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01278 444829 or email info@molevalleyfarmers.com.

Welcome to The Beef Management Guide

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A guide produced by the team here at Mole Valley Farmers  

Read on to discover more about the folllowing:

Introduction
Calf Rearing
Intensive Beef Production
18 Month Beef Production
Grass Beef Production
Suckled Calf Production
Nutrition
Choosing the Correct Feed
The Need for Minerals

Top Ten Tips for Grassland Management
The Importance of Forage Quality
Optimum Finishing Strategy
Parasitic Control Programme
Housing Cattle
Benefits of Weighing Cattle
Research and Development
Marketing of Beef
Blade Farming South West

Introduction

The two main groups of cattle used for beef production come from either suckler beef cows or from the dairy herd. The fact that an animal was born in a dairy herd tells us two important things. First that it contains 50% or more of dairy breeding i.e. Holstein and secondly that it will have had a relatively low liveweight gain for the first 3 months of its life having been artificially reared and weaned off milk completely by around 2 months of age. In comparison, the suckled calf will have a minimum of 75% of beef breeding and a much higher early growth rate of 1kg per day or more having suckled its mother for at least the first 6 months of its life.

The importance of the proportion of dairy breeding in a beef animal is due to the effect it has on its carcass conformation or muscularity and hence its end value per kilogram live or deadweight.

The next important difference in animal type is its sex, be it heifer, steer or bull. In general bulls are later maturing than steers, which are later maturing than heifers. Late maturing simply identifies animals which will have higher potential daily liveweight gains and produce large, lean and more muscular or better conformation carcasses. The downside with late maturing animals is a greater risk of calving difficulties in both dairy and beef cows due to their heavier birth weights and their need for higher levels of supplementary cereal feeding if they are to be successfully finished i.e. carry the required level of carcass fat cover for them to be slaughtered.

The various beef breeds also vary in their maturity with large muscular breeds such as the Charolais being classed as late maturing and traditional British breeds such as the Hereford classed as early maturing. Therefore, knowing the breed of the sire of the calves also helps to describe the beef system on a particular unit.

Read our Beef Solutions Guide 2011

Mole Valley Farmers Beef Solutions June 2011 | Call our FeedLine 01278 444 829


 

 


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