The Cattle - CHAROLAIS

The Morgan brothers, Colin, David, Nigel and Richard, run 500 Charolais suckler cows, the breed's largest commercial herd in the UK, and they say simple, large scale operations are key at their Field Farm, Appleton, near Oxford. They farm 3,500 acres, of which 2,500 acres are in arable, 100 acres in forage maize and the remainder grass. Furthermore having confidence in product performance is critical to business success, and since the family re established their suckler herd in 1988, purebred Charolais cows have fitted the bill.

Such has been the demand however that Field Farm Fresh now supplements Charolais with a range of Continental crosses of similar conformation.

“We are dedicated to the business, its financial viability and continued improvement," explains David. "So when it comes to choice of cattle it's critical we work with the most efficient, and from our lengthy experience we can say without a doubt that purebred Charolais are the best all round performance suckler cows.

"Charolais cows have an outstanding ability to maintain themselves off grazing between turnout in April through to October/November and we stock at an average one cow plus calf per acre. They demonstrate longevity with an average 10 calves per cow, prove to be excellent mothers, they calve easily and produce lively calves and ample milk. In addition Charolais are very good natured animals to work with. What's more their purebred progeny turn in the best financial rewards simply due to their fast maturity, weight for age and quality conformation."

When the Morgan's say they maintain a simple system, that's exactly what they mean. The entire 500-cow herd is block calved within the first four months of the year enabling both cows and calves to make the most from grazing. The regime means that progeny can be grouped into even batches at weaning through to finishing and thereby enable them to offer large uniform quantities of finished cattle which meet the processor's precise criteria. Block calving in late winter fits in with the unit's seasonal workload and is another bonus. In addition, the system makes for easier herd management throughout the year.

"Like all successful livestock enterprises, dedicated stockman ship is a prerequisite," says Richard who is responsible for the calving operation. "In general we find our Charolais cows are easy to calve, however between us we observe them around the clock when calving," he says.

“We ensure our sucklers receive specialist attention and tend to treat them as dairy cows. In the first instance, we make sure heifers are sufficiently well grown to calve at 30 months and 700kgs. Maintaining a tight calving pattern is also critical and by running three Charolais bulls to 100 cows we're able to achieve our target. Average herd conception rate is currently running at an acceptable 90% within the first 12 weeks post calving.”

He adds: "We are confident that our purebred Charolais are helping us to produce beef which meets with consumer's increasing discerning demands and that they're enabling us to achieve maximum performance and efficiency levels and subsequent margins."