PROFITABLE BEEF PRODUCTION

Peter Wylie
Horizon Rural Management
Dalby 0746624899

Page

1. Steers or breeders? 1
2. Profitable fattening 1
3. Good Breeder Management 2
4. Quality cattle 2
5. Feeding for Production 3
6. Productive Pastures for southern Queensland 4
7. Pasture Establishment 5
8. Pasture Management

Optimum profit from beef requires a critical examination of the enterprise mix and costs of
production. Good pastures may be even more important than good beef cattle.

Steers or breeders?

Steer fattening is generally more profitable than breeding on country which is capable of
sustaining average annual growth rates in excess of 0.6 kg/hd/day.

If you consider a cow producing a weaner calf of 200 kg, worth say $320, the gross income from
85% branding is $272. A steer gaining 0.7 kg/day for a year will put on 255 kg of beef, which at
$1.60/kg is worth $408. If this steer is fattened between 220 kg and 500kg the average will be 1
Adult or dry beast equivalent. But this means you can run 1.3 steers for every cow and calf,
which converts the gross into $530 of meat compared to $272 from cows on the same area.

A big advantage of steers over breeders is the flexibility to adjust numbers according to
seasonal conditions.

In a real drought you may shut up shop, or sell early and buy steers cheaply later in the season.

Profitable fattening

One way to make money from beef is to buy steers as small as possible, grow them out as
quickly as possible and keep them as long as possible.

• Inbound freight costs are less for small cattle.

• The more beef put on a steer or heifer, the lower will be the cost per kilo.
• The effect of a sale price, which is less than the buying price, is much less if the weight
of the steers is small by comparison with the beef added on the property

The key to good growth rates and adding 300kg of beef per year, is winter feed. The benefits of
medics and lucerne will be discussed under pastures.

If winter feed is of poor quality, then supplements may be profitable in boosting liveweight gain.
Even if the supplements only breakeven, there are benefits in younger turnoff of quality beef.

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One way to help match livestock numbers to the feed supply is to start buying young steers in
December and sell older ones, which have been on the property for twelve months, later in
summer, in March or April. In this way there will a doubling up on numbers during the main
summer months of January, February and March.

Good Breeder Management

Although steer fattening is generally more profitable than breeding, there may be some reasons
for running cows. If so they need to be run efficiently without any unproductive passengers.
• Reproductive efficiency: Normally weaning rates should exceed 90%, but these become
irrelevant if 15 month old heifers are included in a short joining period.
• Joining cows: Bulls in with the herd for 63 days (3 heat cycles) during December and
January will give all cows at least 2 heat cycles to conceive. Calves will then drop from
August to October. Don't worry about feed at that time of the year, the main reason for early
calves is to grow them out before the next winter.
• Joining heifers: Calving heifers at 3 years of age is too late. It means that there is no
income from a heifer for 5 years. Heifers should be grown out to around 270 kg and joined
at 15-17 months. All heifers could be mated, and if the calving percentage for a short mating
period is only 55%, there will be plenty of calves, while the rest are grown out for beef.
• Pregnancy testing can be completed from mid April when the latest conceptions are at least
6 weeks into the gestation period. All empty cows should be finished and sold. Heifers
could be spayed and fattened along with the steers.
• Culling has no room for sentiment. If a cow or heifer does not conceive they should be
fattened and sold. It is better to replace these breeders with a cow which will produce a calf
rather than carry them for any other year as passengers.
• Bulls should be checked for reproductive soundness before each season and receive good
nutrition prior to joining.
• Weaning is usually the single biggest setback in the life of an animal. The time of weaning
is largely determined by seasonal conditions and can range from 4 months of age to 8
months. If weaners can be yarded and fed on hay and cotton seed meal (or similar) for 2-4
weeks and then put on good pasture they could finish the winter 30-40 kg heavier than if
they were left to fend for themselves.

Quality cattle

Hybrid vigor offers substantial ‘free’ gains to a beef herd. The growth rate of sale cattle is
increased, as well as the growth and size of replacement heifers. Crossbred steers out of one-
breed cows will have around 8% better performance than pure breeds.

Additional productivity can be achieved when using crossbred cows, which will produce better
calves. This can result in a total productivity gain of 20% compared with single breed herds.

Cross breeding programs can become complicated, particularly in small herds. However, a
rotational cross system involving two or three breeds is relatively straight forward if producers
do not get hung up over every cow being the same.

Having a 50% component of British breeds such as Angus or Hereford provides better beef and
a marketing advantage. A 25% component of Bos Indicus (eg Brahman) and 25% of a
European breed (e.g. Simental) will maximise gains from crossbreeding.

Identification and regular weighing quantifies the growth performance of sale stock. This
information will identify breeding and feeding programs which have made the most profit.

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Tracing the source of high performing cattle will open the opportunity to buy direct from store
breeders who are doing a good job and they will benefit from feed back on their cattle.

Feeding for production

Good profits result from high growth rates. Weight gains over 12 month gains at the following
growth rates are:

0.8 kg/day - 292 kg in 12 months. A 240 kg steer will reach 532 kg in 12 months
0.65 kg/day - 237 kg in 12 months A 240 kg steer will reach 477 kg
0.5 kg/day - 182 kg in 12 months A 240 kg steer will reach 422 kg

Growth rates of more than 0.65kg/hd/day will require good pastures and/or supplements in dry
times. Good feed in winter and spring is an important part of achieving good growth rates, while
supplements, such as urea or cottonseed can help when pastures quality drops.

Oats rarely makes a lot of money, because in good seasons there is not much of a profit
because there is a surplus of feed, while in a dry season the oats do not go far and extra feed
may need to be purchased.

The advantage of using cottonseed compared to grazing oats, is that it can be bought when
needed. Buying early in the cotton ginning season (April-May) will help to keep the cost down
and assure a reasonable supply.

Winter legumes such as medics and lucerne are the lowest cost protein supplements. A grass/
(winter) legume pasture can produce 2-3 times the feed of a grass only pasture, due to the
winter production and the boost the legumes give to summer grass growth.

Drought Management

Drought management is important to preserve pastures, to avoid liveweight reductions and

losses of cattle and for peace of mind.

A drought strategy should be formulated in advance along the following lines:

1. Stocking Rates/Pasture Management - Stock numbers should fluctuate with the level of
available feed to avoid degradation of pastures and soils. Less breeders and more steers
makes it easier to adjust numbers in dry seasons.
2. Supplements include urea in water, urea/molasses, commercial lick blocks, home made lick
blocks, protein meals, hay, grain, cotton seed or a combination of the above. Urea and
cottonseed are likely to be the most viable options for short-term dry spells.
3. Opportunity Lot Feeding - This strategy can be profitable, but requires careful evaluation.
4. Financial reserves – money in other investments or farm management bonds.

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 Productive Pastures for southern Queensland

A grass is not a sustainable pasture. Sooner or later the soil nitrogen level declines to the point
where pasture production is way below the rainfall potential.

Winter legumes not only make the most of winter rainfall, they can provide nitrogen to improve
grass production in summer. In more favourable rainfall areas, such as the eastern Darling
Downs, medics can outyield the grass in good winter rainfall years, but on average the total
production of grass and medic is more than twice the grass on its own.

Even in dryish winter, a small amount of feed from medics can provide an important supplement,
which improves livestock performance by maintaining liveweight gain during winter.

Lucerne production in winter is less than medic and any growth in summer is competing directly
with grass for available moisture. In other words, while lucerne produces more summer growth
than medics, this is at the expense of grass growth during summer. Lucerne is more difficult to
establish with a grass and there is not the opportunity to control weeds with herbicides during
summer, as there is when medics are not growing.

Overall, lucerne may provide more nitrogen than medics, and if the pasture is in a rotation with
crop to boost fertility and help maintain wheat protein levels, then a lucerne pasture with a small
amount of grass may be a better way to go, than to plant medics.

Grasses

There are a number of improved grasses, which are all likely to produce much the same yield and
livestock performance.

On black soils, Bambatsi is one of the best, but seed is more expensive and it is harder to
establish than purple pigeon grass. Purple pigeon has a large seed and can be planted with a
presswheel planter like a millet crop. Floren Bluegrass, is an aggressive coloniser and a palatable
species suited to clay soils. It shows promise of competing with Lippia along the Condamine.

Creeping blue grass has done well, particularly on lighter soils and forest country. It has also
done well on Brigalow soils. Bisset creeping blue grass roots down more readily than the older
variety Hatch. But like Rhodes grass, it may not be as compatible with legumes as the tufted
grass, which leave more space for lucerne or the germination of medics in autumn.

For the brigalow scrub soils, green panic and lucerne go well together and this mixture is well
worth considering in the higher rainfall areas. Premier Digitaria is a tufted grass suited to lighter
soil types and a good alternative to Rhodes grass.

Medics

In a DPI study by Nick Clarkson, the average yield of medics over 4 years, on black soils at
Warwick, was 4760kg/ha. An idea of the value of this production is that it would support 2 steers
per hectare for 120 days during winter.

Where grass (silk sorghum) was grown in conjunction with the medics, the sorghum production
was 3511kg/ha per year (over three years from 1978 to 1980) compared to 2860 kg/ha for
sorghum growing without medic and 4213 where grass was fertilised with 50 kg N fertiliser each
year. Total production of medic + grass was 8271 kg/ha compared to 2860 for the grass alone.

Another DPI trial at Toowoomba (by David Lloyd) with Bambatsi , showed the medic increased
the grass production by 90% and the total production of medic plus grass was 230% of the
grass alone. Total production was in the vicinity of 10,000 kg/ha/year.

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The medic and grass yields at Toowoomba are shown here along with winter rainfalls:

Production of Bambatsi Panic and Barrel medic at Toowoomba

April-Sep rainfall Medic Yield Grass yield Grass +Medic Grass alone
mm t/ha after medic (t/ha) t/ha tha

1973 266 4.8 7.1 11.9 4.9

1974 218 4.3 5.5 9.8 3.0
1975 298 3.5 4.0 7.5 2.8
1976 233 5.2 4.7 9.9 2.4
1977 175 0 3.9 3.9 2.7
1978 408 6.7 7.7 14.4 1.7

Lloyd and Hilder 1985

These trials are old, but still valid with not a lot of trial work completed in recent years. There are
however new varieties of medic which are longer maturing and have higher yield potential than
the ones used in these trials. Kelsun snail medic is one of these, but seed does not appear to
be available at the current time. The alternative is to use Snail medic seed which is a mix of
several varieties or one of the newer varieties Silver or Essex.

Medics are easier to establish than lucerne, with a grass, and there is more flexibility to control
weeds with herbicides during summer, when medics are not growing. Medics can be
established by planting as a crop in the first year of a pasture or broadcasting into a pasture and
trampling the seed in with heavy grazing in autumn.

This is so economical that medics should be sown in almost every pasture situation, including
native pastures. Where there is native burr medic, it is still worth planting improved medic
because, they are almost twice as productive.

Snail medics are suited to the black cracking clays

1. Sava is an early-flowering variety.

2. Silver (early flowering) and Essex (mid-flowering) are new snail medics.
3. Kelson is late-flowering requiring a period of cold before it can flower.

Barrel medics are more suited to red-brown clays and clay loams

1. Caliph is an aphid-tolerant cultivar similar to Cyprus barrel medic. It is early flowering and
grows well on soils ranging from slightly acid red-brown loams to clay-loams and clays.
2. Paraggio was released as an aphid-tolerant replacement for Jemalong. It will grow on a
wide range of soils from hard-setting loams to cracking clays.

A mixtures of snail medics which can be responsive to different types of seasons.

Medics and bloat

Medics will cause bloat in cattle, although snail medics may be less of a problem than barrel
and naturalised medics. Bloat mixtures can be applied to water troughs, while bloat capsules
are likely to pay for themselves with increased weight gain.

An alternative approach is to move stock onto alternative pastures when medic pastures are
lush or to provide roughage feed (grass hay) as a supplement in the paddock.

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 Pasture Establishment

Sowing times

Successful establishment requires a period when the soil surface stays wet for 3-5 days. This
can occur from a single rainfall event in autumn or spring, but usually needs rainfall over 2-3
days in summer. Pasture seeds in the bottom of furrows or depressions in roughly prepared
seedbeds are more likely to establish seedlings because it stays wetter for longer after rain.

Summer grasses and lucerne can be sown between September and late February. Plantings in
early spring, when evaporation is lower, or mid-summer (January to March) when there is more
probability of getting consecutive rain days, have the best chance of success.

Annual medics, clover and vetch establish best in autumn, from April to June. Alternatively
medics or lucerne may be sown with a winter grain crop in the previous year.

Sowing method and sowing depth

Pasture establishment is commonly achieved by broadcasting seed onto an uneven seedbed

and harrowed or drilled into the soil and covered with harrows or presswheels.

An alternative is to plant pastures like a crop, into moist soil, using presswheels to achieve good
seed contact. This can work well for lucerne and the larger seeded (or pelleted) grasses, (purple
pigeon grass, bambatsi and silk sorghum) where good establishment is possible up to 5cm
deep.

Legumes, especially medics, can be oversown into a pasture with or without soil disturbance.
Heavy grazing in autumn will reduce the grass cover, and seed broadcast at this time will be
trodden into the soil by hoof action. Although a single pass with a chisel plough or scarifier may
improve germination by providing a better seedbed, it is often cheaper to increase the seeding
rate and broadcast. The seedlings of summer grasses do not readily establish if there is any
competition.

Direct drilling can be used to improve native grass or thicken degraded improved pasture.
Graze heavily or slash and use a herbicide such as glyphosate to reduce competition from
existing plants. Drill the seed 20-50 mm deep, using presswheels to consolidate the rows. Small
pasture seed should not be covered by more than 10 mm of soil.

Fertiliser

A soil analysis will indicate whether phosphate fertiliser should be used before planting.
Phosphate is particularly important for legume growth. If both phosphate and potassium are
deficient, it can be worth considering the use of manure from feedlots or poultry sheds.

Nitrogen is best supplied by a legume component of the pasture. Renovation of old pasture
that is showing signs of decline will release nitrogen to rejuvenate the stand for a short time.

The economics of nitrogen fertiliser use improve with the cattle price. If 40 kg/ha of nitrogen,
costing $40 (including application) was applied to a pasture, it would need to produce an extra
25 kg of beef at $1.60 per kilogram to break even. This may well be possible if it increased the
production of a grass pasture by 2,000 kg/ha, which with 50% utilisation and a conversion rate
of 7%, might produce an extra 70 kg of beef.

Weeds use moisture and nutrients which otherwise would produce valuable feed. It can be
profitable to use herbicides for broadleaf weeds, and Spinnaker in lucerne pastures.

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 Pasture management

Drought and overgrazing cause stress on pastures, which is made worse by the following:

1. high stocking rates prior to drought

2. continuous grazing management;
3. poor general pasture health due to disease or insect attack;
4. low soil fertility;

Grazing management

One management option to maintain good pasture is to reduce stock and turn-off animals when
feed supplies start to diminish. This is easier with steer fattening or where the cattle enterprise
is a combination of breeders and bought steers. A particularly important time to assess feed
supply is late Autumn, after the date when summer grasses will no longer respond to rainfall.

Rotational grazing (with at least 10 paddocks and grazing periods of 7 to 10 days) also helps
pasture health and is likely to result in more ground cover and less weeds.

A common question is whether cell grazing (with 30 or more paddocks and grazing periods of
one to three days) has an advantage over rotational grazing?

My view is that the most important aspect of maintaining valuable pasture species and have
them compete with weeds is not to graze new pasture shoots. This can be achieved with 10-12
paddocks and a 7 day grazing interval, decreasing to 5 days during periods of rapid growth.

More intensive grazing may reduce pressure on palatable species, but if pasture selection is
reduced, and stocking rate is increased, then there may be a decline in production per head.
This means some of the advantage of increasing stock density may be offset by lower kg/day.

Other disadvantages of intensive cell grazing, include the costs of fencing and water facilities
and the labour and lifestyle implications of moving cattle every day.

Hand feeding

Drought feeding can help take the pressure off pastures. It can be either supplementary,
survival or feeding for production, but the goals and outcomes need to be clearly established.

When feed quality deteriorates in winter, the cheapest supplement is urea. Dispensers which
add urea to the water supply have advantages in that they provide urea in a measured dose for
all cattle. In blocks or other forms, urea intake will be variable between animals and there is a
risk of poisoning after rain.

As feed quantity declines, then an energy ration is needed. Cottonseed is an excellent

supplement, providing both energy and protein.

Calculations will suggest if it is profitable to feed. For example, cottonseed fed to steers at 0.7
kg/day could improve the animal performance on dry grass by 0.3 kg beef per day. The cost of
cottonseed at 30 c/kg ($300/tonne landed on-farm) is 21c and if 0.3 kg of beef is worth 45c,
then feeding will make a profit. There will be additional gains by turning off beef in a shorter time
and producing a better product.

Whole cottonseed is a very easy feed to manage. Cattle will only use it when they need it as a
protein supplement and will restrict their intake and not gorge on it.

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