Stabilisers Achieve Big Gains on Farms

Stabiliser Newsletter January 2010

Stabilisers Achieve Big Gains on Farms

2009 has been another busy year for the development of the UK’s newest and fastest growing beef breed. Farmers already converting to Stabilisers have accelerated the change-over from their traditional Holstein cross cows by buying extra heifers and several completely new herds have been set up with batches of bulling heifers.

Bull sales have been very buoyant with a considerable number going into suckler herds for the first time.

The expanding numbers of Stabiliser herds are performing very competitively at farm level. High fertility, low calf mortality, shorter calving intervals, low cow maintenance costs, high growth rates and docility are all contributing to a head and shoulder financial lead over other traditional suckler systems.

The Stabiliser has now firmly established itself as the breed capable of more than breaking even without the help of Single Farm Payment. This is of paramount importance for the future survival of suckler producers as we once again head towards CAP reform and the threat of reduced support to satisfy, among other things, the emerging anti-livestock brigade spurred on by the perceived threat to global warming from methane emissions from ruminants.

The first Genetic Trend Graphs for the Stabiliser breed have been produced by Signet. The graphs track the movement of EBV’s for all the main performance traits from when the first 52 calves were recorded in 2000 to the current calf crop. During the last 3 years there have been significant improvements in growth rates, muscle depth and maternal values while crucially maintaining a flat trend for calving value.

This encouraging picture is the result of SCC’s deliberate policy of encouraging the selection of high value bulls for use in recorded herds. One of the great advantages the Stabiliser has over all other breeds is that the entire national herd is recorded. This enables SCC to manage the genetic direction of the breed in an organised way to optimise herd performance and to maximise economic output.

Congratulations are due to Amanda Hamley from Hillview Farm, in Cornwall for winning the EBLEX ‘most improved herd award’ for the Stabiliser breed. This award is presented to the performance recorded herd within each pedigree breed that has shown the greatest genetic gain for commercial traits over the previous 12 month period.

Amanda is delighted to see that her policy of using bulls with high genetic merit, both through natural service and AI, is paying off. She is using EBV’s to strengthen the performance of her herd very effectively.

Amanda says, “I use the Stabiliser because I was looking for a dam line that could live outside and be easily managed and they tick all those boxes and many more”

Richard Fuller
Technical Director

Events and Open Days in 2009

Yorkshire Cattle Finishing Event
On January 14th a cattle finishing event was held at Birdsall Estates, North Yorkshire in conjunction with the English Food and Farming Partnership. The focus of the event was to demonstrate the advantages of the breed and to encourage store cattle finishers to buy Stabiliser steers and to market them through the Givendale Prime brand.

Robin Hughes, farm manager gave us a very enlightening tour of the cattle yards where he finishes around 500 home bred steers. A good deal of interest was shown, especially in seeing how consistent the cattle were in their age groups and Robin explained the feed efficiency, live weight gains and carcass grading of his cattle. A hearty lunch of steak pie made of Givendale Prime Beef was served at The Gait Inn, Millington.

NSA National Welsh Sheep Event
The Welsh National Sheep Association event was held on May 19th by the kind permission E. & A.G & D.W. Ellis at Cernioge Bach, Pentrefoelas, Betws y Coed in North Wales.

SCC was invited to have a stand because the Ellis family run a 120 cow Stabiliser herd producing breeding bulls and heifers, and steers which are finished in Yorkshire for the Givendale Prime brand.

In spite of it being a miserably wet day 5000 plus people attended. A large number of trade stands and Sheep Breed Societies were involved filling the huge shed on the farm. Tours around this high-hill livestock farm in Snowdonia were organised with the Stabiliser cattle having prominent positions and looking very well suited to the harsh environment.

This was an excellent demonstration of how well the Stabiliser successfully adapts to even the harshest conditions and the impressive cows and young stock were a credit to the Ellis family.

Dewi comments:-
“The Stabilisers are easy calving, very quiet and easy to handle. They have good growth rates and these are improving all the time because I am able to buy the best Signet recorded bulls with EBV’s in the top 5% for performance. I have a wide choice of bulls because all pure Stabiliser herds in the UK are recorded. The most important thing in the end is the eating quality of the beef and our experience of this is magnificent.”

Beef Expo 2009
Beef Expo was held on 21st May at the Three Counties Showground, Malvern, a beautiful setting under the Malvern Hills.

SCC had a stand at the event with outstanding pens of livestock, kindly loaned by JSR Farms Ltd. and R&J Farms from East Yorkshire.

On show were a Stabiliser stock bull, a Stabiliser calved heifer with bull calf, 2 Stabiliser yearling bulling heifers and 2 Stabiliser finishing steers. The excellent display of working cattle drew a lot of interest.

Manning the stand were Richard Fuller, Lowri & Alwyn Williams and Ursula Taylor with help from John Geldard who also spent time on the stand explaining the virtues of Stabilisers to potential customers.

Shropshire Open Day

On June 24th James Evans in conjunction with EBLEX held an event entitled “Maternal Traits and Grazing Management’’ at his Walcot Farm, Lydbury North, in Shropshire.

James welcomed around 70 visitors to the farm and gave an account of his farming system and stocking policy. He explained that he is replacing his Holstein cross cows with Stabilisers as quickly as possible.

His change over to Stabilisers began in March 2008 with the purchase of a group of March calving heifers quickly followed by a Stabiliser bull to start grading up his commercial cows. Further groups of bulling heifers were purchased in spring 2008 and 09. Based on the experiences with his Stabilisers he decided in 2009 to replace all his Charolais bulls. His 92 spring calving cows were all mated to Stabiliser bulls.

A presentation was made by Dr Liz Genever from EBLEX on ‘maternal traits for improved performance’ and Andrew Sherrott from Natural England described various environmental schemes available to farmers.

A lunch of barbecued Givendale Prime Burgers was served and a big ‘thank you’ goes to Mrs Evans and her helpers for providing the tea and cakes.

The farm walk started with a look at the “Value of Good Grazing Management” with Charlie Morgan from IBERS. This was followed by a tour around the Stabiliser cattle and Lleyn sheep.

The cattle looked very well, particularly the pure females James has bought in to replace his Holstein crosses. This strategy will shorten the long process of grading up and accelerate the development of his herd to pure bred status with all the benefits that brings.

James comments: -

‘In the two years I have been using Stabiliser genetics I have seen a dramatic improvement in my herd. I am already seeing a huge increase in the number of live calves born and weaned. I went into the breed with an open mind and so far I have been pleased in every way. The output of the herd has risen dramatically but at the same time my life has become far easier by the fact I no longer have to assist the cows at calving and hours having to help calves suckle is a thing of the past! The biggest trouble now is keeping up with the tagging because the herd calve so quickly and the calves are up and away within minutes!’

Northern Ireland NSA Sheep Event
On July 5th SCC ventured across the Irish Sea to have a presence at the NSA Northern Ireland Sheep event, held at Ballymena Livestock Market with farm tours to Billy O’Kane’s Crebilly Farm.

We were invited by Greenmount College, who were the technical organisers of the event, to attend and to have a presence at the market and Crebilly Farm. Billy is a committed Romney sheep and Stabiliser breeder. He has established a herd of pure Stabilisers with embryos and he is selling all the bulls he can breed.

The event was held in the afternoon and early evening and it was well attended by around 2500 people.

Over 800 of these were ferried on buses to the farm where groups of visitors were taken by stewards to several points at which specialists talked about chosen subjects. The proceedings eventually finished at about 8.30pm, after a lot of discussion. Keen interest was shown on the day resulting in enquires for livestock and a surge in semen sales.

Billy comments:-
‘Changing from Continental cattle to Stabilisers five years ago has made my beef farming profitable and enjoyable again. I have consistently 10% more cattle to sell at the same weight as before but with a reduction in concentrate usage of about 25%. Most importantly because Stabilisers calve nearly all unassisted I now see my wife and children more frequently during calving.’

Crebilly Farm - 2009 herd performance
80 cows and heifers put to bull in 2008
78 calves weaned
2 assisted births
354 day calving interval
Same DLWG as Continentals
25% less concentrates used

: Result ‘Happy wife. Happy bank manager. Happy me. NOT BAD!’

Cumbrian Open Day
John Geldard and family along with Gordon Capstick and family hosted the open day at Low Foulshaw and Park Farm near Kendal on 20th August.
The farm tours demonstrated the progress that has been made in both herds since the Stabiliser cattle were introduced seven years ago. Charles Geldard, who is now in charge of the cattle at Low Foulshaw explained the development of the herd and Paul Capstick led the tour of the Park Farm herd.

Both tours emphasised the progress they have made through the grading up process from Holstein cross base cows to F1’s then F2’s and finishing up with the purebred cattle.

Charles proudly showed us some excellent embryo yearling bulls from the USA. Three bulls from the group had already been sold and were in use with other breeders.

Both Charles and Paul explained that their Stabiliser cows are very fertile and producing fit, healthy calves and that their calving pattern is now much tighter. They also explained that their best heifer calves are being retained as replacements so base cows can be culled, some good quality heifers are being sold on for breeding and the poorer end are being slaughtered.

Thanks go to Mary Capstick and her helpers for putting on such a superb tea.

The day generated a great deal of interest and a stock bull was sold shortly after the event from Park Farm.

Paul says:-
“The Stabiliser suits our farm and system better than any other cow, with fewer people on the farm we needed to make life easier and reduce costs, the Stabiliser helps with both.

Its ease of calving and docile nature makes calving time a pleasure.

Added bonuses are we don’t have to feed as much concentrate, forage is enough and the fact that we calve the heifers at 2 years old with no problems means we are getting an extra calf crop in without jeopardizing the future growth of the heifers.”

South West Open Day
Richard Brown of Park Farm, Landulph, Saltash, Cornwall kindly hosted an open day on October 28th. An overcast cooler day didn’t deter the 50 or so visitors.

Layland Branfield welcomed everybody and introduced Richard Brown who gave a brief description of his farming system. Richard farms about 250 acres of arable and grass with 50 cows, he is grading up with Stabiliser bulls. Stabiliser genetics have been used on his base cows which were mainly Blonde d’Aquitaine crosses at Park Farm since 2004.

Richard Fuller gave a presentation about the Stabiliser Cattle Company and about how the breed is progressing across the country.

Everyone then boarded tractors and trailers for a tour of the cattle starting with his base cows with F1 calves, and then moving onto F1 cows with F2 calves at foot. We viewed an excellent group of growing steers that were very even and well grown for their age. We then went through Richard’s fields of in-calf and bulling Stabiliser heifers, they all looked excellent. Any producer would be proud to own a group of cattle of such a high standard.

The autumn calving cows had nearly finished calving and they were a superb demonstration of the Stabiliser’s calving ease. All the cows had calved unseen and the cow that had calved the previous night was a big, fit cow but her small calf was already galloping around the field with a belly full of colostrum.

In the last field there was a group of fit prime steers and cull heifers heading for the Christmas market.

We arrived back at the farm where refreshments of the best Cornish pasties ever, homemade cakes and cups of tea were being served by Mrs Brown and her group of helpers. We would like to thank them all for putting on such a superb spread.

Layland Branfield thanked all for attending and he emphasised the great contribution the Stabiliser is making to improve the profitability of suckler herds.

An excellent show of cattle has resulted in a lot of interest and some orders for heifers have already had been taken.

Ursula Taylor

‘The Top End of the Best Beef Available’

The Stabiliser Cattle Company has established a blueprint to produce outstanding tender, succulent and full flavoured beef every time it is eaten. It has earned many flattering testimonials.

Developed from traditional British native breeds for the USA meat market, the Stabiliser is well marbled and has adequate fat cover to benefit cookability and flavour. It finishes economically on grass or silage based diets improving flavour and above all its docile temperament contributes to tenderness. Wild cattle can make for tough eating and this poses a big problem for the UK beef market. Post slaughter, the hind quarters are hung on the bone for 3 weeks to enhance flavour and tenderness.

I am convinced that unless the average eating quality of beef is seriously improved then the industry will lose market share even quicker than it is doing at the moment. Beef is regarded as an expensive option by most consumers. Too many have been let down by bad eating experiences. Tough, tasteless beef produced by farmers and processed by cost driven businesses who pay scant regard to the final quality of their product and the satisfaction of the people who buy and eat it, is slowly eroding demand. The truth is too many people are not buying beef. The sad thing is we know how to get it right, the science is proven but a large section of industry it seems, just can’t be bothered or doesn’t care.

Liz Walker recently wrote in the Farmers Guardian:-
‘…..Isn’t the beef of old England wonderful? Well, unfortunately, it isn’t. Out for dinner the other day, at a good local restaurant, I ordered the sirloin steak. I never order steak normally, because I don’t go out often enough to waste a good meal on tough meat. But I did, and as usual, I regretted it.

Consumption of beef in this country is on the way down, and if Saturday’s meal is anything to go by, we don’t have the right to complain. Beef shouldn’t just be for the young, with strong jaws and impeccable gnashers. We should never accept the careful placing of a steak knife to tackle the horrible bit or shoe leather we’re about to pretend to eat…….you don’t get it in America. Hormones or not, the steak there is tender and tasty.

Out there somewhere is an animal of taste, flavour and succulent, tender flesh. If you own it, own up. We have a right to know.’

To put matters right we need to sort out the serious temperament problems in many cattle. We then need to dump the discredited EUROP grading system (which has contributed to the downward spiral of meat quality by reducing fat content) as soon as possible and replace it with VIA (video imaging analysis) and NIR (near infrared reflectance spectroscopy) technology in meat plants to accurately assess true carcase yield and eating quality. Finally we need a pricing structure that pays farmers to produce a product of high eating quality that satisfies more consumers, all of the time, to ensure a strong market for really good eating beef.

Sadly, if the industry starts now we are 10 to 15 years behind the USA. The upside is we should ‘own up’ to the fact that the Stabiliser has a strong market lead.

VIA - This is a fast and non-invasive method which provides accurate predictions of weights of trimmed primal cuts from on-line carcases in abattoirs.

NIR - This technology can predict fatty acid profiles, colour and sensory characteristics such as texture, flavour and has potential to be used on-line in abattoirs for fast and relatively inexpensive estimates of meat eating quality.
Richard Fuller

Worshipful Company of Butchers Court Lunch Thursday 2nd July 2009

The Beef Improvement Group donated 50kg of “Givendale Prime” Sirloin to The Worshipful Company of Butchers Court Lunch, serving 145 members and their invited guests.

The Worshipful Company of Butchers is one of the oldest Livery Companies of the City of London which plays an integral part in the governance of the City to this day, joining other Livery Companies in electing the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs at Common Hall in Guildhall. The Company administers the growing responsibility for Meat Training and Education and many charitable organisations.

The Givendale Prime Beef was sourced from W&R Hallifield a Stabiliser breeder and finisher near Derby; it was slaughtered and prepared by Owen Taylor & Son wholesale butcher at Alfreton, Derby.

The beef was matured on the bone for 5 weeks then deboned and prepared for the caterers and delivered to Butchers Hall, Smithfield in London for the lunch.

The Court Lunch is a well established event held monthly with long standing traditions. The members are all butchers or people working within the meat industry and they are allowed to invite guests to the Court Lunch.

The lunch is held in the Great Hall of Butchers Hall when all members and guests are seated, the Master is then clapped in with his guests, an age old tradition.

Superb roast Givendale Prime Sirloin entered the hall to a slow hand clap and the Master inspected the beef and after a nod of approval it was then carved and served to the guests. Liveryman, John Stone acknowledged Givendale Prime during his reply on behalf of the guests.
Ursula Taylor

The Virtues of High Quality Forage

The ability of the Stabiliser to convert grass into growth and body condition is becoming well known. The savings on feed and maintenance costs are beginning to emerge as more pure Stabilisers are appearing on farms, so too are the extra gains that can be achieved with higher feed value forages.

The store Stabiliser steers grazing at Givendale over the summer have grown well. The dry spring meant that grass was in short supply but quality was high and the cattle were much more contented with a lot more sun on their backs than they had last year.

The batch of 37 April/May born steers bought in from CAPPELE Farm on 30th April averaged 398kg and they were housed on 29th October weighing 577kg. They put on 179kg achieving a daily live-weight gain of 0.98kg per day from grass and 3kg per day of supplement during the last 4 weeks prior to housing. The first steers to go for slaughter in November have averaged 620kg and the rest are gaining at about 2kg per day and they will all be gone before the New Year.

Our bulling heifers too have also performed very well this year on grazed grass and latterly some straw. They put on 175kg growing at 0.8kg per day from turnout on 27th April when they weighed 403kg, to housing on 2nd December when they averaged 583kg.

Our high clover re-seeds have improved nutritional values for cutting and grazing cattle and are clearly demonstrated by our first cut silage analysis:-
Dry matter 49.5% D Value 72.8% ME 11.7 MJ/kg Sugar 50.0 g/kg Crude Protein 15.9%

Silage of this quality will have to be carefully balanced with straw to prevent the cows and heifers from putting on too much weight over the winter before calving. The ration for our weaned heifers will also have to be adjusted by reducing the supplement in their ration to make sure they don’t over-shoot the target of 400kg bulling weight by next May.

The next phase in the development of the Stabiliser will be to further improve feed efficiency. To some extent this is already happening when a proportion of young bulls and heifers grow faster within their same management groups. The next step is to import new genetics from the US where more young sires with superior feed efficiency are being identified through individual feed intake monitoring.

Richard Fuller

Stabilisers Achieve Big Gains on Farms

Other News Stories

Latest News

Major Breakthrough for BIG