Advice For Beef Farmers Finishing Dairy Bred Bulls Efficiently
Many dairy bred bulls are on heavy finishing diets, for slaughter under 16 months.
There are a lot of mixed messages on the right way to finish these bulls.
If you want these cattle to finish at target weight, target age, and target grade, they must gain substantial weight every day of their lives.
Setbacks should be avoided at all costs. You must take maximum advantage of the young bull hormonal effect, to optimise profit, through optimum feed efficiency.
Feeding outdoor or indoors?
Feeding bulls meal at grass is a difficult strategy to implement. For many, the easiest option may be to bring them inside and start finishing them.
In reality, young bulls for slaughter under 16 months have no business grazing in the final finishing period, if you want the target performance, weight and grade.
Finishing decisions
* Are they grown well enough to start finishing?
It is critical that bulls don’t commence finishing until they have been grown correctly. If they are not grown properly, they may begin a growth spurt during the finishing period, resulting in poor conformation and kill out percentage.
* What is your target market (weight, age, and grade)?
It has been seen time and again that increasing the daily weight gain in the final months of finish will improve the conformation of the animal, and the lean meat yield of the carcase. While it’s not possible to perform miracles, it is possible to move a proportion of P+ to O, and O to R minus.
This will depend on the type of stock being finished.
* What feeds are available to you, and what will they cost? What diet will optimise performance and profit?
The first thing to remember is that a young dairy bred bull’s finishing period should be 100 to 120 days. Less than that, and you will not achieve acceptable fat covers.
When deciding on a diet to achieve target weights in bulls, ensure the total diet has a high-energy density, and don’t overfeed protein per kg of dry matter.
Exact specifications are weight and breed specific.
Ensure that the ration contains sufficient fibre to maintain rumen function and that there is clean fresh feed in front of the bulls for 22-23 hours per day. Ideally, fresh feed should be provided every day, to encourage intakes.
* What is the quality of the available forage?
The forage used to finish bulls needs to be top quality. Low quality forages have no role in getting the final cover on bulls.
Good quality forage can play a major role in reducing overall finishing costs, and can be an essential source of structural fibre.
Good quality maize silage, whole crop cereals and beet are excellent forage energy sources for bulls, in conjunction with a balanced concentrate.
But there are very few grass silages produced each year on Irish beef farms that I would consider suitable for an intensive finishing diet.
Adlib concentrate feeding
This may be the best option for bull finishers, if only poor silages are available.
Adlib, described simply, means the cattle must have access to meal 24-7. They must also have access to good quality clean straw at all times. Hay is a poor substitute because it does not promote optimum rumen function, and depresses intakes and ultimate weight gains in bulls.
In my experience, adlib finishing of bulls is the most reliable way of getting consistent performance in finishing young bulls.
Concentrate quality
Best concentrates for finishing bulls need to include high levels of cereals such as barley, wheat, maize meal and oats. Digestible fibre sources such as soya hulls and beet pulp are useful to maintain rumen function in these intensively fed animals.
Protein, while not required in large amounts, is required to encourage intakes and balance the energy provided, for optimum weight gain.
Avoid where possible filler ingredients high up the label.
Ask your feed supplier for the UFL or ME value of the concentrate for your bulls.
A good-quality mineral spec is also important.
Most meal providers have a bull beef ration in their portfolio. Many finishers will introduce straight maize meal to their current concentrate. for achieving the final cover on bulls, over the last 30-40 days.
Acidosis risk
Managing the acidosis risk is very important in intensively fed stock. For the past few years, many intensive finishers have moved to feeding alkaline treated cereals, which have high pH and prevent acidosis, while improving energy and starch intakes.
Clean and plentiful water
Water is a critical element to get right when you step up feeding for bulls.
It should be clean and in plentiful supply. If cattle don’t drink, they don’t eat, and if they don’t eat, they don’t thrive.
Shed space
Make sure that your cattle have enough space in the shed to achieve optimum performance.
They must all be able to lie down and get to their feed without having to walk all over their comrades.
Make sure that there is adequate ventilation.
If they are on slats, consider mats, and/or access to a straw lye back area.
Bull calves for finish in 2018
Bull calves born this spring that are to be finished in 2018 need to be pushed on every day to achieve targets.
If they are weaned, they should ideally remain on 2kg of meal per day at grass, until housing later this year.
Some will remain indoors on a straw and meal based diet, which can be very effective from a cost and performance point of view, if managed well.
(Source – Irish Examiner – 20/04/2017)
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