With the environmental impact of beef farming under constant scrutiny, it’s more important than ever for UK systems to be as efficient and sustainable as possible – key points that are central to the Walker family’s Dumfriesshire enterprises.
Having expanded their business in recent years, with the home farm, Drumbuie, having been in the family for more than 100 years, Tower and Knockenjig were added in 1992 and 2015 respectively. The Walkers now run 700 suckler cows across 2500 acres of mixed rough hill down to good silage ground.
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Michael Walker manages the farming enterprise alongside his brother Stuart and parents Tina and Jim, and six full time members of staff.
There are a mixture of pedigree Charolais and pedigree Aberdeen Angus with the commercial herd comprising a mixture of Angus, Simmental and Hereford genetics.
The aim is to keep a tight 12-week calving period by AI’ing all cows and following up with a bull. All cows calve down between February and May indoors and any that fail to hold to the bull are culled.
“We would like to cut it down to a 10-week block just to keep calving tight. By AI’ing we are able to get uniform calves for selling in level pens store,” said Michael, who AI’d 620 cows last year with 760 bulled, which resulted in 50 barren, so he is hoping to get more than 685 calves to sell this year.
This year the Walkers have AI'd 700 cows and will be putting more than 800 to the bull.
Cattle are housed from the mid October right through until May, with all calving taking place indoors, due to the wet fields situated on farm.
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The family has also improved the infrastructure and just recently installed a new slatted shed with rubber mats and slats.
When cows are close to calving, they are moved to straw bedded courts, and are moved back onto slats 10 days post calving.
Cows and calves are summered at grass, while the heifers go on to better quality gazing ground and a paddock rotation system.
The family is looking to increase cow numbers to 800 this year with 700 of them on a synchronised AI synchro programme. They also have 40 bulls the majority of which are home-bred from their 70-pedigree cow herd between Charolais and Aberdeen Angus.
“It is easy enough to breed our own bulls, as we know the feet will be correct and fertility will be better, as they are not being pushed hard to meet show/sale requirements. Plus, they are used to our climate and won’t come home and ‘melt’. We also know exactly what their figures are and where we can improve on through genetics,” said Michael, who sells a handful of bulls privately off farm.
Most years 180 heifers are retained annually, to calve down at two years old to Aberdeen Angus semen and bulls unless they are pure.
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The majority of calves are sold store either privately or through United Auctions, Stirling, with the 300 sold so far averaging in excess of £1300, up £120 on the year.
Some 70-100 are finished through various outlets, with all cull cows sold mostly south of the Border, as they don’t trim them before they are paid, which could result in £100 more per head than if they were sold in Scotland.
“We would ideally fatten more, but the land we have isn’t good enough to grow any of our own crops, so we’d have to import it all, which comes at a cost,” said Michael, who currently buys in 400 tonnes of grain and 700-800 tonnes of straw.
“Locating straw has been challenging this year. We are lucky in that we work with a lot of repeat customers, and we have a lot of shed space so can fill up early when we know straw and cereals are going to be tight,” he said.
Some 1000 acres of grass are also cut twice, to produce high quality silage aiming for 30%DM and 12-14g/kg of dry matter protein.
Michael also works with Karen Stewart from SAC to come up with a ration that works for the herd. Everything is fed a total mixed ration diet, made up according to the silage analysis and the nutritional requirements of the animals.
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The family has also invested in a Growsafe system which not only records the feed and water intakes of the heifers but also their individual weights,
It is the only feed intake recording system that enables continuous data acquisition, with the introduction to EID tags nine years ago helping the procedure.
“The feed troughs read the EID tag and can measure exactly what that animal has eaten. The cattle are weighed when they go into the trial and weighed again at the end.
“With this information, we can accurately work out the feed conversion and efficiency of each animal, by the weight gain per kg of feed eaten. We can turn around 80 animals every 42 to 50 days through the system.
“Cattle that are most feed efficient produce less methane, which is a major factor in the current climate debate.
“Since putting the EID tags in, the average time for an animal going through the crush has gone from one minute and 30 seconds to 35 seconds. It is also a massive saving on human error trying to read a tag number,” he added.
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Calves are weighed at every handling. Weaning takes place in October at about seven months of age and the Walkers look for a weaning efficiency of 50% of the dam’s weight. and calves averaging 1.1-1.2kg liveweight gain per day.
Mature cows weigh 680kg as a herd average, with the average age of the herd being 4.5 years.
“On year seven we really keep an eye on monitoring performance, we need a compact mid-sized cow which is going to wean a calf and get back in calf at the same time – we aren’t asking a lot of them!” said Michael, who admitted that a cow and calf will be costing up to £1200 to keep which is up £80-100 on the year.
Calf vaccines cost £25 per head up to seven to eight weeks of age.
Michael’s brother, Stuart runs the renewables side of the business, Drumbuie Renewables, which works hand in hand with the farming enterprise.
“We both have the same vision and get on well, so it makes working together a lot easier,” said Michael, pointing out that the farm boasts wind, solar and biomass on farm.
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The business also owns some 2300 ewes which lamb from March for a 12-week period, indoors and outdoors.
The 400 Scotch Mules of which 100 are ewe hoggs lamb inside, to Beltex or Texel terminal sires, for their easy fleshing and growth rates. This year this group achieved a scanning percentage of 189%.
The remainder are all Blackface ewes, some of which are kept pure, with some going to the Bluefaced Leicester tup for breeding Scotch Mule ewes lambs, of which 600 are sold privately or through Wallets Marts at Castle Douglas.
The Blackface ewes scanned at 176% this year with the hill ewes at 160%.
Around 500 ewe lambs are kept for replacements with the remaining sold deadweight off farm, mainly through Vivers at Annan.
The aim is to finish lambs at 40kg liveweight, depending on the price, with the first draw of lambs sold by the end of June purely off grass. They also strive to sell a constant flow of lambs through to January and therefore buy in 600 Blackface store lambs privately to finish as many as possible off of grass.
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Feed hoppers are put out to help push them on with around 400 lambs housed on a TMR or creep feed diet to finish from November/December when the weather changes.
The introduction to the Tepari system four years ago has been a real game changer for the family when grading and drawing fat lambs.
“What would take a couple of days can now be done in no time and it is a much more pleasurable job,” said Michael, adding that 450 lambs can go through the weigh scales in an hour.
“The current higher prices in the sheep industry should drive more efficient sheep flocks in turn, as any under performing sheep you would like to think would be getting sold as they are such good money. We certainly have been strict on our flock this year as we may as well cash them in when we can.
“The price ewes and lambs are, many are already out of the system, so hopefully prices will remain buoyant as the supply should shorten and demand is certainly still there,” he added.
Speaking ahead of the Big Beef Roadshow to be staged at Knockenjig on Tuesday June 11, he said: “As an industry we need to be much more proactive about selling our product and focusing on efficiency. Open days are a great way of showcasing this and learning from one another and industry experts.
There will be a series of meetings where industry specialists will help beef farmers continue to improve existing practices to drive increased herd efficiency and sustainability.
Make sure and book your place, as booking is essential.
“In terms of our industry we have an excellent product in the labelling of Scotch beef or lamb, which is well known worldwide, we just do a bad job of marketing that.
“Government, and industry marketing organisations such as QMS and NFUS that are supposed to be proactive need to focus their attention on their own industry and policy and look at implementing strategies to promote our product and the industry behind it with a support structure that will encourage farmers to produce food efficiently.
“With farm subsidies being uncertain, I do think it will drive efficiency as the industry will adapt what they are doing and ensure it is viable.
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“We always have to be forecasting ahead, as we are working a year in advance, AI’ing cows now for 12 months’ time, so we have to keep hoping the future is strong and fight for our product.
“The fluctuations in prices need controlled but the markets are doing that, beef price is where it needs to be with such high inputs.
“Our industry is controlled by a few, and we cannot set our own price, we just have to take what we get, until we can change this, it is always going to be a concern.
“So, it is time we all work together and make our industry the most efficient and sustainable place we can,” concluded Michael.
Farm facts
Involvement: Michael Walker manages the farming enterprise alongside his brother Stuart and parents Tina and Jim. With the help of his sister, Alison on the renewables side.
Staff: Six full time employees.
History: Drumbuie has been tenanted since 1921 and was purchased in the 2003, having added Tower in 1992 and more lateral Knockenjig in 2015.
Acres: A total of 2500 acres between the units, varying from mixed rough hill to good silage ground.
Livestock numbers: 700 suckler cows and 2300 ewes.
On the spot questions
Favourite quote: “The farmer is the only man in the economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale and pays freight both ways,”: John F Kennedy
Most important part to farming: Don’t see it as a lifestyle. It’s a business first.
Best advice: Be ruthless when it comes to making decisions on performance.
Thoughts on new calf scheme: Yet another misguided attempt from the government to look like they are interested in an industry that they have no interest in.
Where do you see yourself in 2034: Still living the dream in sunny Sanquhar.
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