Feed efficiency focus for Jon Wright at Coota Park Blue-E

A 25-year journey to optimise the feed for each animal at a Central NSW beef farm is significantly paying off.

The Coota Park Blue-E cattle may not be conventionally “pretty”.

But the performance of the cattle at Coota Park, at Woodstock near Cowra in NSW, outweighs any concern about coat colour.

Breeder, Jon Wright developed the Blue-E breed 25 years ago, an open composite breed, initially based on joining Angus bulls to Shorthorn cows.

“We recognized the strengths that genetic diversity can generate, leading to a stronger, more profitable and sustainable beef system,” Jon said.

Since 2018 mostly Simmental based composite genetics have been introduced to the Blue-E program, which Jon said had allowed them to breed better quality cattle.

“We were almost becoming like a pure breed with our Shorthorn and Angus, but I believe if there are good genetics then we should be using them.”

Jon Wright of Coota Park Blue-E stud at Woodstock in NSW with some of his composite cattle. Picture: James Wagstaff

Jon said focusing just on coat colour was a failing of the industry, as it ultimately had nothing to do with whether the product was good or not and the advantages of hybrid vigour from mixing breeds outweighed any bias to how his cattle looked.

“The job the Simmental breed has done, particularly in the US has been extraordinary, they have been really progressive in paying attention and fixing traits that could cause issues.”

And in the long run it provides Jon a more diverse range of genetics to add to his herd.

“The Angus-Shorthorn is a good cross and we did that to focus on the meat quality side, the third breed added to the composite maintains our marbling and gives us extra yield.”

One of the big benefits for adding European genetics to the mix was maintaining a moderate sized cow – a trait Jon puts a lot of emphasis on.

“It all comes down to cost of production. We are trying to breed a high feed converting animal, but not one with a big mature cow weight, as that just costs so much in feed,” he said.

FOCUS ON FEED

Jon runs about 700 breeding cows, a mix of Angus, Shorthorn and Simmental genetics in the Blue-E composite, across the 1214ha fourth-generation family farm and 810ha of leased country.

The Blue-E concept came after Jon’s work at the Trangie Research Centre in NSW which was showing the value in selecting for feed conversion.

Feed conversion has been one of the main focuses at Coota Park.

Jon said most producers had a good understanding of growth rate but sometimes don’t consider the amount of feed required to achieve the weight gain.

“Having the ability to use less feed per animal improves the profitability in production.”

Since 1997 all Coota Park Blue-E bulls have been tested for feed efficiency.

Initially it was in a 48 individual pen facility, with the amount of feed each bull consumed each day measured. The bulls were weighed at the start of the trial and their total conversion calculated against the amount of feed consumed daily.

Then in 2016 Jon said they installed a new Vytelle Feeding System to automate the recording of daily feed intake of the bulls.

This year they tested 130 of their own bulls and occasionally do commercial testing for others.

The standard feed intake test is for 70 days, with a three week adjustment period at the start.

At the end a feed conversion ratio is calculated (kilograms of feed consumed to kilograms of weight gain) which Jon said is as basic as some animals are 4:1 and others 8:1.

This is then calculated as a residual feed intake estimated breeding value, which puts all animals on an even playing field for body size and growth rate.

All cattle are performance recorded on the American multi-breed Leachman $Profit database which combines all breeds onto the one database.

Vytelle also produces an across breed independent analysis of feed efficiency and on that independent database Coota Park Blue-E has the most bulls in the top 100 for RFI of any producer in the world.

“So in 25 years we have lowered the amount of feed we require per kilogram of weight gain by 20-25 per cent.”

MATTERS OF SIZE

Cow size had become a real concern for Jon and a trait he was actively managing.

“Angus now has the biggest mature cow size of any breed in the world, it’s not a criticism, it is reality.”

At Coota Park they measure cow size by the height, weight and condition score of every cow, every year.

“You can bring frame size down with genetics, but a cow being fatter doesn’t breed better calves, there is an illusion it will make them get in calf more often, when in reality a cow only needs to be 2 score or more and on a rising plane of nutrition for two to three months of the year.”

To work on bringing mature cow size down, Jon said the weaner heifers were grown to 250-300kg ready to join at 15 months and anything above that was a waste of feed.

“It’s about being aware of what is enough, getting them fatter is a waste of feed.”

Coota Park Blue-E principal Jon Wright assessing bulls at his Woodstock property. Picture: Supplied

This is managed by running the heifers on “poorer quality” country and having a slightly later joining – in November – to align with spring growth to bring up the heifers’ joining weight.

“Fertility is about a rising plane of nutrition, and a body score of two and above is ideal.”

Pregnancy rates proved what Jon was doing worked.

There was a 90 per cent pregnancy rate for heifers and 95 per cent in cows.

“I wouldn’t do it if we weren’t getting results.”

“It comes down to if the females can get in calf in tough, commercial conditions. There is no glitz and glamour.”

Jon is strict with the females they keep in the herd, the first cull is done if they don’t get in calf, the second is at calving and the third is on an independent structural assessment, after that it is all on performance figures.

“If they pass that then they are productive in our eyes.”

On the flip side, Jon said he wanted the steers to be growing as fast as possible. The steers, along with surplus heifers, are sold direct to feedlots at 15-16 months, weighing about 440kg.

And to ensure their product is competitive in the commercial world, the stud has been participating in the Beef Spectacular feedlot trial since its inception.

With three teams in the current competition, Jon said they have placed in the top 10, our of around 70 teams, each year.

“Our strength is our performance in feedlots. The trial is about putting our animals in a situation to show they are competitive in the commercial world.”

METHANE EMISSION

An issue Jon has become more and more concerned about is methane emissions from the beef industry.

While once it was something he didn’t talk much about, he said he now spoke about it at length because it was concerning for the future of the industry.

“We have to retain the respect and integrity of the consumer, it is good as an industry we have now set goals and are acknowledging we contribute to the problem.”

Jon said cows in the herd are responsible for almost 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from a self-replacing herd and that methane output is directly correlated to feed intake.

So to do his part, Jon said they select animals that eat less feed and produce the most growth from their feed intake.

“There is a very strong correlation between how much the cattle eat and how much methane they produce. We want more efficient animals that produce less methane.”

He said he goes by the mantra: “It is just a steak.”

In expanding on that, Jon said nobody “really cares” as they weren’t “saving lives” which meant it was important to be upfront and transparent.

“At the end of the day it is just a food and there are plenty of other foods out there, if beef isn’t available no one will starve and other industries would take up the opportunity.”

Jon said they were currently collaborating with the University of Sydney on trials involving the Green Feed technology system which measures enteric methane emission from cattle, both on feed and on grass.

GRAZING SYSTEM

The cattle are run on a time controlled grazing system, and while harder with a stud herd (due to smaller mob sizes at joining), they applied the principles and outside of joining managed the rotation in big numbers, to maximise ground cover and retention of our rainfall.

While they aren’t organic, Jon said they limit chemical use and avoided fertilisers mostly due to cost.

He has used organic fertilisers, such as chook and cattle manure, when they needed to improve pastures.

“The more money we throw at the grass, the more expensive our costs of production become.”

Cattle were run on a mix of improved pastures, including phalaris, clover and lucerne with predominately native pasture across much of the country.

The stud sells about 70 two-year-old grass-fed bulls a year across NSW, Queensland and Victoria. This is up from 50 in recent years, with goals to sell more.

At the Coota Park sale this year, the stud recorded a 92 per cent clearance with top price of $16,000 and an average of $8720.

While Jon makes jokes about the way the Blue-E cattle looks, aesthetically “they still look like good bulls”.

“Our end product we are selling is a bull, so we still want them to sell to people and look good, but mostly we are looking for structurally correct, fertile animals with good growth.”