Lower Highfield Blog – latest news from the farm

Hi, I’m Michelle Fare the facilitator for Lower Highfield Farm.

I was brought up on my family’s dairy farm on the Fylde, and studied agriculture at Newcastle University. I’ve worked for the Farmers Guardian, Genus ABS and Lancashire County Council as part of the Trading Standards Animal Health team. I started at Myerscough at the end of March 2010.

Malcolm and Judith Sanderson’s enthusiasm for what they do is so refreshing. They are committed to getting the best out of being a monitor farm by encouraging others to benefit from the experience too.

I’ll be posting updates below as the meetings progress – please contact me at Myerscough College on 01995 642206 for further information on how you can join in…

The Lancashire beef and sheep monitor farm saw the best attendance yet for a business group meeting with 37 farmers coming along to hear independent sheep specialist Lesley Stubbings feedback the results of the trace element trial, which has been ongoing since the start of the project in 2009.

The latest news and savings
I started with a quick round up of the last meeting in November where we looked at soil testing and nutrient management in more detail, and the plan for Lower Highfield this summer in terms of where it would be most beneficial and cost effective to apply slurry and artificial fertiliser.

I also included an interesting snippet which provides another example of how Malcolm and Judith are making direct savings at Lower Highfield as a result of being the monitor farm.

In the past Malcolm has always fed his twin and triplet bearing ewes with concentrate six weeks prior to lambing. The silage has always been tested but, like many of you I would imagine, Malcolm admits that he never actually used the silage analysis in developing his winter feeding programme and just filed it away in a drawer!

This year the first cut big bale silage analysed very well (reflecting the improvements that have been made to the grassland) – 72% D value, 11.5 MJ/kg ME and CP 16.14%, and so following advice from his feed rep, Malcolm made the decision to start feeding the twin-bearing ewes in the early lambing group only three weeks prior to lambing as opposed to six.

Using this information I calculated how much had been saved
• 69 ewes carrying twins fed approx 0.5kg/day
• Costs per day = 69 x 11p (based on feed price of £224/t) = £7.59
• Cost to feed for six weeks = £319
• Cost to feed for three weeks = £159
• Savings made = £160

It must be remembered that this saving is only based on the early-lambing group, obviously the savings will be much greater for the main flock and this will also be worked out in due course.

Some background
When Malcolm and Judith first embarked on the monitor farm project in 2009 they had a comprehensive health plan carried out for all the livestock on the farm.

One of the issues raised in the plan was that of low lamb growth rates, particularly after weaning. In addition to this the pattern of sales showed that there were still lambs on the farm in the autumn which should ideally have been finished and sold.

To try and overcome this problem Malcolm and Judith had been treating lambs on a regular basis with a liquid drench and cobalt B12 as trace element deficiency was thought to be the limiting factor, but they were keen to explore whether or not this was necessary and what effect it was actually having on performance.

Trace elements and what they do
Lesley opened with a quick run-down of the main trace elements affecting livestock health:

• Copper – an essential component of lots of enzymes in the body. Deficiency in lambs leads to swayback due to damage during the development of the spinal cord. Copper is the only element which is stored in the body for any length of time with excess being stored in the liver.
If copper levels build up too much toxicity can be a problem and may prove fatal, particularly in certain breeds such as the Texel. It is therefore important that trace elements are only given when there is a deficiency as excess supplementation with copper could prove fatal.

• Selenium / Vitamin E – these two elements work together and play a key role in the immune system. Within a reasonable range a deficiency in one can be compensated for by the other i.e. if diet low in vitamin E the requirements for selenium are increased and vice versa. Deficiency can lead to the degenerative muscle disorder white muscle disease, as well as ill thrift/loss of vigour in growing lambs and fertility issues in older sheep.

• Iodine – a component of the hormone thyroxin which helps control energy metabolism in the body, and also essential for foetal growth. Deficiency can cause a lack of vigour and mortality in new born lambs.

• Cobalt – used by the rumen bugs to manufacture vitamin B12. A deficiency of cobalt, and hence B12 can cause poor growth rates in weaned lambs, a condition often referred to as pine.
It effectively induces anorexia in the lamb so they have a suppressed appetite which reduces growth rates and can also suppress immune function leaving lambs more susceptible to problems with worms, fluke etc. Deficiency is unlikely in young lambs as they receive an adequate supply in their mother’s milk and have a low requirement for B12. Cobalt is not stored in the body so a steady supply is required.

Soil testing
Tests showed that copper levels were low but in the majority of cases iron, sulphur and molybdenum were OK. Cobalt levels were normal in all cases and zinc was low but not deficient. From this information it could be concluded that there were no real trace element deficiencies in the soil and theoretically there is no need to treat stock.

However Lesley pointed out that these results are misleading and it is not advisable to make a decision based on these results alone.

Forage testing
Again these results were quite varied and inconclusive. Copper was found to be low in both clamp and big bale silage, with cobalt low in big bales and marginal in clamp silage. Selenium levels were fine in both. Tests on the tupping grass in autumn showed low levels of copper, cobalt and selenium although this is not surprising given that autumn grass is not growing much and is less likely to be taking up trace elements from the soil.

Blood and liver tests
When the initial health plan was written blood tests on a group of ewes found the levels of copper, cobalt and selenium in the blood to be fine. The ewes were blood tested again prior to lambing in 2011 and again were found to be OK with levels of trace elements all above the deficiency level.

Some lambs were blood tested in April 2010 – cobalt levels in four of the six lambs were marginal/low, copper was just above the minimum and selenium was fine. A group of lambs were tested again in July of the same year following treatment – copper and selenium levels were fine but cobalt was marginal in 11 of the 12 lambs.

This was despite the lambs being treated either with a liquid drench or bolus. Lesley did point out to the group that the cobalt levels quoted by VLA for reference are actually the levels below which cobalt is classed as being deficient. The level required for maximum performance is actually double this figure! In addition to this blood serum levels only provide an indicator of levels over a short duration of time.

Last year’s trial
Lesley then quickly summarized the rudimentary trial that took place at Lower Highfield last summer whereby lambs were treated either with a Cosecure bolus (copper, selenium, cobalt) or a liquid drench.

However the results were found to be inconclusive as blood levels showed there to be no difference between the groups before or after treatment. The trial did prove useful in creating a lot of discussion though and this year more consideration was given to when treatments should be given, what treatments should be given, what was actually being measured in terms of lamb performance and also having a small untreated group to act as a comparative control.

Trial 2011
Lesley worked closely with Lower Highfield’s vet Mike Bevan and used this information to design a trial for 2011 whereby the effect of different trace elements on lamb performance was monitored in addition to the cost effectiveness of each treatment.

It was decided that the lambs to be treated would be those born within a similar time frame, with the bulk of those in the trial being born in March. In total 581 lambs were entered into the trial with lambs randomly being assigned to one of four treatment groups:

1) Cobalt bolus – 120 lambs
2) Cobalt bolus + selenium/iodine bolus – 124 lambs
3) Cobalt bolus + selenium/iodine bolus + copper bolus – 157 lambs
4) Liquid drench (liquithrive) – 160 lambs
5) A control group of 20 lambs were left untreated. (Malcolm did admit that he tended to pick the better and bigger lambs as the controls which is understandable)

All of the lambs were weighed at regular intervals throughout the trial and data was collected for each lamb including date of birth, treatment, all weights, sale date and weight.

Due to the regular weighing it was possible for Malcolm and Judith to detect when growth rates altered significantly, as was the case early in September.

The decision was made at this point to drench any lambs left which were a long way off being sold in order to try and kick start the lambs into action and achieve the overall objective of getting the lambs finished as quickly as possible. These extra treatments were accounted for in the overall costs of each treatment group.

Cost of treatment
Lesley calculated the total cost per lamb of each treatment as shown in the table.

Obviously from this table the cobalt bolus alone is the cheapest treatment but does this give the best results in terms of lamb performance?

Lamb growth rates
Lesley produced the following graph from the weights taken (see Graph 1: Lamb Growth Rates)

The time periods along the bottom axis (1-5) related to the periods of time between treatment and sale. The highest growth rates are seen during period 1 which is prior to weaning when the treatments were administered (late May, lambs approx eight weeks old). Period 2 shows how growth rates start to drop as the lambs get older and start to rely more on grass and less on their mothers. Weaning took place towards the end of period 2 (mid-late July) and from this point there was a noticeable growth check which would be expected anyway at weaning time. The lowest growth rates were seen in period 5 which relates to early September when further treatments were given to give the lambs a lift.

Lesley purposely did not reveal the identity of the groups at this point as she wanted the group to have the discussion and see whether or not they could predict which was which. The black line represents the untreated control group and unsurprisingly this is the group that shows the greatest reduction in growth rate at weaning.

There is really nothing to show between the other four treated groups which give the impression that treatment does have a positive effect on growth rates.

The identity of each treatment group was then revealed:

Red – cobalt bolus
Green – cobalt bolus + selenium/iodine bolus
Purple – cobalt bolus + selenium/iodine bolus + copper bolus
Blue – liquid drench

Lamb sales
Lesley then focussed on the performance of the lambs in terms of when they were sold:

Again there is no significant difference between the treated groups, but the control group show a significant check in growth rates just after weaning. This provides more supporting evidence towards the fact that treatment has a positive effect on growth rates.

Lesley analysed the data further by calculating the percentage of lambs in each group that were sold by the end of August.

Conclusion
Lesley concluded that from the evidence we collected during the trial that there has been a MARGINAL response to cobalt. All the treatments showed a positive response in terms of lamb growth above the untreated control group and cobalt was the common element in all the treatments. However it must be remembered that the control group were only a very small proportion of the lambs and for any future trials a larger control group would be advised. In addition to this Lesley felt that the growth check seen at weaning in all the groups is greater than she would expect and that the potential response to treatment could be better.

More on cobalt
There are other factors which can affect the availability of cobalt to livestock:

Positive factors
1) Forage legumes such as clover tend to take up a higher proportion of trace elements from the soil so the more of these plants that are in the sward the better the trace element content of the forage in general.
2) At higher stocking rates the sward will be grazed more closely and the greater the chance of some soil being ingested along with forage. Soils tend to be rich in trace elements and whilst Lesley does not advocate feeding your sheep soil a small amount in the diet will do no harm.

Negative factors
1) High soil pH will inhibit the uptake of trace elements from the soil by growing plants.
2) A low stocking rate will mean that the sward is not grazed as closely and there is a reduced chance of nutrient-rich soil being ingested.
3) High concentrate intake will cause increased levels of propionic acid in the rumen. This must be broken down by vitamin B12 which is produced from cobalt in the diet.

Cobalt is usually supplied in concentrate feed so deficiency is rarely a problem in creep-fed lambs. However Lesley did mention that some feed merchants have removed cobalt from feed due to concerns over carcinogens in cobalt powder so it is something that would be worthwhile asking your feed rep about, particularly if you have concerns over a cobalt deficiency on your farm.

Trace elements are just a small part of the story…

Increasing the number of lambs sold by the end of August is one of Malcolm and Judith’s primary objectives and Lesley produced a graph to illustrate how this has altered over the last 3 years, with 62% of 2011-born lambs being sold by then compared to only 40% back in 2009. However Lesley was very keen to point out that Malcolm and Judith have made a number of positive changes in that time which will all have contributed towards this.

>>Quality of forage – Malcolm and Judith have continued with their reseeding and over seeding policy to introduce improved species of grass and clover. Increased quality and quantity of grazing = increased growth rates due to milkier ewes and more grazing for lambs. In addition to this more clover has been introduced which is a better source of trace elements than grass alone.

>>More effective worm control – Malcolm and Judith altered their worming policy last year based on the results of a trial using faecal egg counting to test the efficacy of different wormers and whether or not there was resistance. As worms can reduce growth rates by 50% with no clinical signs, a more effective wormer will reduce the worm burden and growth rates will not be suppressed.

>> Reduction in lameness – Malcolm started using a foot rot vaccine early in the programme and this seems to have virtually eliminated lameness in ewes and lambs. Obviously lameness will have a negative impact on growth rates.

>>Use of high EBV tups in the breeding programme – initially two recorded Suffolk tups with high EBVs were purchased and the results showed that lambs seemed to finish marginally quicker on average. Since then more Suffolks have been purchased for use on the early lambing ewes and some Texels for the main flock to help improve lamb growth further.

What next?
The burning question – what should Malcolm and Judith do with this year’s lambs? It would seem that treatment with cobalt would be the best way forward, and also the cheapest, but what method of supplementation should be used?

Treatment of pastures with cobalt sulphate is an option but how long will it last? Ideally a vitamin B12 injection would be the cheapest method of supplementation, but as cobalt is not stored in the body this would need repeating every 7-10 days which is obviously very time and labour intensive. The possibility of a long-acting B12 injection dose is going to be investigated.

The question was also raised about when the lambs should be treated. Should they be left until weaning when they are no longer receiving any B12 from their mother’s milk and are totally reliant on forage?

The evidence from this trial points towards the fact that supplementation is required once the lambs start ruminating and before they are solely dependent on grass, particularly if a bolus is being used as it will take a few weeks before the cobalt is actually released into the rumen.

However is eight weeks too young to be putting a bolus in a lamb? A representative from Animax was present at the meeting and he felt that 12 weeks would be the earliest time that a bolus could be administered for best effectiveness. Should these lambs be treated initially with a liquid drench and then followed up with a bolus at 12 weeks?

Lesley still feels that copper may be an issue limiting lamb growth at Lower Highfield and she is keen that we continue monitoring this through post-mortem liver sampling.

Take home messages

>> Trace elements are complex and can interact with one another causing induced deficiencies if there is an excess of one element or vice versa.

>> Soil tests and forage analysis can be misleading and must only be used as a guide and in combination with results of blood and liver tests.

>> Every farm is different and it is important that deficiencies are actually identified before trace element supplements are administered. Following supplementary treatment the response should be monitored to determine whether or not treatment is worthwhile.

>> Trace element deficiencies can limit lamb performance, but there are many other factors to take into consideration which affect performance and it is important not to concentrate solely on just one.

The next meeting will be late April/early May when everyone has finished lambing. More details to follow nearer the time.

Just as a quick closing comment, following the meeting I had a telephone call from a farmer that had attended the meeting and after lots of thought and consideration had a couple of questions for me. The first was with regard to the results of the forage tests and levels of other elements such as manganese, iron and aluminium. We had quite a long discussion about how all the elements act together, namely molybdenum and copper and manganese and cobalt.

The second question was with regard to the number of lambs left in each group at weaning time. I have managed to work this out from the information in the spreadsheet and have calculated the percentage of lambs in each group that were sold on or before July 11th (the date when weaning started):

Now that we have left summer well and truly behind our thoughts at Lower Highfield have turned towards planning for next spring and more specifically how we can get the best out of the grass to optimise returns from the stock.

This focus provided the topic for the latest meeting of the monitor farm business group – nutrient management planning and grassland utilisation, but more importantly perhaps the financial impact of any changes that could be made to the existing policy.

As with all our winter meetings, the cafe at Lancaster Auction provided a warm and dry venue (as well as an excellent supper) and we welcomed 20 local farmers to hear the evening’s speakers, Andy Taylor from Promar and Liz Genever from Eblex.

I kicked off proceedings with a quick update of the latest goings-on at Lower Highfield:

 Excellent turn-out for the annual Open Day with many new faces.
 Lamb sales – only 29 lambs left to sell now, which compares very favourably with the last two years. Three loads of lambs have been sold through Dunbia on a deadweight basis providing invaluable feedback in terms of carcass conformation.
 Early lambing group – following consultation with Lesley Stubbings the decision was made back in August to sponge a group of ewes for early lambing. 131 ewes were sponged and put to the Suffolk tups for 21 days. These ewes have since been scanned and 113 of them are in-lamb to start lambing in the last week of January. Those ewes scanned not in-lamb have been tupped with the Texel along with the main flock for lambing mid-March.
 Trace element trial – all the information is now being processed by Lesley Stubbings and a meeting to feedback these results is planned for Wednesday 11th January (evening meeting at the auction).

Andy Taylor is the Promar consultant working with Malcolm and Judith on their nutrient management plan. Andy has only actually been working with Malcolm for less than a week, as it was a different advisor that carried out the initial plan at Lower Highfield, so he is still getting to grips with the system and the history in terms of soil testing and nutrient applications.

The importance of soil testing

Andy started with the basics of nutrient planning – testing your soil to find out what is already there in terms of pH, P, K and Mg, and working out how much slurry and/or FYM you have available.

The industry standard for fertiliser recommendations RB 209 can then be used to calculate exactly what you should be applying to each field to meet the requirements for the particular crop being grown there. This process can be made much simpler through the use of an electronic planning programme, such as PLANET, which Andy is currently in the process of setting up at Lower Highfield.

Slurry application – which method is best?

Andy then looked in more detail at the different methods used for applying slurry and the potential savings which could be made by using a different spreading method.

Currently Malcolm spreads all slurry on the farm himself using a tanker with splash plate. Application with a trailing shoe, whereby the slurry is placed directly onto the soil between the grass plants, was looked at as a comparison.

Research has shown that for slurry applied using a splash plate only 35% of the nitrogen in that slurry is actually made available for utilisation by the plant, with the rest (up to 65%) being lost to the environment through volatilisation. If a trailing shoe is used then up to 50% of the nitrogen is available.

If there are three units of nitrogen available per cubic metre of slurry and 23 cubic metres applied per hectare (equal to 2000 gallons/acre) the table below shows how much available nitrogen will be applied using each method:

With each N unit costing in the region of £1-£1.20 the extra nitrogen saved by applying slurry with a trailing shoe as opposed to a splash plate equates to approximately £11/ha or £4.70 per acre (at an application rate of 2000 gallons/acre).

This then lead onto quite a discussion about the pros and cons of different methods of slurry application. The best method of application as far as reducing nitrogen losses goes is shallow injection. However Andy pointed out that the process of slurry injection has been known to kill clover as the knives can cut through the creeping tap roots. A dribble bar is a useful alternative to injection as this places the slurry much closer to the soil but not actually in it.

In terms of whether or not it makes more financial sense to employ a contractor with a trailing shoe applicator there are so many variables that would need to be taken into consideration – size of tanker, value of Malcolm’s time, cost of diesel used, distance being covered etc. However this would certainly be worth looking into at a later date.

What is manure worth?

Liz added to this with some standard figures for the value of slurry and FYM based on the average nutritional composition, with 50 cubic metres of slurry being worth £168 and 20 tonnes FYM £134.

However it must be remembered that these are only standard values and the manure on each farm will differ according to the diet being fed to the livestock and the way in which the slurry is stored. Therefore it is worth getting slurry analysed on an individual farm basis to find the exact value.

Water in your slurry store is costing you money!

Andy spoke about the dry matter value of slurry, as this will have an impact on the nutritive value of the product ie. the drier the slurry the more concentrated the nutrients will be.

On many farms the slurry store contains an awful lot of water as well as the slurry due to open stores and surface water draining in, but Andy questioned whether this can be reduced in any way. To put this into perspective Andy calculated that it costs £2 just to spread 1 cubic metre of slurry so obviously the more water that is collected in the slurry tank the greater the cost of spreading.

What’s your dry matter?

To gauge how much water there is in your slurry, and hence the estimated dry matter content, have a look at your slurry to see which of the following categories it falls into:
2% DM – thin soup
6% DM – medium soup
10% DM – porridge

Suggestions to reduce water in the slurry store:
 Divert all downspouts to a clean water drain
 Intercept any water running off tracks and out of fields with a grid or sleeping policeman and divert to clean water drain.
 Roof over any dirty yards where possible and divert rainwater to a clean drain (may be grants available to help with this)

Lack of slurry a problem

Although many of the farmers at the meeting appreciated the value of slurry, lack of this valuable resource is often an issue on beef and sheep farms, particularly on those with small numbers of cattle.

A discussion was initiated among the group as to the potential for importing slurry from local dairy farms as they often have a surplus. This is certainly a possibility, although as many of the farmers present are not in an NVZ there are not the same problems locally with nitrogen loading.

Another issue raised was the cost of transporting the slurry in terms of both travel/diesel and time. This is something that would have to be costed out on an individual basis for each farm depending on their locality.

Nutrient management at Lower Highfield?

Andy then went on to discuss what changes have been made so far in terms of nutrient management at Lower Highfield. When the soil was tested at the beginning of the programme in 2009 only about one fifth of the fields were at the optimum pH of between 6 and 6.5. Research has shown that at a soil pH of 5.5, grass yield will be reduced by 8%, as the pH affects nutrient availability to the growing plant.

Liming

Malcolm and Judith addressed this immediately by applying a granular lime to help bring the pH up to the optimum level. In addition to this they continued applying paper waste when reseeding any pastures as this has a liming effect and may also help to improve soil structure. More recent soil tests have shown that the liming has had the desired effect of increasing the pH.

However Andy commented that the future liming policy should perhaps make more use of ground limestone as opposed to prilled calcifert as this is a cheaper product and will also produce a longer-lasting liming effect.

Fertiliser savings

There has also been a move away from using a standard 25:5:5 fertiliser on all the land at Lower Highfield, to using straight nitrogen (calcium ammonium nitrate) on the grazing ground. Andy calculated that this will have produced savings of £78 per tonne.

A quick straw poll of the group revealed that most farmers still use either 25:5:5 or 20:10:10, and further questioning showed the main reason to be because this is what has always been used. This brought back to me a comment that Malcolm made right at the beginning of the programme when he first signed up as the monitor farm – “We keep doing the same things each year… because that’s how we’ve always done it. We would like to know if we can improve what we are doing.” I think that everyone will agree that Malcolm and Judith have certainly tried plenty of new ways of doing things in the last couple of years and that these small changes can produce large benefits, particularly over a long period of time.

What for the future?
 Take more soil samples this winter to give a more up-to-date indication of the soil nutrient status and in particular pH. Continue liming if needed.
 Test slurry to get a better idea of the nutritive value.
 Make more use of the slurry and utilise it on the soil with lower P & K indices. Instead of applying 1000 gallons/acre across as many fields as possible Andy suggested applying 2000 gallons/acre wherever possible and directing it towards the silage fields which have greater off-take of nutrients with the cut grass.
 Investigate the possibility of using a different fertiliser after cutting, such as 20:0:16 instead of 25:5:5. All of the cutting fields at Lower Highfield (and the majority of the grazing land) has a P index of 2 or 3 and so there is no need to be applying any P in the form of artificial fertiliser as it will increase the risk of environmental pollution.

However in terms of the K index almost half the fields are at an index of 1, so in those fields were the grass is being cut this K needs to be replaced either through fertiliser or slurry. In the past Malcolm and Judith have been trying to build up the K indices on those fields that were below the optimum of 2. However Andy pointed out that it takes up to 10 years to increase the index by just one point so in the case of Lower Highfield where there is sufficient grass being grown already to support the livestock would it make more financial sense to use just straight nitrogen and potash along with a more directed approach to slurry application on the cutting fields and just keep the K index at crop maintenance level? Just a bit of food for thought!

Top Tip
Test your soils regularly – at least once every four years – so you know what you are dealing with and where improvements need to be made. This information, along with industry fertiliser recommendations, can be used to work out exactly what extra fertiliser is required.

Andy finished off with a quick mention of the nutrient management planning service offered by Promar through the RDPE Livestock Northwest Programme. For more information see our support and grants page >>>

Reseeding and overseeding – has it been financially beneficial?
Liz Genever from EBLEX then spoke about forage improvement and the financial benefits of the reseeding and overseeding employed at Lower Highfield.

Healthy soil to produce healthy crops and healthy animals
The aim of all livestock farmers is the same – to produce meat efficiently through the effective utilisation and conversion of grass.

In order for the soil to be healthy and produce the maximum yields of grass possible the target indices are: pH 6-6.5; P 2; K 2-; Mg 2. By managing the nutrient status of the soil, forage growth is maximised which is needed for animal performance and perhaps more importantly to allow the concentrate cost to be reduced as less supplementary feed needs to be bought in.

Soil compaction
To determine whether your soils are compacted, and hence less healthy, it is necessary to dig a hole in the field (50cm square by 40cm deep) and see if there is any evidence of panning. The presence of a range of earthworms is also a good indication of a healthy aerated soil.

To put a financial perspective on this Liz showed a couple of charts comparing the grass quantity and quality in a good soil and a soil with moderate compaction.

When the difference in energy is taken into consideration and multiplied up on a per hectare basis the energy difference between the two soils equates to 35,000 MJ/ha. This energy is sufficient to sustain 700kg of liveweight gain which at £1.80/kg adds up to £1,260/ha. And that is only the effect seen on a field with moderate soil compaction – it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the effects will be much greater where soils are badly compacted.

Is there a cost-benefit to reseeding?
This is certainly the million dollar question – and something that both myself and Malcolm and Judith were thinking about throughout the summer when I was taking grass measurements on a fortnightly basis! The first measurements were taken at the end of April and from then fortnightly until mid August, from exclusion cages placed in Little Pasture (reseeded July 2010), Lower Fiddle Case (overseeded autumn 2010) and Upper Fiddle Case (permanent pasture). The aim of the exercise was to measure grass growth over this period and then Liz calculated the DM produced per hectare in each field.

The graph clearly shows that Little Pasture started growing more quickly in the spring (although fertiliser was applied earlier to this field).

In terms of the cumulative yield (t DM/ha):
Upper Fiddle Case yielded 5,368t
Lower Fiddle Case 6,274t – 17% increase over permanent pasture
Little Pasture 8,142t – 52% increase over permanent pasture

However yield is only part of the story – in order to work out whether or not Malcolm and Judith have benefitted from the extra grass yield due to reseeding and overseeding it is necessary to look at the costs associated with both processes in terms of spraying, rotavation, rolling and harrowing, drilling, seed, and fertiliser. From this total cost Liz then subtracted the fertiliser cost for the permanent pasture so the costs could be compared, and divided the costs over 5 years. As the growth measurements only covered a portion of the growing season (approximately 75%) the costs were multiplied by 0.75 and then divided by the total DM yield.

From the information above it is quite clear that in this particular case a total reseed has been the most financially beneficial option. However if you cast your minds back to the meeting we had last summer where we all walked down and assessed Lower Fiddle Case, the group made the decision that overseeding would be the best option based on the fact that the land is only rented on a summer grazing agreement and due to the geography of the land ploughing would not be a viable option.

 Just to put the costs into perspective the comparative cost of concentrate feed is in the region of 23p/kg DM, so even at 3p/kg for a reseed, forage is still the cheapest form of feed available.

Further benefits
The performance of the stock grazing the fields must also be taken in to account when calculating the cost-benefit. With all lamb weights being regularly monitored at Lower Highfield it is easy to identify any trends over the growing season. Malcolm and Judith did notice over the summer that those lambs grazing on Fiddle Case (both Upper and Lower) were not growing as rapidly as lambs grazing other pastures and hence did not reach target sale weights as quickly. This again could be due to the fact that the grass did not get as good a start in the early growing season due to delays with fertiliser application, but it must be taken into account when deciding on future policies for grassland improvement.

Optimising utilisation
Whilst Malcolm and Judith are certainly making many positive changes to their grassland management in order to increase the yields they are getting from the land available, optimising the way in which this forage is actually utilised is very important in increasing overall profitability.

Match feed supply and feed demand
Liz discussed how grass growth over the season should ideally be matched with the DM requirements of the stock on the farm to get the most from it. Whereas the demand of cattle for forage remains fairly constant and steady throughout the year, the requirements of the sheep will vary according to stage of gestation – increased demand immediately prior to tupping and also after lambing. Grazed forage is the cheapest form of feed available so if the maximum number of sheep and lambs are out at grass during the peak growing season of May and June then it will save grass being wasted or excess having to be cut for conservation.

If forage is managed properly and not allowed to go to seed then the quality of the grass in terms of protein and energy will alter very little and can be maintained over the entire growing season. However due to the DM content of forage being lower in the early spring and autumn it becomes impossible for livestock to consume sufficient bulk to meet their requirements for energy and protein. Hence this is the time when supplements are usually given.

Obviously this is all well and good in theory but in practice every farm is different and some may have difficulty in achieving optimum usage.

Quite a discussion was had with the group about how this could be achieved in different ways. Liz commented that rotational grazing can increase forage yields by up to 20% due to the plant having a rest period in which to recover. However this method of grazing is not always easy to manage, particularly on beef and sheep farms where stock are traditionally set-stocked and can be away from the main holding.

One group member described a version of rotational grazing that he uses whereby the most valuable stock are allowed to graze a field first and pick out the best forage, and then other stock of lower value are brought in later to clean up the rest of the grass. This often works well if sheep are allowed the first grazing as they are picky eaters and like a relatively even sward in terms of grass height. Once the sheep have grazed a sward down it can be rested and then cattle brought in to eat the rest.

The meeting concluded with a short presentation by Anthony Hunt, Malcolm and Judith’s fertiliser rep. He spoke about some recent research carried out into the effects of two new products on the market – Avail and Nutri-Sphere N.

Conclusion
 Use soil sampling to find out the nutrition al status of your soils and then match the fertiliser/slurry accordingly.
 For any soils with a pH below 6-6.5 apply ground limestone to bring the pH to target levels.
 If soil indices for P & K are at target levels there is no need to apply more in the fertiliser, unless the field is used for silage in which case slurry should be applied to replace the potash removed with the crop.
 Grazing fields should not need any manure applying to them – save this valuable resource for your cutting ground.
 Try to avoid excess water entering your slurry store as it increases spreading cost and reduces the nutrient concentration in the slurry.
 Reseeding proved to be the most financially beneficial option at Lower Highfield, but the decision to reseed or overseed depends on the individual farm and their own circumstances.
 Utilisation of forage can be optimised by matching supply and demand as closely as possible. This may be achieved through rotational grazing or a similar concept but again depends on the farm and individual system.

Date for the diary – the next meeting is planned for the evening of Wednesday 11th January at Lancaster Auction with guest speaker Lesley Stubbings. Lesley will be focussing on the trace element trial which has been carried out at Lower Highfield this year to determine the most cost effective way of treating trace element deficiency in the sheep, and looking at the results that we have collected. It will certainly be an interesting one so if you would like to come along please contact me on 01995 642206 and book your place.

The meeting will focus on the financial impact of the changes that have been made at the farm in terms of improving the soil and grassland and changes to the fertiliser policy.

I am aware that most of the grassland meetings we have had so far have concentrated more on what has been done practically at Lower Highfield and looking at the physical effects out in the field. As many of you will be thinking about buying your fertiliser now for next year I wanted to have a meeting which focussed more on planning your fertiliser applications to match the needs of your farm and the potential savings which could be made.

The speakers for the evening will be Andy Taylor from Promar talking about the benefits of nutrient planning and the improvements seen at Lower Highfield. Liz Genever from EBLEX will be looking at the results of this summer’s grass measuring exercise and discussing the financial impact of reseeding and overseeding.

The meeting will be held in the cafe at Lancaster Auction Mart on Thursday, November 24th and will start at 6.30pm prompt, so if you could please arrive before then for coffee and registration it would be much appreciated.

There will be a free hot pot supper provided for all attendees following the meeting therefore booking is essential. Please contact me either by phone on 01995 642206 or email mfare@myerscough.ac.uk

The annual Open Day at Malcolm and Judith’s was a great success, welcoming over 60 farmers to Lower Highfield Farm to hear more about what has been happening over the past 12 months.

The purpose of the day was to review the changes made at the farm and the effects that these have had on the performance of the enterprises. It was great to see so many new faces, and judging by the number of questions being asked and discussions being had everyone found the day to be interesting and informative. The day involved four different speakers with each one focussing on a different aspect of the farm.

EID
At the beginning of the programme Malcolm and Judith took advantage of the RDPE performance grants in helping them to purchase a handheld EID reader. Since then an electronic weigh crate which is automatically linked to the reader has also been acquired to aid in the collection of performance data for the flock.

Malcolm and Judith will be the first to admit that using EID has been a steep learning curve and that there is still a great deal of unexplored potential with the system, but the information that we can now collect is invaluable in terms of monitoring.

For example, this year the sire of every lamb born has been recorded and the performance of each lamb in terms of liveweight gain and carcass information noted. This allows us to determine which tup is performing most successfully and then use this information to help make breeding decisions for next year.

It was decided by the steering group that for the Open Day it would be best to have another farmer speaking about his own experiences of EID and the benefits he has seen. The speaker chosen was Kirkby Stephen sheep farmer and contract scanner Adrian Bell.

Adrian has been using EID for two years now and he spoke honestly and openly about his thoughts. One of the main benefits that Adrian has found is that by using the EID he always abides by the rules and regulations regarding sheep movements, record keeping etc. without really having to think about it.

Like Malcolm and Judith, Adrian has run a couple of his own basic on-farm trials monitoring lamb weight gains depending on different treatments, and by having the computerised system it allows him to store and sort all the information collected and see any patterns emerging.

Also on-hand was Andrew Price, sales representative from Shearwell. Andrew spoke in more detail about the technical aspects of the system and the new legislative requirements coming into force next January.

Grassland improvement
Helen Mathieu from British Seed Houses has been working closely with Malcolm since the beginning of the project to advise him on the best way to go about making improvements to the soil and grassland at Lower Highfield.

Since taking on the tenancy at the farm Malcolm has been carrying out a programme of both reseeding, and more recently overseeding on those pastures that cannot be ploughed.

Helen spoke about the benefits and costs involved in both methods of improvement. Unfortunately due to the weather we were unable to all get out to see the overseeding that was done earlier this year, but grass growth measurements taken over the course of the summer showed there to be a 17% DM yield increase as a result of overseeding and a 52% increase due to a full reseed above the yields seen on a permanent pasture.

There was a great deal of discussion about the best time for reseeding and overseeding, the best method to use to ensure good establishment, and most importantly how to get the soil in the correct condition in the first place.

Lamb selection to meet market requirements
Following the success of this session at the last meeting of the business group, we invited Andy Finch from Dunbia back to the Open Day to give anyone who missed the meeting another opportunity to hear about what the market requires in terms of the type and size of lamb.

Dunbia have contracts with a number of British supermarkets which have very strict specifications for the lambs they want supplied based solely on the size of the packaging! Another huge market supplied by Dunbia is the export market which requires much smaller lambs to be exported as whole carcasses.

Andy assessed a selection of Malcolm’s lambs and picked out those which he would class as being ideal for the markets he was looking to supply.

Many of the farmers I spoke to after the meeting were surprised at the outcome from this as the fatter lambs, which most of them would consider as being ideal, were actually too big. Andy commented that he could market a leaner lamb much more easily than a fat lamb. The overriding message seemed to be to send lambs in for slaughter sooner rather than later.

Review of everything else
Being the facilitator for Lower Highfield Farm, the rather dubious honour of speaking about all the other activity (of which there has been plenty) fell to me!

• Use of performance recorded tups

After using two performance recorded Suffolk tups last year we found that on average the lambs from these tups were being sold five days earlier than the lambs from a Suffolk tup with a lower EBV.

This doesn’t sound a lot but the sooner the lambs are getting away from the farm the less competition for forage will exist between the remaining lambs and hopefully these will finish quicker as well.

From this basic trial and also speaking to other farmers at meetings, Malcolm and Judith have seen the benefit of using performance records as an aid in buying tups to suit their breeding goals – to finish lambs earlier and where possible straight off their mothers.

Since then they have purchased another two Suffolks to use for an early lambing group of ewes, and a couple of Texel lambs, all with EBV’s well above the breed average for growth traits.

• Altering the worming policy
Faecal egg counting has been used to determine the effectiveness of different categories of wormer in terms of reducing the number of worm eggs. It was found that clear drench was the most effective, with resistance being found to both white and yellow drenches.

Malcolm and Judith have used this information this year to change their worming policy, with lambs being treated with clear drench and also treated much less frequently as the wormer is working more effectively. From this information we calculated how much has been saved this year in both reduced drug use and reduced time spent and savings totalled at least £300.

• Lamb sales
One of the targets set at the start of the programme was to reduce the time taken to finish lambs. Over the last 3 years lamb sales have been monitored on a weekly basis and the chart below shows quite clearly that improvements have been made, with more lambs being sold earlier.

• Suckler herd
As yet the suckler herd have not received as much attention as the sheep due to the ewes making up the majority of the livestock on the farm. However one area that we have focussed on with the sucklers is fertility and the calving pattern as this was felt to be the area where most improvements could be made to have the greatest effect on profitability.

The herd are predominantly spring-calving but for one reason and another the calving pattern had slipped a bit and there were some cows calving out of sync with the rest of the herd. This makes management of the cows and calves more difficult as there is a greater spread of ages, and it also makes the calves more difficult to market when they are assorted sizes.

Following a group meeting with SAC beef consultant Gavin Hill last winter Malcolm took the bull by the horns (not literally!) and decided on a much stricter culling policy for the herd this year. The bull was run with the cows for a 12 week period and then any cows not in calf at scanning were sold. Obviously the effects of this will not become apparent for a couple of years but the sucklers are an area that we will be focussing on more in future meetings.

• Trace element trial
This seems to have generated a great deal of interest amongst many farmers and from the discussions going on it is clear that the results are keenly anticipated. As yet the trial is still ongoing and so until we have properly analysed the results with the help of Lesley Stubbings it isn’t possible to comment.

However it is by no means going to be a simple outcome and could well vary year on year. The plan is to have a business group meeting focussing solely on the trace element trial issues and outcomes in the new year – watch this space for further information.

Next meeting – will be an evening meeting at Lancaster Auction Mart on Thursday November 24th focussing on nutrient management planning and the fertiliser policy for the coming year.Also there will be some idea of the savings that Malcolm and Judith have made so far by improving their soils and reducing fertiliser usage.

Missed any meetings this year? Couldn’t get to the farms but would like to know more about what was discussed?

Well now’s your chance to catch up with what has been happening on the RDPE Northwest Livestock Programme’s Beef and Sheep Monitor Farm in Lancashire over the last two years, as the farmers, facilitators and regular visitors involved discuss progress made to date.

When: Tuesday 18th October 10-45am and 1-30pm (Borwick BBQ will be serving lunch at 12-30pm)
Where: Lower Highfield Farm, Halton, Lancaster LA2 6PE

The presentations will be repeated in both morning and afternoon sessions, so you can either come along for the morning and hear two, or stay longer and hear all four – take your pick!

Come along and find out what changes Malcolm and Judith Sanderson have been making this year:

• Overseeding pastures – with Helen Mathieu of British Seed Houses.

• Practical Lamb Selection – Dunbia’s Andy Finch is back by popular demand.

• Practical experience of using EID from a farmer’s perspective and the benefits seen at Lower Highfield.

• An update on all changes made to date from farm facilitator Michelle Fare

Book your place (on events section of website) >>

Following the recommendations made by sheep specialist Lesley Stubbings when she last visited Lower Highfield Farm, it was decided that a batch of lambs should be sold deadweight to gain some additional feedback on lamb quality and carcass classification.

Judgement day arrived on August 31st, with the lambs having been picked up the previous afternoon by a local haulier. The lambs were selected, as they would be for the live auction, on both weight (42-43kg) and finish when handled.

Malcolm, Judith, James and myself were joined by two other members of the business group at Dunbia, Preston, where we met Andy Finch whom some of you will remember from the last meeting at Lower Highfield.

A lot of work for a lot of staff
Once we had been suitably kitted out with overalls and hard hats, we trooped over to watch the start of the process – the slaughter! Although not for the faint-hearted, this process is something that I believe all producers of livestock for human consumption should see.

The slaughter process is very quick and efficient, but until you have actually been into an abattoir it is hard to imagine the work and labour involved in turning those live lambs into what we see on our supermarket shelves. As farmers we often tend to think of the auction as the last part of the journey with all the hard work having been done, but this is certainly not the case.

With the capacity to slaughter up to 475 lambs per hour, and staff working 12 hour days, the sheer number of carcasses being processed in just one abattoir is quite astonishing. As many of the processes have to be carried out manually there is a lot of labour employed in the factory, mainly eastern European.

Grading
Once the lambs have been slaughtered and all the inedible parts removed, the carcasses are individually weighed and graded by an independent MLC inspector. This will determine which market they are sold into according to the specification.

As all the lambs at Lower Highfield are electronically identified two lists were produced – one showing the lamb ID and kill order and the other showing the weight and grade of each lamb in order of kill. This information can then be entered onto Judith’s computer system so that any trends in terms of lamb sire and quality can be identified.

Hanging and processing
We then moved onto the cold store where the lambs are hung for 24 hours before going to the boning room for cutting and packing. Any lambs destined for the export market are sold as entire carcasses so obviously don’t require any further processing. However the cutting up of the carcasses to produce the required joints, steaks and chops is a very skilled and time consuming job.

As well as having to remove as much of the meat from the bone as possible, this has be done as quickly as possible and all as part of a 12 hour day which must make for a very monotonous working day. At least on a farm there is plenty of variety in a day’s work!

Packing
From here we had a quick look in the packing room where we viewed a Chinese delicacy ready for export – the tendon out of lambs’ legs (just bear this in mind next time you get a takeaway!). We also had a look in the beef store where carcasses are hung for 48 hours before cutting. With the volume of meat being processed on a daily basis the extra storage which would be required to hang them for any longer would be unimaginable.

Lairage
After this we moved onto the lairage where the stock are kept immediately prior to slaughter. What particularly struck me was how calm all the animals were considering they were about to be slaughtered. A new high-welfare standard building has been built recently where sheep can be housed before going down to the lairage. This has given increased capacity for lambs that are delivered the day before slaughter to be housed without food so that their stomachs are empty and the meat can be kept clean more easily.

Feedback
At the end of the visit Judith and Malcolm received the feedback from their own lambs killed that day. The 50 lambs averaged 43.2kg liveweight and killed out to an average of 19.4kg deadweight (45% killing out percentage).

Overall the lambs graded very well with 50% achieving an R3L classification and all lambs falling into the ideal range for both conformation and fat class. This is useful information, and perhaps more importantly now that Malcolm and Judith have been though the process once and have a much better idea of what is involved, selling of lambs deadweight may be another option to be considered at Lower Highfield in the future.

Next Meeting – OPEN DAY October 18th
A chance to catch up on everything that has been looked at this year at Lower Highfield, offering a round up and update on each of the areas addressed at meetings – EID, lamb selection, over-seeding (grassland production), EBVs and Faecal Egg Counting to name a few.

What is the ideal enterprise mix of cattle and sheep for Lower Highfield?

Another blog so soon I hear you say, does that girl have nothing better to do with her time?! Well the short answer to that is no, not today anyway. With no farm visits or meetings planned and all the college networks down for essential maintenance with no email, telephone, or web access, I thought I’d tell you about the most recent happenings at Lower Highfield and how we’ve attempted to address the age-old question above.

Performance review
Following the business group meeting at the end of July, Malcolm, Judith and myself met with sheep specialist Lesley Stubbings for a review of how everything is going at Lower Highfield now that we are over half way through the project.

In terms of the physical performance both enterprises are doing really well, however like the majority of beef herds in the UK the sucklers are still running at a loss and are preventing Malcolm and Judith from reaching their overriding goal of making profit without relying on subsidy. This was the case right from the start of the programme and so Malcolm and Judith had already made the decision to reduce suckler numbers and increase the lambing ewes. The burning question is what is the ideal mix?

Keep the cows
Malcolm did not want to get rid of the cows altogether due to high fertiliser value of the slurry and the fact that the cubicle buildings for housing them are already there and can be used for little else. Also the two enterprise run well together –having two species to focus on makes every day different and we all know that variety is the spice of life!

Slurry storage
Although Lower Highfield is not currently in an NVZ there is always the possibility that this could happen one day, and there is currently insufficient slurry storage to meet the minimum requirements. This has been the main factor in Malcolm’s decision to reduce the cow numbers down from 60 to 40.

This reduction began earlier this year when a number of the cows which were either gelt or not due to calve in line with the spring calving pattern were sold. Numbers will be progressively reduced further through a mixture of a stricter culling policy and also buying in fewer replacement heifers.

Up the sheep from 420 to 520
Obviously by reducing suckler numbers, ewe numbers must be increased to compensate for this in order that the overall output of the farm is kept at least the same and that fixed costs are still spread over the same number of livestock units. On average 5 sheep are equivalent to one cow in terms of livestock units so at least 100 extra ewes will be needed to make up for the 20 cows.

However to lamb an extra 100 ewes at the same time as the existing 400 will obviously require more labour and more housing so lambing the flock in two distinct groups seemed like the ideal solution.

Next year’s lambing

The early group will be tupped with the Suffolk again, with Malcolm and Judith having invested in another two tups with high EBV’s for growth traits to help get lambs away quicker (see EBV figures in table below). In order to achieve a much tighter early lambing group, the plan for this year is to synchronise oestrus in a group of 125 Mule ewes using sponges and PMSG. With a conception rate of approximately 75% this should mean that about 100 ewes will lamb in the space of a week or so.

Get the most out of the old girls
Lesley suggested that it is the older ewes which are selected for early lambing. Any ewes that don’t hold first time can then be tupped to lamb with the main flock.

The older ewes can be given that little bit more attention at housing and lambing (due to them being a much smaller group) to ensure a successful lambing. Once the lambs have been sold directly off the ewes (hopefully hitting higher market prices) they can then be culled and hopefully take advantage of the high cull ewe prices.

Whether or not these ewes should be housed completely until their lambs are finished or turned out when the weather is fit was an area for discussion, but as Lesley pointed out the decision can be made at the time depending on weather conditions, grass availability and how well the ewes are coping. It may be an interesting trial to compare the cost-benefit of housing and finishing on concentrate vs turning out and finishing on grass.

Once the manic couple of weeks of early lambing is over, Malcolm and Judith should hopefully have a quieter few weeks to allow them time to prepare for the main flock starting to lamb. The rest of the main flock will be tupped with the Texel to lamb mid-March. Hopefully by this time there will be a sufficient early bite of grass to turn the ewes and lambs onto without any need for supplementary feeding.

More grass = more stock
One very valid point that Lesley made regarding stock numbers at Lower Highfield is that with all the grassland improvements that have both been made and are planned, Malcolm and Judith must be prepared to increase stock numbers further to make full use of the extra grass being grown. An alternative option would be to review the land currently being rented and perhaps give some up in the future.

Information = power
Another point Lesley made was this it would be extremely beneficial for Malcolm and Judith to have some more information from the lambs once they have been slaughtered eg. conformation, killing out percent, weight. This should be simple to collect given that all lambs are EID’d and once the information is available it should give Malcolm and Judith a much better idea of which tups/ewes produce the best quality lambs.

The benefits of discussion
Just as a quick aside, on the only sunny day that we had last week a group of farmers from the Cheshire monitor farm steering group visited Lower Highfield to see how things are progressing.

There was a great deal of discussion and debate about everything from paper waste usage to trace elements to breeding, but I felt that the main point to come out of the day was the importance of getting out to other farms to see how other people approach things and share our experiences. This is the core of the monitor farm project and if a few days a year are spent visiting other farms to learn and take home ideas to improve your own business then surely it is worthwhile.

Open Day
On that note I will end with a quick reminder that the annual Open Day at Lower Highfield is currently in the planning with lots of interesting speakers and opportunity to find out more about lamb selection, winter rationing, grassland improvement and the benefits of EID. More details to follow.

Another meeting and another excellent turn-out of almost 30 farmers, all eager to hear about the latest developments at Lower Highfield and the outcome from the EBV tup trial.

Update
I kicked off proceedings with a quick overview of the last meeting and the latest news (please see my previous blog below).

Worming policy changes = real financial savings
Since Malcolm and Judith undertook a wormer resistance trial last year and discovered there to be a resistance issue with the white drench they had been using previously, they altered their worming policy. Faecal egg counting (FEC) is now used to determine when the worm burden is high enough to warrant treatment and the lambs are now wormed with a clear drench. This year the lambs have only been wormed twice, as opposed to four times in previous years, due to the wormer working more effectively.

It has been possible to make a rough estimate of the savings that Malcolm and Judith have made by altering their worming policy:

2009 – each lamb dosed 4 times with Rycoben (white drench)
Cost of drugs: 25l Rycoben @ £11/l = £275
Cost of time: 2 people x 4 hours per dosing session @ £10/hr = £80 x 4 dosing sessions = £320
Total cost: £595

2011 – each lamb dosed 2 times with Depidex (clear drench)
Cost of drugs: 10.5l Depidex @ £9.50/l = £99.75
Cost of time: 2 people x 4 hours per dosing session @ £10/hr = £80 x 2 dosing sessions = £160
Total cost: £259.75

Savings made per year: £335.25

This illustrates quite clearly the financial benefits of measuring and monitoring the performance of the wormers used on farm, and in addition to the clear cost-savings there is also the hidden benefit of reducing the development of wormer resistance developing at Lower Highfield.

“It’s what being a monitor farm is all about”
To my mind this exercise sums up exactly what the monitor farm project is all about – measuring performance, making changes for the good of the business and then monitoring the effects of the changes to ensure that they are having the desired effects.

FECPAK
Following the success at the previous meeting of the FECPAK demonstration by group member John Huddleston, farmers were invited to bring along faecal samples for John to test at the meeting. Quite a number of farmers took advantage of this opportunity and John was kept busy with his microscope for much of the meeting.

Lamb sales
Lamb sales to date at Lower Highfield were also touched on. This year the prices realized for the early lambs have been high (up to £100 per lamb) and Malcolm is considering whether or not it is worth lambing even sooner next year to take more advantage of this. Obviously there will be the increased feed requirement of both ewes and lambs to be taken into account, but I opened up this question to the group and asked them to bear it in mind during the meeting.

Lamb selection exercise
We then moved onto the practical exercise in lamb selection where everyone had the chance to grade nine lambs in a race and order them according to which lambs they felt would be ideal for slaughter and which needed further finishing or conversely were over-fat.

Andy Finch, procurement officer for Dunbia, kindly came along to the meeting to talk about how he would place the lambs from a buyers’ perspective.

Lambs 2, 4 & 1 were placed as being in the ideal condition for slaughter. Andy demonstrated how he would assess the lambs in a market, handling key areas along the back and at the tail-head to determine the level of finish. He stressed the importance of farmers handling lambs regularly to determine finish as opposed to relying solely on weight measurements, and if lambs are handling as finished at a lighter weight than you would usually sell at – then get them to the market before they get too fat.

Supermarket specifications
For buyers, such as Dunbia, who supply a lot of supermarkets, they have very strict specifications to work within when purchasing lambs. The reality of it is that the meat has to fit the packaging – for instance a supermarket would require all four chops in a pack to be uniform in size, shape etc and for all packs to be exactly the same.

Obviously it is different if your lamb buyer is a local butcher as they have a market for chops of different sizes and can utilise any off-cuts, but with over 50% of UK lambs being sold through supermarkets it is necessary to meet these exacting specifications to ensure the best chances of selling your lambs at the best price.

In terms of weight Dunbia will only buy live lambs falling within the 37-43kg category. These lambs will kill-out at 47% to leave a saleable meat yield of approximately 21kg.

Export market
Andy placed lamb numbers 7, 8 & 9 next. In most farmers’ opinions these lambs would be too lean and would either be kept for further finishing or sold as stores. However Andy pointed out that from a buyers’ perspective he could sell a plainer lamb more easily than an over-fat lamb. Many of these lambs are sold into the export market – countries such as Italy and Spain have a demand for carcasses of 8-14kg.

Andy spoke about the importance of the export market in supporting the UK home market, with one third of UK lambs being exported. This market will also take entire carcasses as they can be fully utilised, whereas the home market tends to demand the loin and leg cuts with the remainder of the carcass being sold as cheaper minced and diced cuts.

Fat lambs
Lambs 6, 5 & 3 were classed by Andy as being over-fat (however it must be noted that these lambs are Texel x gimmers which Malcolm and Judith have selected to keep for breeding). Andy pointed out that lambs such as these would incur a penalty of up to 20p/kg in price on the ideal R3L, as fat lambs require more work in terms of trimming of fat and the cost of disposing of the waste. The resultant chops and steaks are also likely to be too large to meet the requirements of the consumer.

Estimated Breeding Values (EBV’s)
Carol Davis from EBLEX then spoke to the group about EBV’s. Malcolm and Judith made the decision last year to invest in some performance recorded Suffolk tup lambs with EBV values for 8 week weight and scan weight in the top 25% for the breed. By selecting terminal sires with high EBVs for growth characteristics, lambs have greater genetic potential for quicker finishing and at higher quality.

 These qualities cannot be assessed by eye alone – performance records are needed to determine the traits that a tup is likely to pass onto its offspring.

Using EBV’s
Carol then spoke about the measurements that are recorded in order to calculate the EBVs for specific traits. The group took part in an exercise whereby they had to choose a tup based on his figures which proved to everyone how easy it is to actually read EBV’s and select the information you are looking for.

Breeding Plan
Carol also stressed the importance of having a breeding plan for your own farm. Every farm is different in terms of the market being supplied and the resources available (land, labour, housing forage). Farmers must identify which market they want to sell their lambs into and then strive to produce what the market requires, which will determine the breeding plan e.g. breeds being used, selection of males & females for breeding and crossbreeding to take advantage of hybrid vigour.

It is important that once the breeding plan is in place, the performance of the resulting offspring is monitored to determine that they meet the targets set. At Lower Highfield the EID system has been used to monitor lamb weights on a regular basis from birth to sale, as well as recording data such as litter size, sale price and the number of lambs sired by each tup.

Lower Highfield lambs
Carol spoke about the way in which lambs are marketed currently at Lower Highfield:
• All lambs are sold live through Lancaster auction as this is the nearest auction to access on a tractor and trailer
• Lambs are selected for sale based on a minimum weight of 41kg and handling well for finish

Unfortunately this means that there is no data available regarding the final carcass classification for individual lambs, and as lambs are sold in mixed sire pens there is no opportunity to determine if individual lambs are being rewarded for better quality. Selling some lambs deadweight in order to get some idea of carcass classification is an area in which Malcolm and Judith are looking into for future lamb sales.

From the information collected at Lower Highfield Carol was able to draw the following conclusions:
Lambs from high index tup lambs reached sale weight and finish up to 5 days quicker than lambs from the average EBV shearling.

Carol pointed out that by utilising tups in the future which have been selected on their EBVs for growth characteristics, it will be possible to finish lambs quicker without bringing the lambing date forward. She stressed the point that if lambing is brought forward and more creep is being fed then the lambs must be sold early at the premium prices in order to cover the higher costs of production.

One of the group members asked Carol about whether or not performance recorded tups were more expensive to buy than ‘ordinary’ ones – Carol’s response was that you could easily pick up a recorded tup for the same money as a non-recorded, with the advantage being that you have a better idea of what to expect with a recorded tup.

Although the trial we carried out at Lower Highfield was not a scientific experiment, the results we collected have shown that using EBV’s in tup selection is a useful tool in helping to determine those tups which will improve the performance of the offspring above the average level which could be expected. It is a tool which Malcolm and Judith will be keen to utilise in the future. As one of the group members commented, “EBV’s are a good way of shortlisting tups in the market to ensure you get what you want.”
View Carol’s presentation (pdf) >>

Following the meeting many of the farmers there expressed an interest in attending a live-to-dead session at Dunbia whereby they can physically handle lambs and then see what that carcass kills out like in terms of classification. I am hoping to arrange some dates and as soon as I have something sorted I will be in touch with all members of the group.

The next meeting planned will be the annual open day in October, more details will be available in due course. For those of you that missed Andy at this meeting we are hoping to invite him to return to the Open Day.

I will start with a typically British comment about the weather and how nice it has been recently.

Having said that some places do seem to be drying up quite quickly but looking at the forecast for the rest of this week it seems that there may be some rain on the way so I hope that anyone with any grass down manages to get it in dry.

First cut silage at Lower Highfield went without a hitch and there looks to be a good crop in the clamp. As cow numbers have been reduced this year Malcolm only needs a bit more clamp silage for over winter so this has freed up more of the meadows for the sheep and lambs to graze.

If you cast your mind back to the last meeting in May you may remember us having a look at Sale Field which was the only meadow on the farm not to have been reseeded since Malcolm and Judith took the tenancy in 2001.

After assessing the quality of the sward the general opinion of the group seemed to be that a full reseed was not necessary but that the field may benefit in terms of yield by being overseeded.

Since then, the field has been cut and given a good scratching with the grass harrows to remove as much of the thatch and expose as much soil as possible. It was then overseeded with Aber HSG3 (high sugar grasses suited to long term grazing) and an overseed mix.

This is certainly a much cheaper way of renewing the sward than a complete reseed and it also means that the field can stay in production all season.

Since the last meeting Malcolm has also been out spraying weeds and has decided to have a go at putting the Thistlex recommended by David Atherton through his weed wiper. When the merchant was asked the question he was unsure what application rates to recommend as it is usually Roundup used in weed wipers but Malcolm is keen to try it to see what happens.

Since early May I have been visiting Lower Highfield every couple of weeks to measure grass growth in a newly reseeded pasture, an overseeded pasture and a permanent pasture to see how they vary.

I am hoping that this will serve two purposes – first to show how much benefit there has been in reseeding and overseeding and to be able to put this into context with some comparison of how much it costs, and second to be able to make some estimate of how much grass the farm is capable of growing and hence the number of livestock needed to optimise utilisation of all the grass available.

As yet I only have height and weight measurements but I am hoping to be able to convert this into dry matter available (or at least I am hoping that Liz Genever at EBLEX will be able to help me with this!)

Staying with the grassland theme, last time Helen Mathieu visited Lower Highfield she had some new pre-treated grass seed that she was keen to trial so Malcolm has overseeded half of Rushy Pasture.

It will be interesting to see how the seed performs compared to the untreated half – Malcolm could be making history here with the cutting edge of the latest in grass seed varieties!

Lambs

The lambs all seem to be romping on with regular batches going to Lancaster for Monday sales. The very first lambs to be sold certainly hit the best market prices and although prices have dropped back down a bit now trade is varied but strong on the whole.

The more lambs that Malcolm and Judith can get away early, the better, and they are certainly managing to achieve this with lamb sales this year beginning a fortnight sooner than last year. I suppose the real test will be the date that the final lamb is sold.

This has raised the question as to whether or not it will pay to lamb even earlier next year – obviously there is the price of the extra ewe and lamb feed to consider but will this be outweighed by the higher lamb price? This will be a topic for debate at a future meeting.

As far as the trace element trial goes, all the lambs were randomly allocated to a dosing group at the end of May and given the appropriate treatment. So far the weights that Judith has collected have shown there to be no significant difference between the groups in terms of daily live weight gain, with all the lambs gaining between 280 and 310g per day.

Even the untreated control group were gaining 280g a day so it will be interesting to see how this progresses over the season. I have a feeling that this trial may not provide us with any concrete solutions but it has certainly shown us how complex the trace element issue can be!

I was speaking to a vet last week who facilitates at one of the monitor farms in Northumberland and they have run a similar trial with very inconclusive findings.

The next meeting at Lower Highfield is planned for the evening of Monday 25th July. To make the meeting more hands-on, and hopefully relevant to everyone, the meeting will start with a practical lamb selection exercise involving a lamb buyer from Dunbia.

We will then have Carol Davis from EBLEX speaking about the progress with the high EBV tups and opening up a discussion into whether or not the group feel it is worthwhile using EBV’s as a tool in tup selection.

Following the roaring success at the last meeting we will also have group member John Huddleston on-hand with his FECPAK kit to test lamb faecal samples for worm eggs – please bring some dung if you would like it testing free of charge!