Introduction
Winter finishing of steers is a common practice for many years in Ireland and indeed around the world. There are many advantages and disadvantages to this type of finishing system which will be discussed in this report. The most common method of finishing steers over the winter period is housing cattle for 80-120 days where they are fed grass silage and concentrates to an ad-lid stage until fit for slaughter. This is determined by visually condition scoring and fat scoring steers as well as the weight for age ratio. In this report, topics to be discussed are: the breeds and variations between said breeds for the winter finishing of steers, the three main types of wintering accommodation for the finishing of steers, the cost of winter finishing steers, and the advantages and disadvantages of this system. Winter feeding of finishing cattle is the most expensive and presents the biggest challenge of all the systems of cattle production.
To date in 2014 some 439,067 cattle have been slaughtered in Ireland. This is an increase of 12% or 49,740 overall with an 11% increase in steers slaughtered on the same period last year. These cattle would be part of a winter finishing system which would have commenced sometime in early to late autumn 2013.
Breeds
The three main types of steers used for finishing are; Continental cross, Friesian cross, and traditional cross such as Angus and Hereford.
While continental sired steers give the best daily live-weight gain and carcass weight they also require the highest price per kg carcass weight to turn a profit. They are also the most expensive to buy in with not finished on its farm of origin. Continental cross steers are the most popular for winter finishing as they are fast ma...
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...ly finishing system.
Winter finishers can also take advantage of higher selling prices in the spring due to high demand for beef with low supply of animals fit for slaughter at this time as a posed to the high level of supply in late summer and early autumn when steers are finished directly from grass.
Disadvantages:
High production costs mean very little profit margin per head when steers are slaughtered work is labour intensive as steers must fed everyday verses summer finishing where the farmer is only required to herd the animals.
The necessity for machinery such as tractors and possibly diet feeders as well as grain stores or silos add to fixed costs on the farm initial cost of housing can be expensive and difficult to fund
Profit is very dependent on market prices with large fluctuations leading to the possibility of a loss at the end of the winter period.
Several factors including increased supply have caused declining prices for live hogs on the spot market. Also as shown below, futures prices will remain below the carrying cost for live hogs until nearly the end of the fiscal year. However, processed pork products such as bacon, loins, and ham remain above the current cost of production. Three Little Pigs Inc. is capable of processing hogs into these products internally at some locations. Unfortunately, not all hogs can be transported and processed at the main processing plants and must be sold as live hogs to third parties at spot market prices. There are four potential alternatives for dealing with the possible need to impair the value of Three Little Pigs Inc.'s inventories.
In cattle feedlots, the conditions are very bad. Most of the time, the feeder calves are standing in mud that is two feet deep. In these moist conditions, bacteria thrive. The cattle can suffer from foot problems, like foot rot. foot rot is a disease of the hoof which the skin between the toes of the hooves rots away and decomposes. If left untreated, the foot will swell and will rot off. This is extremely painful for the animal(Hasheider 34). In these feed yards, the feed is dumped into concrete feed bunks three times a day, and that is all the cattle get to eat. They are not offered grass or any type of forage, the forage, also known as hay...
The idea of the family farm has been destroyed by large food corporations. As discussed in class, industrial farming typically leads to the mass produ...
The. The "Meat Industry" Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, n.d. -. Web.
had money to buy beef and cattle which was in great demand. A cow that cost 4
Kellems, Richard O., and D. C. Church. Livestock Feeds and Feeding. 6th ed. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
From a financial and marketing standpoint, the effects have been catastrophic. In some areas, milk production has decreased by an average of two liters daily and calving index (efficiency at which new calves are produced) went down by an average of twenty days (Davies NP). Th...
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