Low Maintenance Luings
11/02/2006 ( Beef, Press )The following article by Patsy Hunter appeared in the Scottish Farmer on January 28th 2006
THE LUING is renowned for being one of the hardiest hill cows available. However, it is rapidly gaining recognition further down the valley by providing the backbone of the increasingly popular SimLuing suckler female. This cross-bred female not only boasts the hardy, maternal characteristics gained from the Luing, but — married to a Simmental — additional size, shape and conformation, which adds value to the resultant cross-bred calves.
Consequently, it comes as no surprise that SimLuing heifers, often sold as suckled calves or yearling heifers, command some of the highest prices at breeding cattle sales up and down the country. “The SimLuing is one of the best suckler females available. There are no downfalls with her,” said Matthew Mauchlen, manager at Ben Challum Farms, Woodburn, Crieff.
“We have always relied on the Luing to produce home-bred replacements which are not only 100% beef cows, they are also hardy females that can easily be outwintered. These cattle also have great temperament and they can last for years — more than a third of our herd is pre-1996 which will mean we’ll have to retain more heifers in future years.
“Here, the first cross females and often the second cross three-quarter Simmental cross Luings are retained and they’re tremendous cows — I really don’t think we could make any more money from any other breed or cross,” added Matthew. Testimony to those statements is the sales from the resultant progeny. In all, this 900-acre unit, owned by the Stewart family, is home to 160 suckler cows of which there are 35 pure Luings, with the remainder made up of SimLuings.
All cattle are bulled to a Simmental, with the bulls sold off home-grown barley and straw at 131/2 months of age through ABP, Perth, to weights of 335-340kg. The majority produce U carcase grades. It’s the heifer side of the equation that provides the real premium, though, as most are sold for breeding. These are cashed as yearlings at Perth, in May, with the best selling to £560 per head. Last year, the business sold 55 heifers to average £470.
This compares to previous years when the firm sold finished SimLuing heifers at two years of age. These had carcase weights of between 280-290kg, but struggled to make £500. Matthew added: “The modern market pays a lot of attention to double muscling and hind quarters and, although you won’t get that from the Luing, you will get all the components necessary to make a good working suckler cow.”
And, it’s real work required of the females at Woodburn. All home-bred heifers calve at two-years of age and while they are in-wintered for the first year on straw-bedded courts on an ad-lib silage/straw and barley mix, they are outwintered on wood chip corrals every other year on silage and straw only. The pure Luings run alongside the SimLuings, but because the heifers are bought in, often as in-calf females from Cadzow Bros, on Luing; the McNee’s Benhar herd; John Fawcett’s Merkland herd and Wilbert Girvan’s Buckholm herd, they don’t calve until three years of age.
Notably, the herd is left very much to its own devices for calving in the spring too. “Both the Luings and the SimLuings can look after themselves with few inputs. We can get between 10-12 calves from the Luings and the Sim/Luings should last just as long. “We always get occasional sets of twins too, which are usually reared by their mother,” explained Matthew, who has been manager of Ben Challum Farms for 18 years.
The business always buys some of the best Simmental bulls available too, with sires from the Blackford, Woodhall, Strathisla, Dirnanean and Dellfield herds, boasting good milk figures and calving index. They are usually bought at Perth.
The big problem now is how to make the business more efficient than it already is to survive the inevitable downturn caused by the Single Farm Payment. With 400 acres of arable ground, comprising 80 acres of winter wheat for distilling; 35 acres of oilseed rape; 50 acres of milling wuality winter oats; 35 acres of let potato ground and the remainder made up of spring barley for malting and feed, Ben Challum is fortunate in that only protein feeds have to be bought in.
Similarly, there is only Matthew and one other full time member of staff — George Menzies — employed and they do all the work on the farm. “The margins are positive for the suckler cow enterprise and the beef bulls can survive with the subsidy, but with costs increasing substantially in the arable sector, growing grain is just not sustainable at £60 per tonne,” said Matthew. “We have always tried to be as efficient as possible and the beef and arable enterprises do complement one another, but we need an increase in farm gate prices to prosper. If the Single Farm Payment depreciates our business cannot survive.”
It’s a situation many other farmers will be in. But the business can take some comfort in the fact that the Luing and her progeny do not cost a fortune to maintain — making them a better bet than the arable crops.
