Finishing Cattle
Selecting Finished Cattle
It is important to know when your finishing cattle are ready for sale so that you can maximise returns.
There are two main routes for finished cattle: selling liveweight through a livestock market or selling deadweight direct to an abattoir. The specifications for each route vary slightly and there are pros and cons of each. Watch here >>
Beef Finishing Systems
Finishing beef can be one of the most expensive timepoints in beef production with a wide variety of systems utilised each with its own goals. Ruminant Nutritionist Lorna Shaw discusses the main systems available and considerations you may take when deciding what system suits your business and cattle best. Watch here >>
Keeping Male Calves Entire?
With calving either started or not far away, on many farms, now is the time for breeders to consider whether they castrate their bull calves or keep them entire.
Young bulls have good growth rates averaging around 1.6kg DLWG and from a carbon emissions perspective they have the lowest carbon footprint as they are one of the quickest finishing systems we have. (Less time on farm = lower carbon footprint) Read more>>
Importance Of Long Fibre In Intensive Rations
Cattle which are fed on an ad-libitum cereal-based finisher ration can have exceptional performance. In order to achieve this exceptional performance good management is vital. In any ruminant diet, fibre is necessary to maintain rumen function and an ad-lib cereal ration is no exception to this. Read more>>
Sign up to the FAS newsletter
Receive updates on news, events and publications from Scotland’s Farm Advisory Service