The dramatic changes which have occurred in the UK beef industry over the last five years require equally dramatic changes to traditional production systems if finishing cattle is to remain a profitable enterprise. In many cases these changes reverse key areas of traditional management. In all business the important criteria is unit cost per unit of output. In finishing systems this equates to feed costs per kg liveweight gain . Daily output ie daily liveweight gain has a bigger effect on feed costs per kg compared to daily feed costs.
Silage is more efficient than grazing .
Traditional advice has recommended that fields for first cut silage should not be grazed after the turn of the year. This increases costs of production and reduces animal performance . Current advice is therefore to turn cattle out early to initially graze silage fields. The priority for grassland management is to make sufficient cheap silage to overwinter stock . By-product feeds, cereals etc are now a cheaper source of energy compared to grass silage.