By Joanne Hay, ECV Nutritionist
Producing quality calves for the store market is a key part of the business at Rannagulzion Farms. The Church Family have been farming Rannagulzion Farm at Bridge of Cally near Blairgowrie since 1966, when George Church purchased the land and moved north from Suffolk to the hills of Perthshire. Now farmed by the mother and son team of Liz & Gordon Church, the farming enterprise continues to expand. The 3,500 acre upland hill farm sits around 600 feet above sea level, rising to 1,400 feet at its highest. With 3,300 acres of available grazing, the farm utilises as much of the land as possible to support their suckler herd of 240 Saler cows. Around 150 acres is cut for silage every year with the aim of achieving the 2,000 bales needed for winter forage stocks in just one cut.
Building up a closed suckler herd of 240 Saler females which performs year-round requires hard work and dedication. The team at Rannagulzion are proud of their expanding herd with all but one cow having been born on farm. Gordon is supported by his stockman Neil McClement. Neil has been looking after the cattle at Rannagulzion for 8 years with help from self-employed farm worker Scott Struthers who recently joined the team full-time. A mix of Charolais and Saler bulls are used; heifers and second-calvers will go to a choice of two Saler bulls with any older cows being put to one of four Charolais bulls on farm. This means keeping track of genetics for farm records is so much easier. “We use the Saler to produce our breeding replacements,” says Gordon, “they’re easy calving and excellent mothers, with the calves having that get up and go everyone looks for!” Charolais bulls are all bought from neighbour Allen Drysdale of the Glenericht Herd at Middle Drimmie. “Buying my Charolais bulls from Allen means I am supporting my neighbour while keeping my biosecurity risk to a minimum. The Charolais produce calves with shape and their ability to put on weight is second to none. If they didn’t eat so much, they’d be damn near perfect!!” jokes Gordon.
Calving is split between Spring and Autumn, with around 180 calving early March and the remaining 60 cows calving from mid-August onwards. This split allows the farm to take advantage of store prices throughout the year with all calves being sold
through Gordon’s preferred mart – United Auctions Stirling. “Our spring born calves are sold at 6-7 months old at a minimum weight of 280kg while our autumn batch of calves are scaling at least 400kg by the time they go away at 11 months. We’ve found that the store calf buyers in Stirling love a Charolais X Saler!” Calves are fed on East Coast Viner’s Second Stage Calf Nuts from three months of age and regularly weighed to ensure they are achieving a minimum daily live weight gain of 1.8kg/day. Second Stage Calf is a high performing, 17% protein nut with the added benefit of Xtract, a feed additive designed to improve feed conversion and increase live weight gain whilst reducing methane production. Having previously fed a bespoke blend from East Coast Viners, Gordon and Neil have seen first-hand the benefits of switching to a calf nut with improved weights and performance from their cattle. “The calves are looking really well since changing,” added Gordon, “there’s a lot less wastage for the seagulls!”
The cows at Rannagulzion also benefit from supplementation through ECV’s Hi-Mag Rolls, “we feed 0.5kg/head/day of the rolls out on the hill in the lead up to winter or when the cattle are under stress to reduce any risk of staggers” says Gordon. Hi-Mag Rolls contain 3% Magnesium to ensure cattle mag requirements are met. The high inclusion levels of both Vitamin E and Selenium also help to boost the cow’s immune system when under stress.
“I always receive a great service from East Coast Viners,” comments Gordon, “they’ve got a very knowledgeable team. With the severe lack of leadership in the agricultural sector making forward planning difficult and end-product market prices not keeping up with rising input costs, it's important to have the knowledge and support to ensure we are running the herd as efficiently as we can. The team at East Coast Viners gives us that… plus the delivery drivers are always cheery!”