For father and son, Robin and Scott Wells, running their Luing-bred suckler herd in Northern Ireland is all about the numbers.
The farming duo breed Luing and Sim-Luing (Simmental cross Luing) cattle under the ‘Laganview’ prefix. Robin was first introduced to Luing cattle at the Royal Highland Show in 2022, where he asked a Luing breeder on the society stand if they were hard to keep. The breeder’s reply was:
“All you need is a good view and a bit of a whin bush (Gorse)!”
The following year saw Robin attend the Castle Douglas annual sale where he purchased 20 pure-bred Luing bulling heifers. He put them to a Simmental bull. “Sim-Luing are great maternal cow. So, a few years later, we took the decision to cross these with Charolais,” continued Robin. Today Robin and Scott have 20 pure-bred Luing bred to the Simmental bull, and 35 Sim-Luing’s bred to the Charolais bull.
All the bull calves are kept and finished as bull beef with ABP Lurgan. Sim-Luing heifer calves are retained as replacements for the herd or sold on for breeding. The Charolais-cross heifers are sold in September as forward stores for finishing.
Suckler herd supplementation
“At Laganview Farm, we leave nothing to chance,” said Robin. “With the right bolus our cattle can reach optimum all round performance in a shorter period of time. For us, the right bolus is ANIMAX Tracesure Cattle with Copper. It’s a highly effective supplementation method providing copper, cobalt, iodine and selenium. It is a premium product that provides premium results”.
ANIMAX Tracesure is used on the entire suckler herd.
- Early April – cows are bolused pre-breeding to maintain fertility and to cover for the grazing season.
- May – bulling heifers are bolused at same time as vaccinations, 6-8 weeks pre-breeding.
- June – Spring-born calves are bolused as soon as they hit 200kg and at the same time as their first worm treatment.
- November – Spring-born calves receive a second bolus at weaning.
- Bulls are bolused on a 6-month cycle.
Supplementation results
In 2015, the farm produced 21 bulls (Luing and Sim-Luing) with an average kill age of 13.9 months and an average kill-out weight of 396kg.
“We had 16 U’s and five R’s – all U3’s and R3’s”
In 2016, 29 of the 30 heifers were scanned in-calf. 2017 saw 100% of the heifers scanned in-calf.
“Tracesure helps to provide good strong vigorous heats and better conception rates”
In 2017, Robin and Scott decided to monitor performance even more closely, and concentrated on young bulls.
“At 319 days on the farm they averaged 583kg in weight”
“Allowing for a 45kg birthweight that equates to 1.68kg of growth per day”, adds Robin. “That’s mainly as a result of milk and grass that has been complemented by Tracesure. They don’t see creep until the end of August. The animals look good with great shiny coats and have plenty of vigour. We have also noticed there are less foot and lameness problems with the bulls and, again, we put that down to Tracesure helping them to process the protein and energy in their diet”.
“We see it as attention to detail – we are absolutely delighted with what Tracesure Cattle with Copper has to offer”, concludes Robin.
