Rearing Highland Cattle on a large scale, pure breeds and X Highlands

Case Studies
Written By Lynne Dickens

There are many farming systems where Highlands or Highland crosses are produced on a large scale, with the Highland as the mainstay suckler cow. What system suites you best will depend on:

  • Land type and availability

  • Available markets

Harper Adams looked at the returns of a Highland store enterprise versus commercial breeds. Investment for the commercial herd was doubled for a similar margin (2017 figures).

For a Highland based system, £513 invested gave a margin of £278/annum

For a Commercial beef intensive system, £1,059 invested gave a margin of £282/annum

Highland cattle on the hill sides

Benefits of a Highland suckler cow-based system

  • Low initial investment and reduced cash flow requirements

  • Low inputs, browsers utilising coarse roughage

  • Large rumen converting poor pasture to high quality, well marbled beef

  • Hardiness - outwinter on most land types

  • Buildings freed up for other uses

  • Good locomotion for difficult terrains

  • Longevity producing calves well into their teens

  • Cows tend to be supplementary fed in winter only, on feed buckets, cobs, haylage (if necessary), off the ground. Obviously, diet will depend on the land type, weather and area available

  • Extensive browsing and supplementary feeding management can result in minimum poaching

  • Minimum intervention at calving, wide hips mean many calve outside on the hill

  • Milky good mothers and quiet temperaments

  • Minimum vet bills

  • Potential environmental grant payments

  • Healthy, tender, tasty beef sold at a premium

  • Can suit pasture fed and organic systems

  • Hill and marginal land with difficult terrain can be utilised

Crossing a Highland with a bigger beef breed bull has further benefits - introducing hybrid vigour to produce the ideal suckler cow.

  • Introduces valuable genetics into commercial herds - hardiness, longevity, easy calving, calf vigour

  • Utilises cows with lower pedigree potential

  • Obtain faster calf growth rates and finishing

  • Bigger market for cross bred calves

  • Higher price/kg for calves

The economics

Costs are all based on upland farms with short summer seasons. With lowland and longer seasons, it is expected the costs would reduce and growth rates increase.

 

Weaning weight

Weaning age

 

Weight gain to weaning

Pure Highland 0.75 kg/day
Simmental X 0.9 kg/day
Shorthorn X 0.7 kg/day (Scotland Hill Farm)
Shorthorn X 0.8 kg/day heifers 1kg/day steers (Welsh Hill Farm)

Sales price/kg at weaning

Pure Highland 1.6 £/kg
Simmental X 2.6 £/kg
Shorthorn X 2.3 £/kg

Pure Highland Stores to 30 months Sales Price/kg (Yorkshire Hill Farm)

Pure Highland 3.92 £/kg
Margins Home reared to 30 months - £659 per animal (excluding cow costs)
Margins Bought in stores to 30 months - £209 per animal

Highland Shorthorn X to 18 months (Welsh Hill Farm)

Margins home reared to 18 months - £710 per animal (excluding cow costs)

Lynne Dickens

Spot On Creative is a Northants-based creative team who have the hard-earned skills, expertise and industry knowledge that only come from having worked for years in advertising. It’s all managed by Lynne Dickens who has over 20 years’ experience in marketing communications, and ten years in website design and build, and creative team project management.

Lynne is also a qualified art historian and has some expertise in curating fine art exhibitions and producing all of the catalogues, posters and supporting material to create a successful event.

All the guys in our team have worked for one-man bands, SMEs and large blue-chip multinationals in just about every sector, field and industry. We can come up with great ideas, superb design and copy, and exceptional photography for anything from websites to email campaigns, branding to brochures – and everything in between.

And the beauty of Spot On Creative is that we’re big in creativity, experience and knowledge, but small in overheads and invoices. So we’re a much more sensible and affordable option for you than a larger advertising agency or marketing company.

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