Beef producers located throughout the North West are pledging their support in the Northwest Stabiliser™ Project, a three year £375k Northwest Food Alliance (NWFA) awarded initiative funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).

NWDA's Steve Heaton, Richard Fuller and Richard Geldard at the launch of the NW Stabiliser Project.

Within six months of its launch, four new multiplier Stabiliser herds have been establised, these will contribute to increasing the pool of breeding stock. More than 90 farmers have registered an interest in the project of which so far around 25 have ordered either semen or bulls to breed Stabiliser replacement heifers by grading up from their existing suckler cows.

“The Northwest Stabiliser™ Project which has a projected return of £10.8m to the industry over 10 years, is offering opportunities for all farmers located in Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The initiative is designed to enable them to introduce composite breeding strategies as a catalyst to improve the efficiency and quality of beef production and subsequently enhance the competitiveness of their suckler herds,” explains project board director, Richard Fuller.

“The farmers who have expressed interest so far have one thing in common, they are all seeking the opportunity to reduce production costs and improve the output value of their suckler enterprises, and the Stabiliser will provide them with a solution,” he says. “The Stabliser is a composite damline imported eight years ago by the Beef Improvement Group from the USA where it was developed to deliver consistent high quality beef produced for least cost per kilo in subsidy free systems.” So far, more than 13,000 suckler cows in 144 herds have been influenced by Stabiliser genetics which are delivering cost savings of £120 per cow per year based on the MLC average recorded performance for 2004.

Among them is Richard Geldard who will be staging an open day on the afternoon of Thursday 16 February at his family’s Low Foulshaw, Levens, near Kendal, one of the Northwest Stabiliser Project’s official Focus Farms.

“We will be discussing how we as beef producers can work towards a sustainable future,” he explains. “At Low Foulshaw, we firmly believe that the Stabiliser will have a major role to play. The initial signs from using the Stabiliser are encouraging and reflect the high level of performance that has already been achieved by established Stabiliser herds in the UK.

“For example we achieved 97% calves reared from 59 Limousin cross cows put to the Stabiliser bull and it was noticeable that they all calved without any real problem. These Stabliser cross calves have a relatively low birthweight, a light frame, and they are extremely thrifty,” he explains. “The Stabiliser’s early maturity is also to be commended by the fact we used a 12 month old Stabiliser bull over another group of Limousin cross cows and 33 out of 34 scanned in calf,” says Mr Geldard.

Limousin cross suckler cows at the project's practical demonstration farm Low Foulshaw running with a yearling Stabiliser bull and their first cross and purebred ET calves.

“The entire crop of Stabiliser cross calves have been reared on milk and grass, and at seven month weaning the steers averaged 315kg, the bulls averaged 311kg, and the heifers averaged 274kg.” The heifers will be returned to the herd for grading to purebred Stabiliser status.

Richard Fuller adds: “Stabilisers are not only contributing to improved output in UK herds, but they are also making savings of up to 20% on labour and building depreciation, and a similar level on wear and tear of machinery and power requirements simply because of improvement in feed efficiency from grass thereby reducing winter silage requirements. Their hardiness is also lending them to being housed later. We expect the cattle at Low Foulshaw to go on and make a similar reduction in production costs and increase the output value of the unit’s suckler enterprise.”

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