Producer case study: Ian and Louise Johnson

Author: Ashlee Carslake-Hunt, Tailored Livestock Consulting

Producer Demonstration Site: Reproductive health and management practices for beef heifers

SNAPSHOT

Name: Ian and Louise Johnson

Location: Willalooka, SA

Average rainfall: 480mm

Enterprise: Breeding cattle: 6,800 joined cows and 2,200 replacement heifers; 2,000 ewes

Farm area: 15,000ha across several properties

Soil type: Sandy loam over limestone, lucerne on high ground, black peat flats at Beachport

Pasture base: Lucerne, phalaris, ryegrass and sub-clover main pasture, starting to implement chicory. Standing crops for calving heifers.

Business goal (philosophy)

“Leave properties in better condition than what you acquired, including infrastructure, amenities, soil fertility and pasture health. Create a good environment for people and livestock to be part of. Ensure good preparation to be able to take advantage of expansion when a favourable property comes on the market.”

Background

Ian and Louise Johnson called Naracoorte home on a predominantly prime lamb property until the family bought ‘Amherst’ (2,070ha) at Willalooka in 1992. As time progressed, succession planning meant that Ian and Louise took over Amherst in 2002 and Ian’s passion for cattle led him to focus on breeding. Sheep were still part of their plan, however, their strategy shifted to more opportunistically taking advantage of potential gross margins on a trade.

Originally, the Johnsons were known for their Simmental stud at Naracoorte. Over time, they used Angus for cross-breeding to take advantage of hybrid vigour. However, the Simmental bloodlines were not conducive to the environment at Willalooka, leading to Ian moving to a self-replacing Angus herd.

Ian’s philosophy is to try and have maximum stocking rates when he has maximum feed availability. For Amherst, this means calving in February for heifers and February/March for cows. Autumn calving works well for Ian’s system as he can begin weaning early in September. Weaned replacement heifers are then transported to their Beachport property (which has a longer growing season) to grow out, while steer calves are marketed in November to feedlots and backgrounders. At sale, they average 290–380kg at 8–9 months old.

For nearly 20 years, the Amherst circuit sale has been where the Johnsons sell their surplus stock. As they’ve expanded, newer properties such as ‘Wittalocka’ and ‘Moville’ have become regular stops in the circuit sale.

The Johnsons’ future goal is to reach 7,000 Angus self-replacing breeding cows, with 85% of their own heifers. This was the motivation to join MLA’s Reproductive health and management practices for beef heifers Producer Demonstration Site project, run by the Mackillop Farm Management Group.

Ian uses foetal ageing as an integral part of his management strategy in conjunction with forecasting feed availability as it gives him options and flexibility around which breeders to sell or retain. Ian looks for shape, cover and durability when selecting females and bulls. Using estimated breeding values (EBVs) has been a fundamental part of the improvement in fertility and growth – specifically scrotal circumference and 200-day growth. Ian’s non-negotiables are that bulls must be minimum breed average for those traits. If the bull meets those, Ian’s next considerations are phenotype and temperament.

Yearly management program and animal health

With calving in autumn often bringing about nutritional challenges for calving cows due to high energy requirements and low digestibility and energy in pastures, Ian buys in all his fodder as no hay is grown on the properties. The pre-joining program starts with a booster 5-in-1 vaccine for cows in January and the bulls receive an additional Pestivirus and Vibrio vaccine when they are semen tested. The heifers do not have a vaccine program for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD – also known as Pestivirus), which Ian said could lead to a handful of dries as a result. There are varying opinions on Pestivirus and the immediate herd impacts compared to long-term herd immunity. One of the benefits of participating in the Heifer Reproduction PDS was having access to veterinarians, consultants and other producers to discuss animal health issues and subsequent management solutions.  

Ian decided to get blood tests done on a representative sample of his herd to assess the existing status of immunity.  As they were accumulated from multiple properties within his farm business, they were bled in groups from their property of origin to enable him to trace back to those properties in case there was evidence that one may be worse than the other.

Twenty-four serum samples were tested for Bovine Pestivirus antibody ELISA, of which 22 of the 24 tested were antibody positive for BVD and two were negative. This indicates the majority of the mob had been exposed to the virus and are therefore already carrying immunity, so there was no need to vaccinate this group. Annual testing of heifers pre-joining is an effective tool to reduce the need for vaccination and assess the risk to heifers leading into their first joining. This process can also be used to reduce the numbers of persistently infected carrier animals. There is obviously BVD present in the breeding herd, and so future management of the virus will be considered, however, after budgeting the cost of two Pestivirus vaccine doses to 1,800 heifers compared to a few dry heifers, Ian made the decision not to vaccinate.

Heifers are joined at Beachport and then trucked to Willalooka to calve in February. Pre-calving, the heifers receive a mineral injection and drench. To mitigate the need to supplementary feed hay to heifers, Ian grows oats or ryegrass and instead of harvesting them, they’re left as standing crops for heifers to consume after calving. This provides adequate nutrition to meet their energy requirements during lactation. In his experience, it’s also resulted in higher heifer conception rates on their second joining when compared to feeding just hay.

At weaning, any dry cows are sold to either the saleyards or direct to processors. Having such a strong emphasis on fertility means any dry heifer or cow is culled. At Amherst, for ease of management, weaning starts on a Monday, where cows are pregnancy tested and calves are drafted based on sex. The weaners are treated with a 5-in-1 booster vaccine, drench and Selenium/B12 injection. They are then yard-weaned for five days with hay and water, after which they are moved to smaller weaning paddocks. Staff members walk through the calves daily and expose them to the yards during this time to improve handling.

DIY pregnancy scanning

Eleven years ago, after attending Beef Week in Queensland, Ian purchased a ReproScan pregnancy scanner. Prior to purchasing the scanner, he was manually pregnancy testing 2,500 cows yearly. Since purchasing this machine, it’s meant multiple people across his properties have learnt to use it, which provides him with management flexibility. They’ve also recently purchased a second BCF Ultrasound machine for approximately $18,000.

As they expand their enterprise and grow their cow herd, it allows two properties to be scanning at the same time. Annually they’re pregnancy scanning between 8,000 to 9,000 cows and heifers, and by owning the equipment they’re avoiding management delays which can be costly.

Reproduction results

Year-on-year, Ian is typically getting mid to high 80s for the percentage conception rate in heifers, with some variation due to seasonal challenges due to not being supplementary fed in the lead up to joining. Heifers being joined for the second time are looked after more closely on standing crops to ensure rebreeding rates are higher.

This year, Ian joined 2,190 heifers naturally and a small group to artificial insemination (AI). Collectively, the entire group pregnancy tested in calf (PTIC) at 83% with an empty rate of 17% after an eight-week joining. 64% were identified as early (pregnant in the first four weeks of joining) and 19% were identified as lates (pregnant in the last four weeks of joining).

By owning a pregnancy scanner, it provides reliability and flexibility to pregnancy test as early as the day of bulls out or later at weaning, and the number of heifers PTIC can be split into early and late cycles. On the day the bulls are removed from the mob, they are yarded, and all heifers are pregnancy tested. It takes 30-35 days of pregnancy for a foetus to be detectable on the pregnancy scanner. By scanning at bulls out, the only detectable foetuses are the early conceived heifers. This gives a calving period of three to four weeks, depending on genetics and their gestation length. Any heifers that were undetectable at bulls out are re-scanned five weeks later which gives Ian the ‘late’ calvers. Any heifers undetectable at this stage are dry and turned onto the lucerne/ryegrass pastures and sold to the Coles Graze grassfed program.

When Ian first joined the Heifer Reproduction PDS he was in the process of reducing heifer joining length from eight weeks to six weeks. After presentations from Wayne Pitchford, University of Adelaide and discussions with other producers that were doing four-week joining periods, it sparked interest in further reducing and manipulating joining length. Wayne discussed how reproductive pattern is highly repeatable in cows and emphasised the importance of having heifers “wet and pregnant early” to achieve one calf per cow per year. Although Ian’s heifers are joined for eight weeks, foetal ageing has allowed Ian to strategically condense his calving spread to only four weeks. It also provides his business with flexibility to sell excess heifers PTIC which is particularly useful in unfavourable seasons and when PTIC heifers are at a premium in the market. The excess heifers are more appealing to buyers because of the short calving period. If Ian retains all early PTIC heifers this year, there will be 1,400 heifers calving in four weeks across all his properties.

Due to the purchase of additional properties and his herd being in a growth phase, Ian has held on to all PTIC heifers in previous years. Once the new properties have reached appropriate stocking rates, there will be an opportunity to sell more PTIC heifers and have a lower portion of heifers calving down each year. He’ll continue to refine and adapt his joining length and scanning strategies once restocking rates for new properties have been achieved. Having a smaller portion of heifers calving down annually will boost his conception rates and weaning rates.  

Benefits of being involved in the Beef PDS

Within the Heifer Reproduction PDS, speakers emphasised the importance of measuring the standard reference weight (SRW) of mature cows. SRW is typically used as a benchmark to assess whether individual animals are meeting their growth targets for reproductive success. SRW refers to the weight of a grown-out cow, empty at body condition score (BCS) 3. Dependent on season, Ian’s cows are typically 585kg at BCS3 however, there could be up to 70kg variance due to body frame. Once SRW has been established, the critical mating weight (CMW) of heifers can be calculated. CMW is 60-65% of a cow's SRW. Underweight heifers may experience delays in reaching puberty, have lower conception rates, and face challenges in maintaining a pregnancy. Ian’s CMW target is a minimum of 350kg within the first cycle of joining for heifers. Although they do not weigh heifers at first joining, their brothers reach this weight at approximately nine months of age, so he’s confident CMW is reached within the first cycle of joining.

From discussions within the Heifer Reproduction PDS it was apparent that feed on offer (FOO) and its quality also influences conception rates. For example, if heifers are 400kg at time of first join and they lose weight throughout joining, that can be as detrimental as not achieving the CMW targets in the first instance. Body condition score targets are also important, and nutritional talks have cemented what Ian had already experienced in poorer seasons, where the energy and digestibility of the pasture is not sufficient for an autumn calving heifer to reach desired mating weights and body condition scores.

In the last three years, Ian has joined 85-90% of all heifers to build up numbers for newer properties. Overall, his herd is very young, with the majority being heifers, second and third calvers. Ian’s goal for next year is finding the balance of retaining enough heifers to fulfill his replacement requirements and having as many heifers conceiving in the first four weeks of joining. To start with, it’s likely to be a juggling act however, Ian’s estimated he’ll need 1,000-1,200 replacement heifers per year. The Heifer Reproduction PDS has given him targets to make educated decisions around numbers to join.

“I think I’ll need around 2,000 heifers to gain 1,200 heifers pregnant in the first four weeks of calving, so I’ll put that into practice next year," he said.

Ian’s long-term plan is to have more mature cows within the herd because their conception rates sit at around 95%, rather than joining the entire drop of heifers.  

It was evident from discussions within the group that some of the producers were also doing financial benchmarking, with Elke Hocking running benchmarking groups locally. The financial information these businesses were able to disclose to the group was invaluable for looking at how different calving systems stack up. Generally, Ian knows his cost of production is higher because he’s an autumn calver and economically it’s better for him to purchase hay than to grow it. However, given the growth of his business and being part of the group, it’s motivated him to change software and accountants, so he’s better equipped for future financial decisions. Ian enjoyed participating in the PDS as he always came home motivated with some key messages that challenged his thought processes around management decisions.

Ian Johnson, Willalooka (left) with Sean McGrath, Millicent Veterinary Clinic (right) at one of the Beef PDS on-property workshops.