Forth Monitor Farm Celebrates Success and Plans for the Future

Projects to focus on in 2015, the final year of the Forth monitor farm’s three year term, were discussed at the recent meeting, along with a review of 2013/2014 ventures.

Monitor farmers Duncan McEwen and his son, also Duncan, hosted their first monitor farm meeting in November 2012, at Arnprior Farm, their 815 acre (330 ha) mixed unit, to the west of Stirling.

Arnprior Farm, one of the Scotland-wide network of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) monitor farms, supports a 60 head suckler herd, 640 breeding sheep and 200 acres (80 ha) of crops.

Keen to improve the Arnprior suckler herd returns, the 2013-born bull calves had been kept entire to trial a bull beef venture. All bulls were finished and sold (to ABP, Perth), by late autumn, (2014). Overall averages for the 25 bulls – Liveweight – 644 kgs, Slaughter Age – 14 months, Sale Price - £1,300, Gross Margin per head - £918.

“We’re certainly doing this again,” remarked Mr McEwen Junior. “The 2014 bull calves have not been castrated. Having learnt lessons with the first group, we’re keen to improve the performance of the current batch. In 2014 all calves, bulls and heifers, received creep feed from mid-August, with the aim of increasing weight gain and reducing their finishing time.”

Winter 2014/15, cows and calves were not housed until 30th November. “We decided to keep the cows out for as long as possible,” explained Mr McEwen Junior. “And we moved them to rough grazing in late October, to avoid damaging the grass we’d planned to graze tupped ewes on. While on the rough grazing, the calves continued to receive creep feed, but it seems that they gained very little weight in the five weeks prior to housing. We’ll know more when we weigh them at weaning.”

While on the rough grazing, the cows had received hay, and at the recent meeting looked in particularly good condition.

Changes have also been made to the recently expanded sheep enterprise. In the past the McEwens purchased breeding ewes. In 2014 they decided to breed their own, and bought 100 cast Cheviot ewes, which have been mated with an Aberfield (Texel X Bluefaced Leicester) tup, with the intention of retaining ewe lambs.

Last winter Mr McEwen Junior had spent several weeks in New Zealand, where he had been impressed with the combination of ease of management and good performance of the sheep. Consequently in autumn 2014, a SufTex TT (Terminal Texel) tup, a blend of Suffolk and Texel breeds, bred in Shropshire from New Zealand genetics, arrived at Arnprior. “We chose this tup on its functional traits and growth off grass,” commented Mr McEwen Junior. “And although the group have seen him, he was too far away for them to make any comments on how he looked, so they’re pretty keen to see how his lambs perform. We are too! And hopefully his progeny will inherit his comparatively narrow head and shoulders, helping them to be easily born.”

The main aim of Mr McEwen’s Antipodean trip had been to study New Zealand grassland management. Consequently in 2014, rotational grazing was introduced at Arnprior, with early results yielding improved pasture eating quality and stock performance.

“We sold 130 finished lambs straight off their mothers and weaned the remainder at 100 days, which is four weeks earlier than usual,” commented Mr McEwen Junior.

“We also learnt the benefit of red clover leys. We took two silage cuts off 25 acres, and then finished 300 lambs on the aftermath, with them averaging 330 grammes Daily Liveweight Gain. We would like to increase lamb performance to 400 grammes gain per day in 2015.”

An on-going group discussion topic has been the interior layout of a large 32m x 38m shed, a considerable distance from the McEwen’s main steading. This building has consequently received a “make over”. Cubicles have been removed, concrete dug out and sufficient, straw-bedded accommodation created to house all the McEwen’s cattle. There is now also a versatile area at the back, for stock handling, creep feeding and a calving area.

“With the change of layout, I was keen to check that ventilation within the shed was still good,” said Mr McEwen Junior. “So at the meeting, we ignited some smoke bombs, which showed us that even though the weather was relatively calm on the day, the smoke still dispersed well, instead of hanging within the shed.”

For the final year of the monitor farm term, the group agreed to aim to fine tune some of the main ventures which had been introduced over the previous two years, in particular bull beef, rotational grazing and grassland rejuvenation.  Additional suggested projects include blood testing of ewes to identify any deficiencies, animal nutrition, recording of grass growth and stock performance off grass, plus consideration of alternative beef genetics.Projects to focus on in 2015, the final year of the Forth monitor farm’s three year term, were discussed at the recent meeting, along with a review of 2013/2014 ventures.

Monitor farmers Duncan McEwen and his son, also Duncan, hosted their first monitor farm meeting in November 2012, at Arnprior Farm, their 815 acre (330 ha) mixed unit, to the west of Stirling.

Arnprior Farm, one of the Scotland-wide network of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) monitor farms, supports a 60 head suckler herd, 640 breeding sheep and 200 acres (80 ha) of crops.

Keen to improve the Arnprior suckler herd returns, the 2013-born bull calves had been kept entire to trial a bull beef venture. All bulls were finished and sold (to ABP, Perth), by late autumn, (2014). Overall averages for the 25 bulls – Liveweight – 644 kgs, Slaughter Age – 14 months, Sale Price - £1,300, Gross Margin per head - £918.

“We’re certainly doing this again,” remarked Mr McEwen Junior. “The 2014 bull calves have not been castrated. Having learnt lessons with the first group, we’re keen to improve the performance of the current batch. In 2014 all calves, bulls and heifers, received creep feed from mid-August, with the aim of increasing weight gain and reducing their finishing time.”

Winter 2014/15, cows and calves were not housed until 30th November. “We decided to keep the cows out for as long as possible,” explained Mr McEwen Junior. “And we moved them to rough grazing in late October, to avoid damaging the grass we’d planned to graze tupped ewes on. While on the rough grazing, the calves continued to receive creep feed, but it seems that they gained very little weight in the five weeks prior to housing. We’ll know more when we weigh them at weaning.”

While on the rough grazing, the cows had received hay, and at the recent meeting looked in particularly good condition.

Changes have also been made to the recently expanded sheep enterprise. In the past the McEwens purchased breeding ewes. In 2014 they decided to breed their own, and bought 100 cast Cheviot ewes, which have been mated with an Aberfield (Texel X Bluefaced Leicester) tup, with the intention of retaining ewe lambs.

Last winter Mr McEwen Junior had spent several weeks in New Zealand, where he had been impressed with the combination of ease of management and good performance of the sheep. Consequently in autumn 2014, a SufTex TT (Terminal Texel) tup, a blend of Suffolk and Texel breeds, bred in Shropshire from New Zealand genetics, arrived at Arnprior. “We chose this tup on its functional traits and growth off grass,” commented Mr McEwen Junior. “And although the group have seen him, he was too far away for them to make any comments on how he looked, so they’re pretty keen to see how his lambs perform. We are too! And hopefully his progeny will inherit his comparatively narrow head and shoulders, helping them to be easily born.”

The main aim of Mr McEwen’s Antipodean trip had been to study New Zealand grassland management. Consequently in 2014, rotational grazing was introduced at Arnprior, with early results yielding improved pasture eating quality and stock performance.

“We sold 130 finished lambs straight off their mothers and weaned the remainder at 100 days, which is four weeks earlier than usual,” commented Mr McEwen Junior.

“We also learnt the benefit of red clover leys. We took two silage cuts off 25 acres, and then finished 300 lambs on the aftermath, with them averaging 330 grammes Daily Liveweight Gain. We would like to increase lamb performance to 400 grammes gain per day in 2015.”

An on-going group discussion topic has been the interior layout of a large 32m x 38m shed, a considerable distance from the McEwen’s main steading. This building has consequently received a “make over”. Cubicles have been removed, concrete dug out and sufficient, straw-bedded accommodation created to house all the McEwen’s cattle. There is now also a versatile area at the back, for stock handling, creep feeding and a calving area.

“With the change of layout, I was keen to check that ventilation within the shed was still good,” said Mr McEwen Junior. “So at the meeting, we ignited some smoke bombs, which showed us that even though the weather was relatively calm on the day, the smoke still dispersed well, instead of hanging within the shed.”

For the final year of the monitor farm term, the group agreed to aim to fine tune some of the main ventures which had been introduced over the previous two years, in particular bull beef, rotational grazing and grassland rejuvenation.  Additional suggested projects include blood testing of ewes to identify any deficiencies, animal nutrition, recording of grass growth and stock performance off grass, plus consideration of alternative beef genetics.