what cutbacks have you made

whelan1

just wondering in light of the crap farm income what have you stopped doing that you would normally do? to save a few bob

locky76

whelan1 wrote: »

just wondering in light of the crap farm income what have you stopped doing that you would normally do? to save a few bob

Culling the six worst performing cows, trying to finish all my stock instead.
Feeding molasses and meal and selling the spare bales of silage for €33 instead.
I was reading in the journal that once silage goes over €24 that meal etc gets economically viable.
I buying a hay turner in the new year also to either make hay or wilt my silage over 2/3 days.

blue5000

I've stopped taxing the tractor

whelan1

i stopped taxing it too , just wondering is it worth while fattening ols crap cows or just cutting my losses and sending straight to factory

Rujib1

blue5000 wrote: »

I've stopped taxing the tractor

I never taxed it

pakalasa

If it's over 30 years you can tax it as a vintage.;)
Kind of risky to take a tractor on a road without tax, don't ya think?

whelan1

i tax the respectable tractor that does the roadwork and dont do the others another joke is the tax on passenger jeeps we have 1 1997 pajero 7 seater and the tax is nearly more than the vehicle is worth

wantolose

we got rid of eircom landline, we both have mobiles and we have 3 for internet, so we will see how that goes!:rolleyes:

mossfort

whelan1 wrote: »

i stopped taxing it too , just wondering is it worth while fattening ols crap cows or just cutting my losses and sending straight to factory

if theyre very thin you will need to feed them a bit to fill them out .
if you dont you will get next to nothing for them.

a friend of mine used to tax his tractor and put the tax disc in his passenger jeep.
allright till you get caught.

irish_bob

locky76 wrote: »

Culling the six worst performing cows, trying to finish all my stock instead.
Feeding molasses and meal and selling the spare bales of silage for €33 instead.
I was reading in the journal that once silage goes over €24 that meal etc gets economically viable.
I buying a hay turner in the new year also to either make hay or wilt my silage over 2/3 days.

your able to get 33 euro for bales of silage :eek:

irish_bob

wantolose wrote: »

we got rid of eircom landline, we both have mobiles and we have 3 for internet, so we will see how that goes!:rolleyes:

NIMBY,s are obviously not as common in your neck of the woods , they tried to errect a mobile phone mast not far from where i live a number of years ago and the locality went into hysteria , ive always said we are an easy people to scare , you litterally have to go up stairs in your house to get a hint of a signal so getting rid of the landline is out of the question

locky76

irish_bob wrote: »

your able to get 33 euro for bales of silage :eek:

€33 and counting my good man!

wiggy123

cutting meal feeding to yearling heifers--for bull nex year! gettin gd silage just!
only feeding bulls..concentrates!
last yr--fed all livestock...maize+barley! only round bale silage this yr!
salt licks instead of lick buckets

snowman707

have disconnected the wife's half of the electric blanket

reilig

I only sold 20 of my weinlings. Got a great price in August for the first 10. Brought the second 10 out 3 weeks ago and they were down €200 a head.
I still have 35 in the shed that I had intended to sell, but have now decided to finish them.

I was doing a bit of calculating on it.
My weinlings are currently aroung 280 - 320kg (about half and half bulls and heifers).
I can buy meal in bulk For €160 - €170 per ton.
I want to put approximately 300kg in weight on each animal over 6 months to bring each to 600 kg in weight and fit for slaughter.
175kg of meal per animal per month (5kg per day per animal according to teagasc figures will yield in excess of 1.7kg weight gain per day)

Silage will be fed as an accompanyment and they should eat very little - approximately 1 bale per animal over the 6 month period - as the main diet will be the concentrate.

€280 per animal will turn my now weinlings into finished cattle bt the end of may.
At today's factory prices, a high grading animal of 600kg live weight would make in excess of €1100.

I could sell my weinlings now and they would not average €500 each or I can keep them for 6 months, spend €280 per head on feed for them and sell them for in excess of €1000 each.

I know its not cutting back, but its an effort to diversify a little bit and try to get more money for my animals. I have the space to keep them. hopefully the worst that can happen is me breaking even.

I secured an overdraught this morning to buy 50 ton of meal over the next 6 months.

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

I only sold 20 of my weinlings. Got a great price in August for the first 10. Brought the second 10 out 3 weeks ago and they were down €200 a head.
I still have 35 in the shed that I had intended to sell, but have now decided to finish them.

I was doing a bit of calculating on it.
My weinlings are currently aroung 280 - 320kg (about half and half bulls and heifers).
I can buy meal in bulk For €160 - €170 per ton.
I want to put approximately 300kg in weight on each animal over 6 months to bring each to 600 kg in weight and fit for slaughter.
175kg of meal per animal per month (5kg per day per animal according to teagasc figures will yield in excess of 1.7kg weight gain per day)

Silage will be fed as an accompanyment and they should eat very little - approximately 1 bale per animal over the 6 month period - as the main diet will be the concentrate.

€280 per animal will turn my now weinlings into finished cattle bt the end of may.
At today's factory prices, a high grading animal of 600kg live weight would make in excess of €1100.

I could sell my weinlings now and they would not average €500 each or I can keep them for 6 months, spend €280 per head on feed for them and sell them for in excess of €1000 each.

I know its not cutting back, but its an effort to diversify a little bit and try to get more money for my animals. I have the space to keep them. hopefully the worst that can happen is me breaking even.

I secured an overdraught this morning to buy 50 ton of meal over the next 6 months.

very interesting, as someone who never deals with factory except to send off ancient cow i am curious what your approach is in dealing with them, in other words when the cattle are finished can you contact a factory rep and try and arrange a price or will you send them off and hope for the best?

wiggy123

never get them to 600kg in 6months time me thinks-if weigh at mo is 280-320 kg..in my opinion!
what breed are they! keeping them as bulls...

wiggy123

risky reilig..cattle prices-factory will improve! prob may+june this year--was best prices!
also i think beef will be scarce next yr--but factories are in a cartel...against the farmers! only for profit

Farmer 1

feeding 5kg of meal and gaining 1.7kg liveweight, dont think so!
it would be possible to have them at those weights by feeding ad-lib concentrates however and definately leave them as bulls!

wiggy123

they early 09 weanlings..so b killing at 18mths +

reilig

Farmer 1 wrote: »

feeding 5kg of meal and gaining 1.7kg liveweight, dont think so!
it would be possible to have them at those weights by feeding ad-lib concentrates however and definately leave them as bulls!

The plan is to feed ad lib, I might be a little bit under on the amount that I have to feed. But I can up it.

reilig

wiggy123 wrote: »

they early 09 weanlings..so b killing at 18mths +

I have been told by a factory that they can pay a premium for my animals if they are slaughtered at under 14 months.

leg wax

reilig wrote: »

I have been told by a factory that they can pay a premium for my animals if they are slaughtered at under 14 months.

so your animals are 8 months old and you are refusing to sell them for 500euros thats 62 euros a month but you are are now going to keep them for 6 months for a premium of 33 euros a month all the extra work + overdraft .

snowman707

reilig wrote: »

The plan is to feed ad lib, I might be a little bit under on the amount that I have to feed. But I can up it.

are you planning on feeding ad lib for 180 days? we are feeding 2 pens of jan 09 FR and MOX bulls for slaughter also .

they are presently getting 4 kgs of ration costing about 170 per ton as well as silage and straw.. rising 5/6 kgs in jan and on the advise of a neighbour who buys bulls for finising will be changing to an ad lib finishing ration for 30 to 42 days before slaughter . straw will be offered but no silage.

Glad thse guys are penned as they were difficult enough to handle before we housed tyhem.

reilig

snowman707 wrote: »

are you planning on feeding ad lib for 180 days? we are feeding 2 pens of jan 09 FR and MOX bulls for slaughter also .

they are presently getting 4 kgs of ration costing about 170 per ton as well as silage and straw.. rising 5/6 kgs in jan and on the advise of a neighbour who buys bulls for finising will be changing to an ad lib finishing ration for 30 to 42 days before slaughter . straw will be offered but no silage.

Glad thse guys are penned as they were difficult enough to handle before we housed tyhem.

At the moment they are getting about 5kg of ration each per day. They are on slats with rubber mats and also have a bedded area to lie on. I cannot feed ad lib yet as the change over of feed types needs to be introduced gradually over a number of weeks, but I imagine that over the next 6 weeks I will be upping their feed towards 10kg per day and reducing the amount of silage that I have to feed.

I run a Chaorlais bull with cross bred limousin cows - unfortunately a good many of my cows are black and produce mousey coloured calves. Exporters will not buy them and they are usually sold at least 100 euro per head cheaper than a yellow, white or red calf of the same weight. When they kill out, they grade as good as a yellow, white or red calf. Why sell at a lower price when I can cut out the middle man and finish my own cattle with cheap ration????????? I have the space to keep them and the slurry storage. I have facilities for bulk ration.

Was I not as well having the profit from finishing my own cattle as the middle man who would have bought them and fattened them????
We have a Teagasc discussion group that I am involved in with about 20 other farmers. At least half of them are doing the same thing - the others would also if they had the space to keep them. Making 32 euro per month per head is extra money in my pocket over the winter. Cattle are housed and easily managed. I am well aware that the easiest and cheapest way to fatten cattle is on grass, but with the price that I would be getting for my animals I am going to take the chance and finish them. As I said earlier, the worst I can do is break even.

My philosophy is that instead of making cutbacks, I am going to try to make more profit and expand my farming enterprise.

I'm well able to work.

GERMAN ROCKS

daddy dearest has told me to give up half these tractor runs as its burning too much of his diesel. also saves me about 50e as its normally €20 to enter and another €30 for dinner and what not. the only good thing out of them is the trophy things.

johnstown

No accountant - do accounts myself through ROS (get them checked by an accountant before submitting). Simple enough really.

No fees to Teagasc/advisors. Complete area aid myself etc.

No bank loans/credit and try to minimise if required etc.

Do not look for credit and bargain for a discount by paying up front.

Monitor costs constantly and do any work I can myself.

Keep everything as simple as possible so all of the above possible.

Get an off farm job if there are any now.

leg wax

reilig have you ever considered using a blue bull on those black lim cows.

pakalasa

reilig - "They are on slats with rubber mats and also have a bedded area to lie on"
Now thats 5 Star accomadation.

The thing about pushing cattle like this is that your output increases but your overheads basically stay the same. It all boils down to the ratio of the price in the factory to the price of feed. It would be worth your while work out your breakeven pt for different factory prices v's weight gain. You'd know where you stand then. Anybody else think that grain will never be as cheap again.

Rujib1

leg wax wrote: »

so your animals are 8 months old and you are refusing to sell them for 500euros thats 62 euros a month but you are are now going to keep them for 6 months for a premium of 33 euros a month all the extra work + overdraft .

You forget that the cow hd to be wintered and fed for average of say 4 months before she dropped the calf. That drops your calculated €62 a month to €41. Cost of producing a weanling is 12 months cost of cow plus your 8 months cosst for the calf:eek:

whelan1

i got rid of 4 part time workers and now have 1 permanent person - had a fella that could milk during the week but couldnt drive a tractor had another lad that could drive tractor but couldnt milk:eek: also had my brother and a lad who would do a couple of milkings at weekends :rolleyes: also cut the money to my oh and have saved a fortune

reilig

Rujib1 wrote: »

You forget that the cow hd to be wintered and fed for average of say 4 months before she dropped the calf. That drops your calculated €62 a month to €41. Cost of producing a weanling is 12 months cost of cow plus your 8 months cosst for the calf:eek:

You cannot factor in the cost of keeping the cows because whether I keep the weinlings or not, the cows still have to be kept.

Leg Wax - My 20 autumn calving cows have had BB calves for the last 2 years and this year they are gone in calf to bb again. I have them sold, but as I said in my earlier post, they were down at least €200 per head on last year's prices with the second lot of 10 calves. The first 10 were sold in early August and a few of the bulls made over €1000. The second 10 were sold 3 weeks ago an the best calf on it made €770.

I'm not in a position to put ai bb on all my cows. I keep almost 60. 20 are autumn calvers - the rest in spring. I find that spring calvers to a bb bull have many more calving difficulties too. But that's just my own experience and it may not apply to everyone.

MI5

reilig wrote: »

You cannot factor in the cost of keeping the cows because whether I keep the weinlings or not, the cows still have to be kept.

Leg Wax - My 20 autumn calving cows have had BB calves for the last 2 years and this year they are gone in calf to bb again. I have them sold, but as I said in my earlier post, they were down at least €200 per head on last year's prices with the second lot of 10 calves. The first 10 were sold in early August and a few of the bulls made over €1000. The second 10 were sold 3 weeks ago an the best calf on it made €770.

I'm not in a position to put ai bb on all my cows. I keep almost 60. 20 are autumn calvers - the rest in spring. I find that spring calvers to a bb bull have many more calving difficulties too. But that's just my own experience and it may not apply to everyone.

But didn't you have to feed the cow last winter to produce this springs calves, which you now propose to fatten. Therefore cost of last winter keep for cows gets amortized over her calf.

reilig

MI5 wrote: »

But didn't you have to feed the cow last winter to produce this springs calves, which you now propose to fatten. Therefore cost of last winter keep for cows gets amortized over her calf.

I agree, but if I sold my calves now at a reduced price I'd still have to feed my cows for the winter. Its an ongoing cost - not an extra cost that I have to factor in because I am keeping my weinlings over the winter. Rujip's post suggests that because I have to feed the cows, I will incur an additional unplanned cost just because I am keeping my weinlings when the fact is that keeping the weinlings does not add an aditional unplanned expense to my winter feed bill.

snowman707

Our milk returns are back about €20k that's the equivalent to €200 on 100 weinlings, life goes on write it off and move on.

leg wax

snowman707 wrote: »

Our milk returns are back about €20k that's the equivalent to €200 on 100 weinlings, life goes on write it off and move on.

and thats exactly why farming is fecked in this country, a sure it will be better next year, write it off move on,we keep taking it.

snowman707

leg wax wrote: »

and thats exactly why farming is fecked in this country, a sure it will be better next year, write it off move on,we keep taking it.

ok I admit it was tough year and let's hope next is better all round but if not we will still survive.


Farming feeds my farming, pays my children's college fees ,the oil tanks are full. the turkey is ordered, the bills are all paid.

I work 7 days a week and enjoy every minute,

tell one thing my friend

FARMING IS FAR FROM FECKED.

Bitten & Hisses

Reilig, I did something similar in the spring of 2008 and it worked out to my advantage. In fact, I was very lucky as the price of U-grade bulls went to €3.50/Kg just as I slaughtered them in April 2008. Even at today's beef prices, I would've made enough money on them to justify the extra ration. I even sent a few pedigree bulls to the factory, making more than I would have If I had sold them for breeding, and I didn't have any tool coming back to me complaining about the performance of his €1000 bull.