Jeremy Price
Do you still think that you have to compromise on easy calving to produce cattle with exceptional growth rates? Visitors to Beef Expo pre-event farm tours on 22 May will find that the Oakchurch Charolais herd is testament that you can have it all; with pedigree heifers sufficiently grown at two years old to calve to bulls within the top 5% for calving ease estimated breeding value (EBV).
Herd owner Jeremy Price says that careful selection of genetics within his 15 cow herd for length, milkiness, natural fleshing qualities and conformation combined with Breedplan data is the winning formula at Oakchurch Farm, Staunton-on-Wye, Hereford, a 250 acre unit, the majority of which supports a soft fruit enterprise and the remaining grass carrying the pedigree Charolais alongside a 20 cow Aberdeen Angus herd.
“Our objective was to develop a profitable Charolais pedigree herd which focuses on maximising its performance potential as well as producing high genetic merit bulls for the commercial sector,” he explains. “Our policy is to keep productive females – ones that will produce one calf a year with no assistance at an average two years old – and keeping stock bulls within the top percentiles for calving ease and growth rates.”
Jeremy continues: “Targeting calving at a younger age the heifers get in calf quicker, meaning a faster turnover of calves and an extra year of profit.” At 15 months the heifers are sufficiently grown to introduce to the bull for three weeks which resulted in 72% holding to first service, and after putting him back in again several months later – calving has to tie in with quieter periods on the Price family’s soft fruit farm – 100% of the heifers will have calved before they are 32 months old. “If our heifers aren’t in calf by 23 months then they don’t get a second chance as we can’t have females eating grass that aren’t giving us an end product to sell.”
When Jeremy re-introduced Charolais to the farm in 2004, heifers went on to calve at 30 to 36 months and bull sales were steady. However the introduction of herd sire Blelack Digger TI +87, SRI +79, had a huge impact as one of the highest pointed British Charolais bulls in the herdbook with an exceptional calving ease EBV of +20.4 at 81% accuracy, within the top 1% for the breed. Purchased in 2006 at 14 months old, Jeremy explained: “Digger is a nice lined, smooth muscled bull and is the sire of half of the herd’s females.
“He leaves lively calves on the ground with a shorter gestation length, requiring no assistance at calving and they have an exceptional daily liveweight gain. Digger calves were mostly under 40kg at birth, however we still saw an average 70kg rise in 400 day weight in bulls averaging 778kg in his first crop of calves, and his heifers were all large enough at 600kg at 15 months for me to run them with Goldies Eddy with confidence. In fact, to fit in with the rest I calved one at 21 months with no problems.”
Oakchurch heifers sired by Blelack Digger with spring born calves at foot by Goldies Eddy.
Goldies Eddy TI +62, SRI +65 is the herd’s current stock sire. “He’s a fantastic bull to look at with plenty of muscle, nice lines, and with a calving ease figure of +12.7, within the breed’s top 5%, we haven’t had to touch any of the heifers at calving. The calves have a lower birth weight of 34kg to 39kg and a shorter gestation length of 278 days on average, and are lively enough to rival our native bred calves in getting up to suckle.
“Breeding Charolais cattle is very much a side-line to our soft fruit business, so maintaining low labour and time requirements is priceless,” he says. “The heifers are very milky – Digger has a 200 day milk EBV of +12, within the breed’s top 5%, and at a couple of months old the Charolais calves are showing excellent growth and conformation.”
Jeremy explained: “The heifers weighed between 300kg and 400kg at weaning at six to nine months and by 18 months old they averaged 700kg. We don’t skimp on feed, all calves receive creep but after weaning we keep the heifers fairly lean on grass and silage up until they calve. Making best use of genetics is all well and good, but a productive herd doesn’t stop just there and we are well aware that cow management is just as important as using data.
“We aim to produce stock bulls for sale at the farm gate at 10 months old and I don’t believe in pushing them young, they receive a concentrate mix with straw after weaning until they leave for pastures new. Digger-sired bulls are in demand; the herd is accredited for BVD and Johne’s, free of leptospirosis and we are vaccinating for IBR, giving buyers added confidence in bulls that are grown to 600kg by the time they leave.”
The Oakchurch herd was recognised this year for making the greatest genetic progress in the United Kingdom during the last 12 months with the Harman Charolais Genetic Improvement Award, proving the herd strategy is paying dividends.
“My aspirations for the future are to keep the herd at 15 to 20 productive Charolais cows and continue to maintain ease of calving whilst not sacrificing on the exceptional daily liveweight gains and conformation that we expect from the breed.”