Article courtesy of Toady’s Farm, May 2010 by Liam Fitzgerald, Beef Specialist, Teagasc, Athenry, with Alan Nolan, Teagasc, Ballina

TOMMIE Holmes, who farms three miles west of Ballina in Co. Mayo, is currently developing a suckler herd of Angus cows to produce Certified Irish Angus Beef. He has 17 Angus-cross cows and buys a similar number of weanlings to produce Certified Angus beef.

Tommie has an off-farm job and chose the Angus breed for their ease of management, especially around calving. He hasn’t pulled a calf for the past two years and the calves are quicklyonto their feet to suckle after being calved. The second reason for choosing Angus is the premium available to producers of Angus beef who are members of the Certified Angus Producers Group.

The plan to date has been to have both bullocks and heifers finished off grass before the second winter as Tommie has limited shed space. In the past few years, he has not fully achieved this target, and the result was that a proportion of steers were sold live at the mart where the premium is not obtained.

This year the plan is to finish the heaviest yearlings out of the shed as bulls while the rest of the bull yearlings and the heifers have gone to grass in April. Meal will be introduced to the bulls in lateJuneandthey willbehoused in July for finishing on a high concentrate diet. The heifers will be finished off grass in the autumn, having received about 3kg meal/day in the final six weeks. In this system, Tommie will get over the problem of limited housing while increasing beef output and getting all progeny finished. As the bull system will need less land, he intends to increase his cow numbers to maintain the stocking rate at the current level of 1.8 LU/ha.

Herd performance

When I called to Tommie on 30March last, 15 out of his 17 cows had calved, with 16 calves at foot. Calving started on 2 February, so 88% of his cows had calved within eight weeks.Avery good target is to have 80% of the herd calved within 10 weeks. He runs a stock bull with the cows and the bull is joined with the herd on about 20 April.

Good cow condition at calving and mating contributed to satisfactory fertility and there is no big effort required to maintain a calving interval of close to 365 days. Carcase weights average about 320kg for the steers and 260kg for the heifers at 18 to 20 months of age. The best of the bulls thatwere put on an adlib concentrate diet for finishing in May weighed about 620kg at slaughter while the rest thatwent to grass in April weighed 341kg in mid-March at 12 to 13 months of age.

Future plans

Tommie hopes to finish all males as bulls if this year’s group turn out to be satisfactory and to increase the cow  numbers.

At present he rears some replacements and buys the remainder. He wants to improve the cow quality by introducing
some Limousin cross replacements and is aiming to get cows with better milking ability.

Market for certified Angus beef Certified Angus beef is a niche market that has been developed since it was launched in 2000.

As such, the supply is controlled by the capacity of premium markets, within the overall beef market, to take the production level while maintaining a premium price.

Angus cattle, bred and reared under the conditions of the scheme, are slaughtered in the AIBP plants at Waterford and Bandon and in theKepak plants at Clonee, Athleague and Watergrasshill. The Tesco chain, which is supplied by AIBP, is the biggest outlet and requires 300 to 340 cattle per week.

Certified Irish Angus beef is also sold in the Aldi supermarket chain and in a number of independent butchers and restaurants. Pingo Doce in Portugal is the main export outlet.

The product can be recognised in stores by the approved certification logo on the label. Producers must be members
of the Bord Bia Beef Quality Assurance Scheme.

Price premium

The base price is fixed weekly in conjunction with the Quality Payment System (QPS) grid.

There is an Angus Beef Premium of 10c/kg.

The Quality Assurance Bonus of 6c/kg is paid on in-spec carcases.

The Angus Premium and Quality Assurance Premium are paid on carcase grades on the grid, i.e. from U+ to
O= in conformation and 2+ to 4+ (inclusive) on fat score. It excludes Oand P and fat score 5.

An additional premium of 5c/kg is added to the Angus Premium for out-ofseason production, the dates of which are agreed in advance.

A deduction of €6 per animal is made at slaughter to cover administration and promotion costs.

Certified Angus: terms and conditions

Charles Smith is administration officer of the Certified Irish Angus Beef scheme on behalf of the Irish Aberdeen Angus Producers Group.

He outlined the following terms and conditions:

• All animals must be sired by a purebred registered Angus bull or AI, and this must be shown on identify cards.
• All animals must be polled.
• Animals must be a minimum of 70 days in the final producer’s herds.
• Animals must be booked with the producer group prior to slaughter.
• Producers must be a member of the Bord Bia Beef Quality Assurance Scheme.

Charles said that the two out-of season periods are generally from the second week of May to early July and from the second week of November to about 15J anuary.

Dairy farmers will supply the bulk of the product in spring while beef farmers supply the late summer/autumnmarket.

Young bulls can fit in well to the scarce period in early summer and both steers and heifers can be finished to supply the Christmas trade.

The weight range for steers is 230kg to 400kg carcase and for heifers 220kg to 400kg carcase; both must be under 30 months of age. The bull carcase weight range is similar to steers but they must be under 24 months at slaughter. Charles Smith said they can handle up to 40% of the male slaughterings as bulls.