{"id":12491,"date":"2014-09-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/wholl-take-the-fast-road\/"},"modified":"2014-09-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T12:00:00","slug":"wholl-take-the-fast-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/wholl-take-the-fast-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019ll take the fast road?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

A packed final seminar in Whangarei heard that after three years of many trials throughout the province, fast-track systems could end without the targeted liveweight achievements and plagued by declining pasture quality.<\/p>\n

AgFirst Northland consultant Gareth Baynham said the project had shown the difficulties of managing a fast-track system on kikuyu-dominant pasture.<\/p>\n

Using the farm modelling programme Farmax, Baynham analysed two markedly different cattle systems monitored during the life of the project.<\/p>\n

The fast-track system was a lower stocking rate of 2.1 bulls\/ha, buying them in at 250kg liveweight (LW) in April and finishing them between January and March at 313kg carcaseweight (CW), generating an average sale price of $1211 at 17 months.<\/p>\n

Far North cattle farmer Laurie Copland uses a small portion of his Broadwood farm to grow cattle really fast.<\/p>\n

He runs 60-65 bulls on 30ha of river flats with high-quality short-rotation ryegrass and nitrogen, using a 35-day maximum rotation in winter and 18 days in summer.<\/p>\n

He aims to market those cattle at 340kg CW by Christmas.<\/p>\n

The slow-track system was 3.3 bulls\/ha buying in April at 185kg LW and selling in three roughly equal-sized groups \u2013 two store sales, in November and March, followed by the remaining one-third finished at 269kg CW or $1001\/head in April at 20 months.<\/p>\n

Most intensive beef systems in Northland \u2013 eg: Technosystems \u2013 are in this slow-track category.<\/p>\n

\u201cProduction and profitability was similar between the two systems,\u201d Baynham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe slow track had higher production but the fast track was more efficient and generated higher beef returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cGross farm revenue was very similar but with the higher stocking rate comes higher costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the purpose of efficiency, shouldn\u2019t more farmers be running fast-track systems, Baynham asked those at the seminar. He found few willing to do so, except Copland, based on their perception of the risks.<\/p>\n

While both systems have risks, the major risks are different and Northland\u2019s highly variable pasture growth rates can expose fast-track systems to dangers.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018The slow-track had higher\u00a0production but\u00a0
the fast-track was\u00a0more efficient and generated\u00a0
higher beef returns.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Good spring pasture growth potentially creates surplus feed and pasture quality issues, while poor winter and spring pasture growth creates a feed deficit and the risk of underfeeding cattle.<\/p>\n

The under-utilisation risk means the gross margin (GM) for the fast-track system takes a hit when a good spring is modelled (-10%), but an even bigger hit (-22%) from a poor winter-spring.<\/p>\n

Conversely the higher stocked cattle on a slow-track system are able to eat a tonne more of drymatter which would be produced in a good spring.<\/p>\n

That generates considerable upside and the GM jumped by 49%.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, the higher stocking rate carries bigger exposure to a poor winter-spring, resulting in a 33% drop in GM.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk is that your slow track gets even slower,\u201d Baynham pointed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cBulls are already growing at low rates through the winter, so a small reduction in pasture growth means much lighter bulls at marketing and increased reliance on a fickle store market if cattle are not finished.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fast-track system relies on bulls reaching their genetic potential because even a small drop in feed quality will quickly reduce liveweight gain, and for a low stocking rate to be profitable exceptional liveweight gain is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFast-track farming requires pasture to be held in the sweet spot, which is grazing at two or two-and-a-half leaves, allowing the animals to graze on the best pasture, leaving higher residuals, having high-quality pasture species, and being prepared to \u2018re-set\u2019 pasture that has lost quality by topping or grazing with low-priority stock.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn contrast, the slow-track bulls are much less sensitive to feed quality because generally it is the amount of pasture they are offered which limits liveweight gain.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlow-track farming has a focus on maximising pasture growth: Grazing at two-and-a-half to three leaves, long rotations in the winter, tactical nitrogen and minimising pugging damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The management systems needed for fast and slow systems are almost opposites.<\/p>\n

Baynham said farmers should not be relying on recipes. The big danger was getting caught in no-man\u2019s land when the seasons didn\u2019t pan out as predicted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fast-track systems can end badly.\nThe challenges of fast-tracking cattle growth rates have been exposed by the popular Beef + Lamb New Zealand Finished by 20 Months project in Northland.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":12492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t