Bulk meal

MfMan

Who are the best (west of Ireland region) to supply meal delivered in bulk? TIA.

whelan1

what type of meal

MfMan

Beef nuts or ration, for finishing. Not too many suppliers I'd say.

reilig

MfMan wrote: »

Beef nuts or ration, for finishing. Not too many suppliers I'd say.

Connacht Gold, Stewarts, McDonagh's Galway, Patton Feeds, Kiernan Milling, Corby's, Flynn Feeds Mullingar, Lakeland, Paul and Vincent and Quinns of Baltinglass are just a few companies that will supply in bulk to the West of Ireland.

I currently buy from Patton Feeds. They aren't the cheapest price per ton, but are the best value for money in my opinion. You pay for what you get.

Have bought from Stewards and Connacht Gold in the past, but they cannot compete with the quality of Pattons.

MfMan

Thanks reilig. Any idea how much extra delivery costs? Ballpark figure would do.

reilig

MfMan wrote: »

Thanks reilig. Any idea how much extra delivery costs? Ballpark figure would do.

In my experience delivery doesn't cost at all. Its normally cheaper for you to have 3 ton of feed delivered and blown in than it is for you to go to your local store (Connacht Gold for example) and collect 3 ton loose. (Only use that example cause Connacht Gold is the closest co-op to me)

snowman707

are feed prices on the up again?

reilig

snowman707 wrote: »

are feed prices on the up again?

They remained quite steady up to 2 weeks ago when I got 6 ton delivered for summer creep feeding. But I have heard that the Millers are pushing prices up a bit now cause they know that there is going to be a bit of a shortage of cereal crops in the country in comparison to last year. I heard that sowing of cereal crops was down as much as 40% on last year - and it is noticable around the Midlands and West the amount of fields that were sown last year is well down this year. Other parts of the country may be on a par, but people got caught last year when they planted cereal crops on marginal land. They are not willing to take that chance this year.

I can see feed being the same price this winter as it was in 2006/07. Hopefully we will get some good weather this summer and bumper crops of hay and silage which may ease the demand for feed a bit next winter.

leg wax

reilig wrote: »

They remained quite steady up to 2 weeks ago when I got 6 ton delivered for summer creep feeding. But I have heard that the Millers are pushing prices up a bit now cause they know that there is going to be a bit of a shortage of cereal crops in the country in comparison to last year. I heard that sowing of cereal crops was down as much as 40% on last year - and it is noticable around the Midlands and West the amount of fields that were sown last year is well down this year. Other parts of the country may be on a par, but people got caught last year when they planted cereal crops on marginal land. They are not willing to take that chance this year.

I can see feed being the same price this winter as it was in 2006/07. Hopefully we will get some good weather this summer and bumper crops of hay and silage which may ease the demand for feed a bit next winter.

for how long do you creep feed before sale date

reilig

leg wax wrote: »

for how long do you creep feed before sale date

I have calves born last october and november and I was creep feeding them from Christmas to April. They went off it for 6 to 8 weeks when they went out on grass and are going back on it next week. they will be sold in late September and I would hope to have them all 400 - 500kg in weight and the bulls crossing €1000 per head if prices are right then. I have 15 of them in this group.

I have another 27 that were born from January to May this year. They started creep meal last week and will be on it until they are sold in February 2010. Weights at point of sale will be 300kg to 500kg and hopefully some of them will also be €1000 weinlings.

All calves are also fed fresh grass ahead of the cows through a creep gate.

leg wax

reilig wrote: »

I have calves born last october and november and I was creep feeding them from Christmas to April. They went off it for 6 to 8 weeks when they went out on grass and are going back on it next week. they will be sold in late September and I would hope to have them all 400 - 500kg in weight and the bulls crossing €1000 per head if prices are right then. I have 15 of them in this group.

I have another 27 that were born from January to May this year. They started creep meal last week and will be on it until they are sold in February 2010. Weights at point of sale will be 300kg to 500kg and hopefully some of them will also be €1000 weinlings.

All calves are also fed fresh grass ahead of the cows through a creep gate.[/quote how much would you think the 15 will eat over the 100 days? why are you putting the spring born calves onmeal so early i presume they will not be add-lib just a kilo or so? what breed are your calves.

reilig

I don't feed meal ad lib to any calves no matter what age they are and definitely won't be doing it this year with the price that fertilizer is-cheaper to grow grass than feed meal and its better for them too. I'll only feed meal as a supplement to grass - other years grass was scarce and fertilizer was expensive so I had to feed more.

My smaller calves are only getting started on meal. They get about 10 kg per day between the 27 of them just to give them a taste for it. I will be upping that feed to about 1 kg each per day in August, September and October, and when they go on slats I'll be feeding approx 25kg per 10 animals per day along with good quality silage for 4 months.

I start them on meal early so that when they do need it, they will have a taste for it and a couple of bigger calves won't get the whole lot.

The bigger calves will get 25kg between the 17 of them for the next month or so but come mid July I will slowly up it to 50kg between them and by the time that they are going in the end of September, they will be getting close on 75kg between all per day.

I always had Chaorlais calves - i keep a stock bull. But I have 11 black limousin cows and always got brown calves from the bull which had muscle but I always felt did not achieve the price that they deserved because of their coulor. Last year I decided to put AI Belgian Blue on all black cows. I got 6 bulls and 5 heifers. Some great calves in it. Will let you know how they sell next February. Although I have 3 Red Belgian Blue heifer calves on it from a good milk line and easy calving bull and I'm tempted to keep them and cull some of my poorer performing cows.

I don't know what value of meal they will all eat. But I do know that if I feed €150 of meal to a calf over 6 months, he is going to be worth at least €300 more on the day of sale than a calf that i do not feed meal to at all.

leg wax wrote: »

reilig wrote: »

I have calves born last october and november and I was creep feeding them from Christmas to April. They went off it for 6 to 8 weeks when they went out on grass and are going back on it next week. they will be sold in late September and I would hope to have them all 400 - 500kg in weight and the bulls crossing €1000 per head if prices are right then. I have 15 of them in this group.

I have another 27 that were born from January to May this year. They started creep meal last week and will be on it until they are sold in February 2010. Weights at point of sale will be 300kg to 500kg and hopefully some of them will also be €1000 weinlings.



All calves are also fed fresh grass ahead of the cows through a creep gate.[/quote how much would you think the 15 will eat over the 100 days? why are you putting the spring born calves onmeal so early i presume they will not be add-lib just a kilo or so? what breed are your calves.

pakalasa

I fed meal to weanlings last year according to the suckler scheme - I got to say it was well worth it. Come November the weanlings were more interested in the meal than their mother's milk. Weaning went a treat without as even a bawl from the calves. I moved the cows about a mile away and they managed to break tru a few ditches.
In total I reckon I didn't even give a 25Kg bag per weanling. This year I will give that bit more.
They also look warmer and healthier when selling and if there is a lot of continental breeding there, it will help bring out the muscle. Didn't hit the €1,000 though more like €600 but these were born April/May and sold in Nov.:o

leg wax

pakalasa wrote: »

I fed meal to weanlings last year according to the suckler scheme - I got to say it was well worth it. Come November the weanlings were more interested in the meal than their mother's milk. Weaning went a treat without as even a bawl from the calves. I moved the cows about a mile away and they managed to break tru a few ditches.
In total I reckon I didn't even give a 25Kg bag per weanling. This year I will give that bit more.
They also look warmer and healthier when selling and if there is a lot of continental breeding there, it will help bring out the muscle. Didn't hit the €1,000 though more like €600 but these were born April/May and sold in Nov.:o

14 bulls start creep today and estimate they will eat 500kg of meal in 100days if they only put on 1kg weight a day will leave nice profit .

reilig

leg wax wrote: »

14 bulls start creep today and estimate they will eat 500kg of meal in 100days if they only put on 1kg weight a day will leave nice profit .

Doing the figures on that, its 5kg per day between 14 calves - that's about half a traditional metal milk bucket between 14???. You'll want to have them on great grass if you expect them to put on 1kg each per day.

leg wax

reilig wrote: »

Doing the figures on that, its 5kg per day between 14 calves - that's about half a traditional metal milk bucket between 14???. You'll want to have them on great grass if you expect them to put on 1kg each per day.

sorry its 500kg each:P over the 100 days

Casinoking

Maybe it's just me, but the way prices are going I think there's much better value to be got from buying grain direct from the grower and mixing your own ration. In theory it should be possible to save up to €100/tonne depending on ingredients. At the minute there's talk of €90 - €95 euro per tonne for green barley at harvest time. A fair number of growers are selling rolled grain in the last couple of years, or it's possible to buy whole grain and have it rolled in your yard.

reilig

leg wax wrote: »

sorry its 500kg each:P over the 100 days

Ah, that's more like it, they will gain more than a kilo a day on that if they have good grass to back it up and are still getting a bit of milk from the cows.

pakalasa

Maybe you guys can answer me this - I was at some weanling sales early in the year. From what I could see over 90% of the male weanlings were bulls. These were from 450 to 650 Kgs and on average around I year old or slightly more.

Whats happened to the store bullocks of old. Maybe the heavier bulls are going straight to slaughter, but the lighter ones, they can't all be going into feedlots in the east.

What about the poor guy buying bullocks to let off for the summer - is he a thing of the past. Most of these bulls were fairly boisterous aswell. It's only a matter of time before soemone is hurt in the marts.
___________________________________________________

Also how come cull suckler cows, with flesh, are selling so well at the moment, is it the lack of finished cattle off the grass due to the bad weather....I won't complain, I had a few myself recently.;)

snowman707

pakalasa wrote: »

Maybe you guys can answer me this - I was at some weanling sales early in the year. From what I could see over 90% of the male weanlings were bulls. These were from 450 to 650 Kgs and on average around I year old or slightly more.

Whats happened to the store bullocks of old. Maybe the heavier bulls are going straight to slaughter, but the lighter ones, they can't all be going into feedlots in the east.

What about the poor guy buying bullocks to let off for the summer - is he a thing of the past. Most of these bulls were fairly boisterous aswell. It's only a matter of time before soemone is hurt in the marts.
___________________________________________________

Also how come cull suckler cows, with flesh, are selling so well at the moment, is it the lack of finished cattle off the grass due to the bad weather....I won't complain, I had a few myself recently.;)

weanling sale = weanlings bulls & heifers, go to a general cattle sale to get store bullocks.

cull cows & cull ewes have been in strong demand all year, seems there is more sale for the cheaper cuts of meat at present.