any ration change could be seen almost instantly. But now they keep sucklers and produce stores, the impact of feed on performance is much less obvious, much less quickly.

However, as part of the Monitor Farm Scotland programme, a review of the Smith’s business identified that fine-tuning cattle rationing would help maximise stock performance and make best use of home-grown feed and forage. This time last year, they started working with SAC ruminant nutritionist Karen Stewart on a project which included feed budgeting, ration planning, data collection and looking at animal health and blood sampling pre-calving.

The Smiths – Malcolm, Sammie and their sons Calum and Hamish – keep 150 spring and autumn calving cows, put to Limousin and Shorthorn bulls. Cattle are split between the home farm at Auchernack near Grantown on Spey and a rented unit nearby, Congash.

The spring herd of about 100 cows is housed at weaning time in November, on a ration of silage and straw. After calving they are turned out to grass in May. Spring-born calves are housed at weaning on slats and on rationed silage and 3-4kg of a 4:1 mix of 34% protein pellet and barley, though last year this changed to a blend of protein and ALpHA treated barley (a urea and enzyme treatment which increases protein levels and also makes the grain alkaline, so kinder to the rumen). They are weighed throughout winter and sold at 12-14 months old from the shed.

The autumn herd is also housed at weaning time in November, and are on silage and straw pre-calving. After calving they are offered 1kg barley/head along with about 35kg (ad-lib) silage. Cows and calves are turned out in February on a 16ha (40-acre) wooded area when calves are introduced to creep feed. These cows are heavier than the spring herd, averaging 790kg, compared with the spring herd’s 650kg.

With a range of ages and weights of stock – and a winter that can sometimes be longer than anticipated – feed budgeting is key, says Karen. This starts with analysing forage: “It’s crucial to know your forage quality to make best use of home-grown feeds.”

Analysing silage for dry matter and feed value, weighing silage bales and measuring pits at Auchernack and Congash showed what was ‘in stock’. Then the different groups of cattle (how many in each group, weights, requirements and feeding days) were added in, and a feed budget calculated, she explains [more detail on this here: https://bit.ly/strathspey24].

“The forage and feed budgeting spreadsheet is best used as a live document, so regularly updated. That way we can ensure rations are being fed in line with the forage and feeds that are available. It’s also really useful if you have a longer than expected winter, for example. A second forage ‘stock-take’ half way through winter is recommended, and means the Smiths can take action earlier if forage is looking short to prevent sudden ration changes at key times such as calving.”

One pit was resampled in February; the analysis showed a higher energy and lower DM than the initial sample from October which was a core sample, so rations were recalculated on that basis. “Throughout a pit there will be different fields and areas of varying quality and dry matter, and it is important to act on these changes. Malcolm is very good at spotting changes in dry matter and the cattle soon tell you as well when they take longer to clear up their feed if it is drier.”

She adds that matching the forage to the cattle was not straightforward as the Auchernack pit was opened first and fed along with some drier bales. “Bales are hard to manage in rationing as they vary in composition and weight depending on their batch and a whole bale is needed - it is harder to split bales for putting into the mixer wagon.”

Rations were tweaked throughout the winter, prompted by discussions between Malcolm and Karen looking at the feed budget and cattle performance. She says: “I think quite a lot of people feed the same ration throughout winter, but when you have to change batches of bales or a different pit, for instance, it is important to make sure the ration still meets cattle requirements. A change in the wrong direction doesn’t have an impact over days or weeks, but over longer periods it can be significant in terms of cows gaining or losing too much condition or youngstock not meeting weight gain targets.”

Like many farmers last year, the Smiths had an issue with pneumonia in their spring-born calves just after housing, with 80 calves being treated. This hit weight gain significantly, reducing them to 0.6-0.7kg/day during the outbreak, compared with 1kg/day typically, though it increased to 1.2kg/day when they recovered.

“With a lifetime weight gain of just under 1kg/day, there is scope to improve weight gains to weaning. Checking calf weaning weights, adjusted to 200 days, to see how individual dams are performing and looking at the quality of the grazing fields will help see where improvements can be made.

“In addition to checking nutrition when cattle aren’t performing, issues such as health, ventilation, being on slats and having enough feed space can have a big effect. For the Smiths there are some changes to the sheds that would help with ventilation and pneumonia risk, as would giving a pneumonia vaccine,” she says.

Time and logistics are issues facing the Smiths; the spring-calving cows are housed a few miles away at Congash and were fed every two days to save time and fuel, but this makes it harder to restrict the ration. Adding straw helped bulk it up and make the feed last longer without dropping overall protein too far. Malcolm felt some cows were still a bit over-conditioned at calving, while younger, leaner cows were separated from the rest and given 1kg of barley in addition to forage for six weeks to bring them back up in condition. This year, the aim is to condition score the herd at housing, grouping cows for separate rationing as early as possible and if possible feed them every day.

“Overall, there was a little more silage used this year, due to the youngstock having better access to the forage all day and night. In previous years, Malcolm and Calum thought that the spring- and autumn-born calves cleared up silage by early evening, leaving 10 hours of missed feeding opportunity.”

However, the Smiths used 16t less barley overwinter to achieve similar weight gains, saving £2,880 with barley costed at £180/t, says Malcolm. “The feeding recommendations have saved us a lot, and if the calves had not had the pneumonia outbreak, the weight gains would have been better too.”

The youngstock at Congash benefitted from silage being as adlib as possible, and Karen suggests the Smiths could look at whether feeding more, getting higher weight gains and selling a couple of months younger would be worthwhile. “For example, feeding an extra 1kg of barley has the potential to gain an extra 0.2kg/day which would give value of an extra 43p/day/animal after extra feed costs if store cattle price was £3.20/kg.

“However, there are a few factors to consider; would store buyers want them heavier or fatter, would their pence per kilogram drop? Would they reach this potential extra weight gain if there are other limiting factors such as shed ventilation and health challenges such as pneumonia? Could they reach higher gains without extra barley by having less of a health challenge/weaning check?”

Malcolm says: “It has been brilliant working with Karen. It was good to get back to proper rationing, like when I was dairying and worked with nutritionists all the time. It has been great to have the information at our fingertips, and this autumn and winter, we are looking to maximise nutrition and livestock health.”

Watch the Strathspey Monitor Farm intro video: https://bit.ly/Strathspeyvideo