STABILISER bulls have recorded the best feed conversion rates of any breed on a unit that finishes more than 1,500 head of cattle a year.

The Dear family of Osgodby Grange, Selby, farm more than 1,000 acres and contract finish cattle from customers all over the UK and Northern Ireland under their company, D&P Custom Feeding.

They grow barley, wheat and oilseed rape as well as beans, much of which is fed to the animals with the straw used as bedding and returned as manure.

Doug and Pam Dear, along with his parents Alan and Elizabeth, run the farm.

Doug, a founder member of the AHDB progressive beef group, was the British Farming Awards Beef Innovator of the Year in 2015 and a finalist in the 2016 Farmers Weekly Beef Farmer of the year Award.

He runs the day to day management of the farm.

The unit has a number of Stabiliser bulls and is partnered with the Stabiliser Cattle Company and the Beef Improvement Group for Morrisons. Engineered to display a number of high quality traits, with a key one being good feed efficiency, the breed fits in well with the farm system.

It also finishes a range of other breeds for various supermarkets and abattoirs. All customers’ cattle are kept separately which enables a higher level of performance monitoring to take place.

Doug monitors the DLWG of the cattle every month using a hydraulic handling system he designed and built himself. This data, along with intakes from their Keenan mixer wagon using Pace and In Touch technology, is regularly monitored and shared with customers to ensure the cattle are achieving their full potential.

Nutrition is also key to maximising efficiency and the unit has worked with Michael Richardson, beef specialist, and Matt Palmer, ruminant nutritionist, at Harbro for the past 18 months.

Having seen early signs of acidosis in the cattle, alkacid was introduced into the diet for rumen stability and Rumitech to help increase feed efficiency. This delivered better results than predicted in a very short space of time.

The most recent readings from the Keenan system showed the bulls averaged a daily gain of 1.81kg with a feed conversion of 5.59:1, with the best performing group at 2.2kg and a feed conversion of 4.6:1.The steers and heifers average gain was 1.65kg per day, a feed conversion ratio of 6.81:1.

Richard Fuller, from The Stabiliser Cattle Company, said: “Doug knows how wide the range is for feed efficiency between the different breeds he finishes because he measures it.

“These Stabiliser bulls have been the best feed converters he has ever recorded.

“Doug’s attention to detail means the data coming out of his unit is extremely reliable and can therefore be used to help in the selection of the most profitable sire lines in the Stabiliser breed.”

The farm’s beans are treated with Maxammon as the primary source of protein.

It enables protein levels to be increased by 30 per cent and when combined with urea and beans or cereals results in a nutritionally enhanced high protein, high pH feed that increases animal performance.