The combination of superior beef genetics, technology and stockmanship is helping Kate and David Acland realise the potential of their non-replacement dairy calves.
The Acland’s 900-cow dairy farm is part of their wider Mt Somer’s Station business which includes a mix of high hill country and productive river terraces, so there was scope to rear and finish the non-replacement calves within their wider farm system.
The couple were also striving to become bobby-free in their dairy operation and implemented a four-year programme to achieve this goal. This required a focus on improving in-calf rates and tightening the calving spread as well as a significant investment in improving calf rearing infrastructure.
The Acland’s recently hosted Beef + lamb New Zealand’s Northern South Island Farmer Council AGM. This incorporated a field day looking at their Beef on Dairy operation and how they use technology to drive efficiencies within it.
The first of these is Artificial Insemination. All cows and heifers are AI’d, with only the heifers having an Angus chaser bull following their CIDR programme.
Last mating, they used predominately Charolais genetics over their non-replacement cows and achieved excellent mating results and quality calves without any significant calving issues.
The calves are reared in three purpose-built calf sheds and one converted woolshed, all of which are fitted with JFC Evolution automatic calf feeders.
This system, which was developed in Ireland, automatically measures, mixes and dispenses temperature-controlled milk to each calf based on its age, size and stage of rearing.
RFID technology ensures each calf’s nutritional requirements are met while its feeding behaviour and intake is also monitored.
As well as the milk, the calves are given allocation of nuts and baleage.
As the calves can feed whenever they want- some will have their full 24-hour allocation in one visit while others are snackers- they are more relaxed and achieve their weaning weights faster.
As the calves get closer to weaning, the JFC system allows milk allowances to gradually taper as the calves reach their target weaning weights.
In the first year of use, the JFC system (using only three machines) reduced labour costs by 26 percent with 20 percent more calves raised.
A fourth machine was added this year, so the Acland’s are expecting labour savings to be even greater.
This year, the beef calves and heifers were reared in separate sheds, and they aim to have calves of similar size within pens to make logistics easier.
The first of the bull calves (they are left entire) are weaned at 65kg. While this was intended to reduce stocking pressure in the sheds, there has been no growth penalty with this earlier weaning, and the calves have maintained growth rates of 900gms/day on ab-lib nuts.
Later born non-replacement calves are weaned at 75kg for beef and 85-95kg for replacement heifers.
The total cost to rear each calf to weaning is $366.66/head.
The weaned calves are wintered on kale and supplementary feed and grown out on pasture. David and Kate aim to have two-thirds of their dairy and beef-on-dairy bulls finished before their second winter, while the heifers are grown out and mated as yearlings for a once-bred heifer programme.
Remaining cattle are sold store.
Halter and Gallagher Strong-Bo auto-weigher
Both replacement heifers and finishing stock are fitted with Halter collars when they are around 200kg and David describes this technology as a gamechanger, particularly when grazing winter forage crops and when grazing paddocks with critical source areas or streams.
While Halter has significantly reduced labour requirements, David stresses that it has not replaced the need for stockmanship and management skills.
“It can be done badly; you still have to think about what you’re doing.”
He says they are definitely growing and harvesting more grass under the Halter system, but people are still needed to check crop and pasture residuals.
“It is still critical to have people. Everyone has got to be able to use the technology and be empowered to make a decision to change breaks. Everyone has to be asking that question- have they [cattle] been fed. It’s a team game.”
They have seen improved growth rates on both kale and grass in the bulls wearing Halter collars compared to those being run behind a wire. In part, he puts this down to less wastage in crops and the ease of back-fencing on pasture allowing the residuals to recover faster.
There is also a huge saving in labour, as staff aren’t shifting breaks every day, but David says rather than replacing labour, the technology allows them to use staff more efficiently.
Complementing the Halter technology is the in-paddock Strong-Bo auto-weigher. This enables the management team to monitor growth rates and adjust daily feed allocations accordingly.
The weigher sits in the paddock, and a salt block will encourage the cattle to into the machine and stand on the scales. While they only place their front legs on the scales, an algorithm will estimate each animal’s weight.
The portable scales sit in each paddock for seven days and within that time 85 percent of animals will have been weighed.
It is useful for all classes of cattle, including the dairy heifers, as the data will indicate when the heifers are at their mating weight.
Crunching the numbers
Kate acknowledges that each of the purpose-built calf sheds are a significant investment, but they couldn’t run a beef on dairy system without them.
“We needed a business that wasn’t reliant on us, and it needed to be repeatable. We need skilled staff, but that can be difficult to source every year, so the labour-saving offered by the automatic system has amounted to $30/calf.
It has also had health and safety benefits as staff aren’t lifting milk or equipment, nor are they using vehicles.
Rearing non-replacement heifer calves and putting them into a once-bred heifer system generated an average of just over $22/week for the lifetime of each animal last season. In the past, that calf would have gone on the bobby calf truck.
David says while they do have tools and widgets, they question every technology and tool they buy to ensure it will add value to their business-and they still require- and value- skilled staff.
B+LNZ is part of a the Dairy Beef Opportunities (DBO) Programme, a sector wide initiative jointly delivered by B+LNZ, DairyNZ, the Meat Industry Association, and members of the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand, with support from the Ministry for Primary Industries via the Primary Sector Growth Fund (PSGF).
The programme focuses on lifting the value and performance of New Zealand’s non-replacement dairy calves by strengthening dairy–beef integration and developing new, higher value pathways. The aim is to improve farm profitability, animal welfare and long term sustainability across the livestock sector.