As farms are being challenged to further increase production, it becomes apparent to many that methods to strengthen efficiency strikes high on the agenda.
Simmental breeder, Iain Green has this as a key priority working in partnership with his parents, Nan and Jimmy and his daughter, Laura, farming along the Morayshire coast at Corskie Farm.
Running 5600 acres of mixed owned and contracted ground, where they run 180 pedigree Simmentals, 380 commercial Simmental cross Shorthorns, 750 Mules and Mule cross Texel ewes, plus an indoor breeding herd of 360 sows.
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Of this 2900 acres of crops are grown annually including spring barley for distilling, plus winter barley and winter wheat for the livestock.
Laura explained how implementing electronic identification (EID) tags to their 560 head of cattle has reaped benefits including gathering weight data and ease of management when carrying out movements.
“We were first introduced to Allflex EID tags back in 2011 when we hosted the National Beef Association (NBA) event. Seeing the advantages first hand we decided to simultaneously begin tagging all our cattle,” said Laura. The whole herd is now tagged using EID tags purchased from Allflex, retailing up to £3.59 for a calf set that includes a visual primary tag and the secondary EID button tag.
“The EIDs have reduced paperwork and allowed for easier handling for the stockman, especially in line with ScotMoves within business movements. Particularly at times when it is large numbers of cattle being moved, like newly weaned calves.”
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“It was a bonus for us being one step ahead with Allflex EIDs when the enforcement on internal movements came into place as we can simply scan the tags, download onto the computer and send them off,” she added. However, that has not been the only benefit at Corskie Farm as the tags have proved their worth in helping to manage weight recordings.
“During 2018 we were on a monitor farm programme and Ritchie offered us a trial of their beef monitor for monitoring daily live weights," Laura explained. The product essentially being a floor unit which records weights as cattle step on the platform to use the water trough throughout the day, scanning the EID tag an average is sent across to the farms beef monitor online account.
The daily updates ensures Laura can book finishing cattle into slaughter without needing to get the cattle through the crush, saving time and improving the welfare of the cattle.
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“In our first batch of fat bulls, after running them through the crush they took between 7-10 days to start putting the weight back on at the level they had been before being handled.
“By closely monitoring the weights through the beef monitor we are able to achieve a more accurate deadweight and we managed to have the batch of 50 bulls kill-out to average 399kg deadweight compared to 376kg in previous groups, which at the time was worth £87.40 more per head,” said Laura.
The farm now boasts two Ritchie beef monitors which are capable of recording weight data from pens of up to 50 cattle per unit.
Allflex tags are useful in conjunction with the Ritchie beef monitor, as if an animal was drinking less or there was an early indication of being unwell, this information would be recorded and flagged up on Laura’s mobile. Currently the Allflex tags used at Corskie are Low Frequency (LF) and concerns follow on from the government announcement to consider using Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) tags throughout slaughterhouses.
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“This would mean that we would have to replace our current tags, update our Allflex RS420 handheld reader, EID reading panels in the crush and the beef monitors. Which comes with a price. “We have now started trialling APK UHF tags from J and M Anderson, but we just wish the Government would commit to what frequency is going to be mandatory so we have the confidence to go and change all the hardware.
“Currently when EIDs are read it is a unique chip number that is shown which can be scanned in two different formats.
You receive an electronic tag bucket from Allflex when purchasing a run of tags which you must upload to your farm software, so that each EID number is recorded against the corresponding UK tag number in your records. “This can cause confusion whereas new UHF tags are what you see is what you get, which will play a major advantage as it will be reading the UK number as it scans,” said Laura, who uses software FarmMatters.
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“We have only been working with FarmMatters for a few weeks, previously having worked with Farmplan. So far, we have received great help and engagement from the team and the system is compatible with our tag readers.
“There is a definite place for EID tags, they play a huge advantage despite initial star up costs. More efficient and minimises human errors,” concluded Laura.
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