A new initiative has launched to help suckler producers become more profitable and resilient at a time of intense change.
SucklerClub brings together a calendar of free webinars in conjunction with Breedr and AHDB, a move designed to help farmers maximise returns.
The team has developed a calendar of key tasks for both spring-calving and autumn-calving herds, covering genetic and fertility objectives, calving and weaning tasks, and key performance indicator (KPI) goals.
Farmers can then record individual stock information in the free Breedr app, which produces a report detailing key metrics to give a deeper understanding of their business.
Under the imminent paid-for Benchmark service, farmers can create enhanced reports to benchmark against both AHDB KPIs and other suckler producers, and use that information to improve future decision-making.
“Small management tweaks can add up to a significant improvement in fertility, productivity and profitability,” explains Ian Wheal, founder of Breedr.
“We know from industry research that traditional cattle breeding programmes can take 10-15 years to reach maturity.
"But by recording their herd performance throughout each breeding cycle, farmers can accelerate herd fertility, cow output and profitability.”
Free webinars featuring industry experts will complement the calendar, alongside a series of professional guides on the website, covering service, calving, weaning, nutrition, and other topics.
The webinars will also be following a couple of young farmers through their journey to share challenges, successes and best practice.
Charlie Beaty is one of those who will be sharing her journey at the Dairy Farm, Coventry, Warwickshire, where she keeps 85 suckler cows with her father and uncle.
Using data to hone the herd’s performance is a key focus for the family as they adapt to the phasing out of direct farm support payments.
“I’ll definitely use the SucklerClub management guides and I think the ability to log KPIs and benchmark will be really useful for making improvements,” she said.
“Things are changing drastically in UK agriculture with the loss of support payments, and going digital is arguably the easiest way to improve our business performance.”
