For beef and arable farmer Will Palmer, making the most of home-grown feed is an important part of keeping his system efficient. And by pairing his own barley with Harbro Beefstock nuts and Champion RumiTech 35 pellets, he is seeing a noticeable difference in cattle performance.
“Our cattle finish faster on the Harbro feed and they’re healthier on it,” says Will. Previously, Will’s Charolais cross steers were typically finished at around 18 months. By replacing his previous coarse mix and introducing Champion RumiTech 35 for the final six weeks, he expects to reduce finishing time by around a month.
MAKING HOME-GROWN FEED WORK HARDER
Will farms 300 acres at Trenestrall, near Truro in Cornwall, as well as a further 150 rented acres. With the aim of being as self-sufficient as possible, around 100 acres of winter and spring barley are grown each year to provide home-grown feed and straw.
The relatively dry climate also allows Will to make good use of grazing and cereal stubbles, with cattle outwintered where conditions allow. Cows calve outdoors in spring, while the farm also operates a smaller autumn-calving herd.
Around 75% of the 100-cow suckler herd calves in spring, including Will’s pedigree Charolais herd, which carries the Trenestall prefix. The remainder calve in autumn. While Charolais has traditionally been used extensively across the herd, Will has also introduced Beef Shorthorn genetics to selected heifers this year, with the aim of breeding more of his own replacement females.
GIVING CATTLE TIME TO GROW
Whatever their eventual market, Will believes in giving young cattle a proper growing period to develop frame before pushing them on.
Spring-born calves are weaned in the autumn and grown through until Christmas, while autumn-born calves are weaned in the spring. Depending on cattle prices and market demand, the Charolais crosses can then either be sold as forward stores or taken through to finish.
Most male calves from the suckler herd, together with pedigree Charolais bulls that are not selected for breeding, are finished as steers. Finished cattle are typically sold through ABP at around 380–400kg deadweight, producing mainly –U and R grades.
Will is also seeing benefits much earlier in the system using Beefstock nuts, which are fed to bucket-reared calves and offered as a creep feed ahead of weaning.
“A lot of pedigree cattle breeders use Harbro, which is how I got to hear about the feeds,” he says.
“The calves are healthier on Beefstock nuts and gain more weight compared with the standard calf coarse mix I used to buy.”
TARGETED NUTRITION FOR THE FINISHING PERIOD
As cattle move into the final finishing phase, Will combines 2kg of Champion RumiTech 35 pellets with 6kg of home-grown barley.
“We mix the Champion RumiTech 35 with our barley when we bring the cattle in for finishing,” he explains. “It all depends on the system you are on and the type of cattle you’re finishing.”
For Will, the approach means making effective use of the cereals already available on farm while providing targeted nutritional support when cattle need it most.
Champion RumiTech 35 and Beefstock nuts both incorporate nutritional technologies including RumiTech and Alkacid, designed to support rumen function, feed efficiency and finishing performance. They also contain Yea-Sacc, which has been shown in trials to support daily liveweight gain and feed conversion efficiency.
For Will, however, the most important measure is what he sees in his cattle – healthy animals, strong growth and the potential to reach finishing targets sooner.