Improved cattle performance at West Greenland with Alkacid

Along with a substantial arable enterprise and a contracting business, the team also has a keen interest in cattle. Their suckler herd comprises 130 Simmental cross cows, which are all bulled with Aberdeen Angus bulls and the progeny finished on the home produced feeds. Bull calves are kept entire, to maximise weight gain and reduce the time they need to stay on farm.

In addition to the suckler herd, another 800-1000 head of cattle are bought locally or from Orkney and Dingwall markets each year. Ideally, Andrew looks to buy animals weighing 450-500kg, which he can take home and transition straight onto a cereal diet.

Charolais, Simmental, Angus and Limousin cattle are finished as efficiently as possible off home-grown feeds There are also some lighter cattle bought in, around 400kg which are put onto a silage-based growing ration when they come home. Depending on the time of year, these lighter cattle are grazed before transitioning onto the finishing ration. Most breeds are bought, although there is a trend towards Charolais and Simmental, with some Limousin and Aberdeen Angus too.

Transition is the key time in the system when things can go wrong, resulting in sick cattle which take time to recover or should be sold without reaching their potential. Over the years, Andrew has been on a mission to fine tune his system.

Once home, cattle are offered silage and straw for 24 hours to fill their rumens, before hoppers are filled with Harbro Beefstock nuts, sourced through W and A Geddes in Thurso. Over the course of three weeks, rolled barley is gradually introduced. Once happily on the feed, the nuts are replaced with the high protein concentrate Champion Rumitech 35, with the final ration 12.5% Champion Rumitech 35 and 87.5% rolled barley.

All cereal grown by the brothers is fed, plus some extra locally sourced at harvest time, with local farmer David Campbell from Bardnaclavan coming in to bruise it. This means the only bought in feed is the protein concentrate, which is already mineralised.

Continually looking for the next marginal gain, Andrew had read about a trial Harbro carried out in Aberdeenshire with their alkacid rumen buffer, where feeding it throughout transition had seen an improvement of 350g/head/day liveweight gain compared to not feeding a buffer. Keen to try this out for himself, Andrew set up his own trial at home. His trial compared alkacid against sodium bicarbonate, a buffer which is traditionally used in the industry. Andrew’s own trial showed an additional liveweight gain of 250g/head/day for the cattle fed alkacid throughout transition.

Jill Hunter, Harbro beef and sheep nutritionist said: “Alkacid is a rumen buffer which works in a few unique ways, including stimulating animals to make more of their own saliva.

“Alkacid combines rumen buffers, essential oils and natural hot spices in a honeycomb structure, which will absorb a lot more acid than bicarbonate. The rumen buffers start neutralising acid straight away and continue for 24 hours. These are supported by the essential oils slowing down starch-digesting rumen microbes and hot spices to increase water intake and therefore boosting saliva production. It’s just about getting back to basics and getting the rumen balance right. This in turn enhances rumen health, overall animal health and subsequent performance”.

Andrew added: “Feeding Alkacid costs around 9p/head/day and bicarbonate around 8p. So to get an extra 250g of liveweight for 1p investment, feeding Alkacid is a no brainer to me”.