Creating a more productive suckler herd

Farm vet and pedigree Aberdeen-Angus breeder, Hugh Thomson, believes too many farmers are chasing the higher prices offered by Continental-type calves in the store ring – at the expense of cow health, calf survivability and ultimately profit margin – rather than choosing an easier-calving native breed. “As a vet, I often see farmers having to constantly monitor their Continental breed cows for three or four months at calving time,” he says. “Although they’ll get calves on the ground, which will go on to sell well in the store ring and make slightly more per head than some of the native breeds, many of the calves won’t have made it at the beginning or some will have needed to come out by c-section.” Previous work done by SAC Consulting showed that many calves that had come through the post-mortem lab, which had died in the first 14 days of life, had fractured ribs and injuries that resulted in them dying quickly due to a traumatic birth and failure of passive transfer. To tackle ...