An introduction to Maternal Matters: managing suckler cows

The way we manage our heifers has a big impact on profitability. The AHDB Maternal Matters campaign aims to provide information and tools for suckler producers. Find out how to improve the maternal performance of your herd without detrimentally impacting terminal characteristics.

Making sufficient profit from suckler cows has been a challenge for many years. This is partly due to our relatively high cost of production driven by long winter housing periods and the high welfare standards we operate to.

However, there are also management practices within our control that are having a significant impact on our costs. It is estimated that only 82% of suckler cows are producing a calf each year, and with the cost of keeping a suckler cow estimated to be around £650, this is a huge loss to the industry.

The way we manage our heifers also has a big impact on profitability. Numerous studies have shown that calving at two years reduces development costs and increases cow lifetime productivity. Only 35% of English suckler herds implement the practice.

It’s disappointing that many of these maternal traits, including fertility and age at first calving, have shown little improvement over recent years. It seems the industry has instead favoured selection for terminal traits, with big improvements in growth rates and carcase traits being achieved.

Studies have shown that it’s the maternal traits that have the biggest influence on profitability within the suckler herd, and therefore it's these we should be focusing our attention on.

AHDB Maternal Matters aims to redress this balance by providing information and tools to help suckler producers who would like to improve the maternal performance of their herd without detrimentally impacting terminal characteristics.

Topics covered by Maternal Matters will include:

• How to calculate your cost of production
• Using genetic information to select bulls to breed replacement heifers
• Identifying your ‘good’ cows
• Heifer management and selection from birth to breeding
• Nutrition pre- and post-calving

By the end of the project, you will have the necessary information to improve the performance of your suckler herd. To keep cows which:

• Calve unassisted every 365 days and wean a live calf
• Have low maintenance costs
• Remain in the herd long enough to cover their development costs (usually three calves, if she calves at two)

In 2019, Sarah Pick, AHDB Knowledge Exchange Manager, undertook a Nuffield Farming Scholarship investigating heifer management practices in the suckler herd. Here, she discusses her main findings.

Age at first calving can have a big influence on suckler profitability, with heifer management costs equating to around 10% of the total cost of production. Calving heifers at two years of age, rather than three, has been shown to be an effective way of reducing those costs. Studies have shown that calving heifers at two not only reduces management costs but also increases the number of calves the heifer produces over her lifetime.

Calving heifers at two years of age is still quite uncommon within the English suckler herd due to concerns over additional feed costs, increased risk of calving difficulties and challenges getting first calved heifers to rebreed again.

The USA, Canada and Australia have been calving heifers successfully at two years of age since the 1970s, and therefore, as part of my Nuffield Scholarship, I wanted to travel to these countries to address some of the challenges preventing English suckler farms from implementing the practice.

What I found was that successful heifer development was underpinned by:

• Genetics
• Nutrition
• Selection

Selecting animals purely on their visual characteristics is risky and can result in undesirable animals being bred. The producers I visited had clear breeding goals and were effectively using genetics to achieve them. Many of the estimated breeding values (EBVs) which were being selected for included calving ease daughters, age at first calving, scrotal circumference, mature size and milk.

They saw the importance of focusing on the female rather than the finished animal, with one producer asking: “Why do we raise cattle the finisher wants when two-thirds of the cost of a finished animal relates to the suckler cow?”  

One of the biggest challenges with calving heifers at two years of age is getting them to rebreed again after their first calving. Interestingly, body condition before calving is the most important factor controlling when heifers come back into bulling after calving.

During my travels, most producers that I visited calved heifers down at body condition score 3 to prevent an extended postpartum interval (time between calving and bulling). Calving thin heifers not only influences their reproductive success but also influences colostrum quality, leading to an increased risk of calf mortality.

Implementing a strict selection criteria ensures that only the most suitable heifers are retained in the herd. Most herds I visited did not retain heifers from cows which:

• Required assistance at calving
• Calved late in the breeding season (+42 days)
• Had large teats
• Had a bad temperament

The producers I visited were operating a 60-day breeding period so that calving was compact and management easier. This also indirectly selects for fertility, with only the most fertile heifers reaching puberty and successfully conceiving within the recommended short bulling period.

Replacement heifers are the lifeblood of the suckler herd and a valuable source of genetics, and therefore ensuring that only the most functional heifers are retained is essential. By implementing a well thought out breeding plan and carefully choosing the genetics you want within your herd, age at first calving can be reduced, leading to a more productive and profitable suckler herd.