Finished Bulls 2018

Finished bulls are a key element of our beef enterprise.  We aim to finish young bulls off a mainly grass based ration with a target live weight of 650kg at 13 months of age. None of our young stock has creep feed. In 2018 we weaned our bull calves with  QuietWean nose flaps.  The idea is that the calf wears the nose flaps for about 4 days before weaning occurs.  The benefit is that the calf stays with it’s dam, but cannot suckle so there is less stress  for both calf and dam. We were very pleased with how well the flaps worked and weaning was very quiet!  Details of the theory and research behind the Quietwean flaps can be found at www.quietwean.com.

In 2018 our average weaning weight was 318kg  at 7 months, which is 50% of our average  dam weight.

The bulls then went on to a TMR growing/finishing ration which consisted of: 9kg of  14% beef finishing ration (with added yeast), 12kg grass silage (average silage that is typically Dry matter – 33%, Crude protein 12%,  D value 67 and ME 10.5) and 3kg of water.  The ration stays the same throughout the finishing programme, but the number of rations fed increases as live weight increases – so by the time the bulls are up to their target live weight  they are getting just over 1 ration/head.   This ration gave us an average dlwg over the finishing programme of 1.9kg/day – with 34% of the bulls doing over 2kg/day during this time. Please note that none of our young stock has creep feed – including bull calves.

2018 is the first year that our bulls have been graded on the VIA 15 Point Automatic System.  We had heard various anecdotes about the new automatic system and were concerned that it might have an impact on the grades for this year.  This was not the case and the grades were consistent with previous years.

Key Facts for 2018 Finished Bulls:

2018 Ration:

Grades shown as Percentages:

Automatic grading/VIA 15 Point System

The great thing about the Stabiliser™ breed is that the animals perform very consistently year after year.  This consistent performance helps us accurately predict feeding costs and finishing times.