Producing 1000 euro weanlings?

johnpawl

Hi all,
just wondering if anyone here is managing to produce weanlings hitting the thousand euro mark? What sire and dam is being used and what kind of feeding regime is in place? Thanks, John Pawl.

leg wax

johnpawl wrote: »

Hi all,
just wondering if anyone here is managing to produce weanlings hitting the thousand euro mark? What sire and dam is being used and what kind of feeding regime is in place? Thanks, John Pawl.

if you look back over older threads you will find what you want, we have on here,all have moved on from the 1000 euro weanling,1000 euros with the weight is the new target:D:D.

irishh_bob

johnpawl wrote: »

Hi all,
just wondering if anyone here is managing to produce weanlings hitting the thousand euro mark? What sire and dam is being used and what kind of feeding regime is in place? Thanks, John Pawl.

buy a few saler cows ( they can calve anything ) and inseminate them to cullard ( double miscled ) chaorlais,s

oh and buy a gun as salers are certifiable , they are nuts and you might find yourself in a tight spot with one

pakalasa

You should be talking about nett profit per hectare and not, what you get for your weanlings.;)

Username John

pakalasa wrote: »

You should be talking about nett profit per hectare and not, what you get for your weanlings.;)

So whats the magic number here?

Or do I need to read Justin McCarthy in the journal, and have him tell me how sh'te I am...

iano93

leg wax wrote: »

if you look back over older threads you will find what you want, we have on here,all have moved on from the 1000 euro weanling,1000 euros with the weight is the new target:D:D.

Any chance of posting the link to the older threads please?:)

Bigbird1

johnpawl wrote: »

Hi all,
just wondering if anyone here is managing to produce weanlings hitting the thousand euro mark? What sire and dam is being used and what kind of feeding regime is in place? Thanks, John Pawl.

Hi johnpawl

I know for sure that it’s easier said than done, we calve in feb/mar and find that some cows will just breed better than others, a cow with milk is vital, we have some cows that always produce the goods and some that are much less consistent but might be fancier cows to look at.

One of our best cows is a handy red lim cow approx 600kgs,this year she had a BB calf by RYP born late feb sold in mid oct 370Kg,1050E and the year before char calf by VCR 400Kg,1020E

Others cows then would produce the goods in 1 year then the next ud be left wondering if the AI man gave her the wrong straw!!!

We cross:
BB cows to Lim/Char
Lm cows to mainly BB and some Char
Char cows to Lim or charolais

We are going to try breed some of our best cows (like the one mentioned above) to decent bulls in the hope for replacements

We find BB to be a good cross with the lim cows but char bulls bought recently by AI company’s have plenty of shape and can throw shapely calves that weigh far better than the blues, blues in general make more per KG

johnpawl

Thanks for the replies lads. I've looked over all the old threads just wanted to get a little extra information. Story is that the father is signing over half the farm to me and half to my brother this summer but he's selling off all the stock so we've to start from scratch. Acreage is small and I prob wont make much from it but I want to start with best possible animals.
I've decided to buy two pedigree parthenaise heifers off a breeder just to see how i get on with these, and I plan to buy two or three other heifers to try to produce quality commercial cattle and try maybe get a bit bigger each year, depending on how things go for me.(I'll rent some of the land out for silage for first couple of years and I have slatted unit)
So on reading these replies, maybe I'll buy a few lm heifers and AI them to belgian blue, my worry here would be the probs with calving - we've no experience with BB on this farm tbh. What about Blonde heifers and AI them to parthenaise?
Thanks again for the help,
John Pawl.

pakalasa

Username John wrote: »

So whats the magic number here?

Or do I need to read Justin McCarthy in the journal, and have him tell me how sh'te I am...

€1000 per Hectare is the target for the BETTER farms according to Mr McCarthy. Thats about 400 per acre.

Pie in the sky, as they say! Still a nice round target to have.:D

pakalasa

Sorry, OP we werent trying to cut you short or anything, it's just that the topic has being well discussed before.

If you're looking for the €1000 weanling then you probably have to push things on the breeding side. That can cause problems with calving as muscle on both the cow and bull side of things can lead to difficult births. Not for the part-timer. A good starting pt though is to source cows/heifers that are big and square at the hips, even if they do have muscle. Start with easy calving Ai bulls then until you get a feel for things.
Also the calf doubles in size in the last 6 weeks of pregnancy, so restricting feed to the cow during this time, makes a big difference.

Best of luck anyway!

johnpawl

pakalasa wrote: »

Sorry, OP we werent trying to cut you short or anything, it's just that the topic has being well discussed before.

If you're looking for the €1000 weanling then you probably have to push things on the breeding side. That can cause problems with calving as muscle on both the cow and bull side of things can lead to difficult births. Not for the part-timer. A good starting pt though is to source cows/heifers that are big and square at the hips, even if they do have muscle. Start with easy calving Ai bulls then until you get a feel for things.
Also the calf doubles in size in the last 6 weeks of pregnancy, so restricting feed to the cow during this time, makes a big difference.

Best of luck anyway!

Sound, shur I'll chance on with the advice here and whats going on at home, and keep the numbers low. I appreciate the help,thanks, JP>

Bizzum

I'v come to the conclusion in recent years that the cows we have that are breeding well are cows with decent back breeding in them.
All our younger cows are as a result of AI, generally maternally tested bulls, and where milk can be retained, the progeny excell. Where milk is tight the calf tends to suffer as a weanling but again slaughter as steers, they tend to come good.