In Ian Norbury's mind, big 800kg suckler cows that eat a lot and require housing for five months of the year make no sense to the bottom line.Over the last seven years he's taken steps to drop cow size on his Cheshire farm to improve feed efficiencies and enable stock to be out-wintered on kale, without wrecking soils. The housing period has subsequently reduced to 5-6 weeks, reducing labour and management costs. Weaned calves are also rotationally grazed (see "The strip grazing learning curve"). Last year they didn't receive any concentrate and were housed for just 10 weeks on grass silage.
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