Maternal Matters: Creating and using a suckler breeding plan

Suckler farms across the UK have various end markets that they supply, both terminal and maternal. Each market will have its own requirements, meaning that one end product will not fit all markets.

Surely then, this means that the product, or calf, that you start with needs to be different depending on what market you are supplying and what production system you are working with?

Therefore, the terminal and maternal traits of that calf need to be different depending on what you want it to do and what will be the most profitable for your farming system.

Identifying the requirements of your market and, later, what the calf needs to do to maximise profit at different stages of production is an essential first step to choosing a bull to breed your cows with. Once you have identified the requirements of your market, think about which areas you are fulfilling and which areas you need to improve on, using genetics as one of the tools to get you there.

AHDB has a series of different tools available to help you develop your breeding plan for your herd:

• Completing a 60-minute technical and business farm review may help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business. Once completed, ask yourself, can my choice of genetics help me improve on my weaknesses? If so, which EBVs are important to me and my business goals?
• For information on Choosing bulls for Better Returns by developing breeding objectives for your herd, identifying areas for improvement, and highlighting the EBVs of importance to help you meet those goals
• Try our Suckler breeding plan for Better Returns wall-planner to help you review and develop your herds breeding plan
• For specific information on Breeding, selecting and managing beef replacement heifers, including building female traits into a suckler breeding plan
• Watch our discussion with Seth Wareing and Paul Westaway on the topic of replacement heifers and how they feel about building a breeding plan 
• Looking further afield, watch our webinar with Rick Funston from Nebraska focusing on replacement heifer development 

Hard copies are available for those highlighted in bold. Please contact publications@ahdb.org.uk or call 0247 799 0069 with the name of the publications you’d like to receive.

To help identify areas for improvement within your herd, check out the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Express tool or for a more in-depth look at your business, why not try Farmbench.

When breeding replacement heifers, there are two things to think about. Firstly, which breeding females should you use to produce replacement heifers? Secondly, which bulls should you use on those replacement heifers for them to produce their first calf? This section considers the latter.