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How to reduce the age of slaughter
To reduce cattle slaughter age, focus on genetics (early maturing breeds, high growth EBVs), nutrition (high-quality forage like clover-rich grass, good silage, strategic concentrates), and health management, ensuring a strong start with colostrum and optimized diets for faster growth to meet target weights and fatness earlier, often saving on housing costs and improving environmental and economic efficiencies.
The finishing period of cattle is very important and diets must be balanced correctly for fibre, protein, minerals and vitamins and be high in energy content.
Farmers should ensure that they graze cattle on the correct pre-grazing covers (1,200-1,600 kg DM/Ha or 9 to 12 cm in height) during grazing and make high quality silage with an early cutting date (mid-May) for growing and fattening cattle.
Select for Growth: Use Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) like higher 400-day growth for earlier maturity or 600-day growth for overall genetic merit.
Crossbreeding: Utilize Angus x dairy crosses for high carcass merit to finish earlier.
Clover
Benefits of white clover: Incorporating white clover in grassland swards has the potential to reduce costs, improve profitability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Tables 1 and 2).
How does white clover save on chemical N: White clover fixes nitrogen (N). N fixation is the process whereby white clover can fix N from the atmosphere and make it available for plant growth, thereby reducing the requirement for chemical fertiliser N.
Benefits :
Can increase growth compared to grass-only swards.
Increased animal intake in summer and autumn.
Increased milk production and live-weight gain.
Increased N fixation.
Lower requirement for N fertilizer application in summer
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