Calf prices

Grecco

Went in to Ennis mart to have a look this morning, the calf supply was small but the prices were unreal!!!
Examples
3 week old Lim X WH bull calf €490 :eek:
2 week old ChX bull (red in color) €600 :eek::eek:

British Fresien bull (narrow and weak) €250:eek:
British Fresien bull (Good quality for a fresen) €350

CHx Heifer a few days old (A bit short and small) €400

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

lakill Farm

I went to carraigallen in Leitrim/Cavan on saturday and i should have stayed in bed.

BF bulls about 3 months old €395 average (they looked so mean and pinched)
Chx calf €480 (didnt sell)
BBx calves about 2 weeks made €380 ( only the buyers were in control on those) :rolleyes:
BR Bull calves averaged €280 -350 also

Grecco wrote: »

Went in to Ennis mart to have a look this morning, the calf supply was small but the prices were unreal!!!
Examples
3 week old Lim X WH bull calf €490 :eek:
2 week old ChX bull (red in color) €600 :eek::eek:

British Fresien bull (narrow and weak) €250:eek:
British Fresien bull (Good quality for a fresen) €350

CHx Heifer a few days old (A bit short and small) €400

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

theaceofspies

The Celtic Tiger is dead; behold the Celtic Cow

blue5000

theaceofspies wrote: »

The Celtic Tiger is dead; behold the Celtic Cow

Long may she last, Cuchcullan (pardon the spelling) and the red branch knights would be delighted:D A celtic cow is probably worth the same as an ounce of gold.

PatQfarmer

Grecco wrote: »

Went in to Ennis mart to have a look this morning, the calf supply was small but the prices were unreal!!!
Examples
3 week old Lim X WH bull calf €490 :eek:
2 week old ChX bull (red in color) €600 :eek::eek:

British Fresien bull (narrow and weak) €250:eek:
British Fresien bull (Good quality for a fresen) €350

CHx Heifer a few days old (A bit short and small) €400

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

No way I'll be buying calves this Spring at those prices.
Absolute madness.
Does no-one remember the property bubble?

PatQfarmer

theaceofspies wrote: »

The Celtic Tiger is dead; behold the Celtic Cow

CLASSIC:D

whelan1

ok here goes , my sale today.... fr bull calf €250
1 cow(cull) straight out of parlour weight 710kg got €1010:eek:
2 free martin heifers weights 478kg and 535 made €940 each
1 aa cow 646kg made €1260
:D:D:D:D
was a simmental bull calf 4 weeks old made €530:eek: totally totally crazy, was so many buyers, only 30 calves in the calf sale ... not alot of cattle either
my fr cow was the only fr cow in the sale couldnt believe what she made

theaceofspies

The guys paying these prices are looking in the crystal ball and seeing prices of €5 per kg at the end of the line... maybe they are right. Good time to be a seller in the next 5 months.

6480

whelan1 wrote: »

ok here goes , my sale today.... fr bull calf €250
1 cow(cull) straight out of parlour weight 710kg got €1010:eek:
2 free martin heifers weights 478kg and 535 made €940 each
1 aa cow 646kg made €1260
:D:D:D:D
was a simmental bull calf 4 weeks old made €530:eek: totally totally crazy, was so many buyers, only 30 calves in the calf sale ... not alot of cattle either
my fr cow was the only fr cow in the sale couldnt believe what she made

good to see a decent price for the fr bull calf cos its not that long ago we would have to beg a shipper to get 50 euro for bull calves

bob charles

when the cow stands, milk her.

I think its going to be a tricky year to buy animals. Strange, most of the bunches of animals I have bought since the 1st of Jan seem to be good value. Comparing prices with same week last year and there isnt that much of a difference. thankfully im not buying calves:D

whelan1

lord god, just read the mart reports from last weeks calf sales in the farming indo:eek: mad money...

BeeDI

theaceofspies wrote: »

The Celtic Tiger is dead; behold the Celtic Cow

But Mary Harney, is retired:cool:

BeeDI

whelan1 wrote: »

ok here goes , my sale today.... fr bull calf €250
1 cow(cull) straight out of parlour weight 710kg got €1010:eek:
2 free martin heifers weights 478kg and 535 made €940 each
1 aa cow 646kg made €1260
:D:D:D:D
was a simmental bull calf 4 weeks old made €530:eek: totally totally crazy, was so many buyers, only 30 calves in the calf sale ... not alot of cattle either
my fr cow was the only fr cow in the sale couldnt believe what she made

I'd say, you are sooo looking forward, to writing a big fat tax cheque this year;)

bbam

Definitely no calves bought here either this year.
Will sell some of last years soon and run the rest on until the autumn.

Surely these buyers are over quota dairy men. I was talking to one who said the milk is there free so it is cheap to feed calves on.

PatQfarmer

whelan1 wrote: »

lord god, just read the mart reports from last weeks calf sales in the farming indo:eek: mad money...

Just saw it myself. Those men are very brave...or mad.
Wish I had stock to sell, but despite the prices, a farm is no good without stock, so I'll have to keep mine for now.

whelan1

have a few angus cross calves after being born , am being driven nad by farmers wanting to buy them , what will i ask for them?

bbam

whelan1 wrote: »

have a few angus cross calves after being born , am being driven nad by farmers wanting to buy them , what will i ask for them?

€350 or €400 I'd imagine.. but i haven't been to a calf sale this year yet...

PatQfarmer

bbam wrote: »

€350 or €400 I'd imagine.. but i haven't been to a calf sale this year yet...

I try to buy AAX mainly. This Autumn I paid €250/200 for bulls/heifers, so those prices are WAY above my limit, but that seems to be the go of it so far this year!
Best of luck

Grecco

I saw very poor quality AAX heifers sold in Ennis mart last tuesday making from €325 to €365. I mean they were poor as in really light boned narrow and small.

Top price went for a strong Lim bull calf (He was practically reared) €620
White BB bull calfs a month old €600
WHs bulls €420 + (again no great selection, mainly plain to poor types)

Miller80

What would be a good mart for friesian bull calves?
In sligo but would travel a fair bit.

whelan1

Miller80 wrote: »

What would be a good mart for friesian bull calves?
In sligo but would travel a fair bit.

buying or selling

Miller80

oops, sorry didnt clarify.
I would be selling.

bbam

Grecco wrote: »

I saw very poor quality AAX heifers sold in Ennis mart last tuesday making from €325 to €365. I mean they were poor as in really light boned narrow and small.

Top price went for a strong Lim bull calf (He was practically reared) €620
White BB bull calfs a month old €600
WHs bulls €420 + (again no great selection, mainly plain to poor types)

This crack could all end in tears
Aren't beef prices on the continent starting to fall, by the time these calves are reared prices could be anywhere.

whelan1

bbam wrote: »

This crack could all end in tears
Aren't beef prices on the continent starting to fall, by the time these calves are reared prices could be anywhere.

ssssssshh dont say that

Grecco

I can see the factories are going to have a field day in the future. All these extra suckler cows, less weanlens exported and now there even importing calfs from the north

All larry & Co will have to do is pull back the price by a few cent a kg and it will cause a panic!!

bob charles

Grecco wrote: »

All larry & Co will have to do is pull back the price by a few cent a kg and it will cause a panic!!

This year will see lots of failures at the top table of the beef farming/finishing industry imo.:(. lots of opportunities aswell though

pakalasa

I see in the Journal 6,000 calves came into the country last year. For a country that exports 80% of it's beef, that just shows how messed up the whole thing has become.

charityboy

bbam wrote: »

€350 or €400 I'd imagine.. but i haven't been to a calf sale this year yet...

anybody paying this sort of money for angus calves are off their heads if they think they could make a return from them ,better off with no calves than paying stupid money for them ,the guys that are buying these calves are going to get burned at current beef prices

whelan1

the people selling are having a great time:p

charityboy

whelan1 wrote: »

the people selling are having a great time:p

enjoy it while it lasts,i will be laughing next year i will be getting freisan bulls for 100 euro again i love getting cheap calves

bbam

charityboy wrote: »

enjoy it while it lasts,i will be laughing next year i will be getting freisan bulls for 100 euro again i love getting cheap calves

Truth is that the yo-yo of prices doesn't do the overall business any good. Be better with decent predictable prices.
It's bad if someone needs to get burned for another to make profit, that's not sustainable farming.

whelan1

my tax year is october to september, was looking earlier i was getting €80 for fr bull calves in october 2010 , which is probably around what they are worth , last week i got €230 for a similar calf- well probably a bit better calf...

6480

charityboy wrote: »

enjoy it while it lasts,i will be laughing next year i will be getting freisan bulls for 100 euro again i love getting cheap calves

you had them cheap for long enough ,you can put your feet up this year and look at the good prices

mayowillie

How soon do you think before we see the prices start to fall? Does anyone think the landscape will have changed much by mid-March? I'm wondering how long to hold out before I buy my calves, I'd be buying 30 together, and I don't want to get caught up in this frenzy and get burned...

whelan1

assuming after the superlevy year is over on 31 march there should be a glut of calves in the marts:)

6480

i ed say your right but i dont think they will come back too much on price

charityboy

6480 wrote: »

i ed say your right but i dont think they will come back too much on price

id say 20 to 30 euro is all they will drop back but they will be better value in april as they could go straight to grass and finished on milk and also less chance of losing calves to scours etc

PatQfarmer

charityboy wrote: »

enjoy it while it lasts,i will be laughing next year i will be getting freisan bulls for 100 euro again i love getting cheap calves

I'm laughing now, reading that comment:).
Have to agree, this is insanity!
I definitely will not be buying at current levels. It will have to end in tears, unfortunately!
Why do we farmers(myself included!) lose the run of ourselves anytime we make a *tiny* bit of profit? Better to pay tax and keep the rest, than to give it all away for over-priced stock, imo!
Can't begrudge the sellers, they had it tough long enough, but this is gone too far the other way.

lakill Farm

anyone watch countryfile last night and in the UK they are still putting down new born BR bull calves, and they want to get pople into rearing bull calves for "rose veil"

PatQfarmer

lakill Farm wrote: »

anyone watch countryfile last night and in the UK they are still putting down new born BR bull calves, and they want to get pople into rearing bull calves for "rose veil"

And 6,000 of those "worthless" calves have been imported here! Shows how mad it all is at the moment...

Grecco

I usually double suck a few of my cows but with these prices Ive had to milk out two cows down onto the ground for the second time within a week; what a waste :mad:
I could have done with a few calves but not at them prices

PatQfarmer

Grecco wrote: »

I usually double suck a few of my cows but with these prices Ive had to milk out two cows down onto the ground for the second time within a week; what a waste :mad:
I could have done with a few calves but not at them prices

If you were closer, I could have sent you over a couple...split the profit(?):)
Thankfully all weaned bar 2 now, none coming in the gate at current prices.

Grecco

PatQfarmer wrote: »

If you were closer, I could have sent you over a couple...split the profit(?):)
Thankfully all weaned bar 2 now, none coming in the gate at current prices.

I wouldnt have charged you a cent as it would be a lot easier than having the Cows kick the sh1t out of me while I try to milk them
Anyway, I`ll keep it up for another week or two and by then either there own calves will be strong enough to milk them out or the prices may have come back to some type of reality

keep going

in some respects calves are cheaper this year than last in relation to finish price.eg fr bull 100e last spring= a bullock worth 1000e whereas 200e calf this year finish bullock could be 1200e

charityboy

keep going wrote: »

in some respects calves are cheaper this year than last in relation to finish price.eg fr bull 100e last spring= a bullock worth 1000e whereas 200e calf this year finish bullock could be 1200e

this is exactly why i am not paying big money for calves as i cant see the finish price staying at this level past this year

dealerman

€415 for 3weeks old heifer calf and bulls were around €400 as well for 3 weeks old its all mad

bbam

keep going wrote: »

in some respects calves are cheaper this year than last in relation to finish price.eg fr bull 100e last spring= a bullock worth 1000e whereas 200e calf this year finish bullock could be 1200e

I just sold a pen of weanlings I reared from last spring.... One with the other they left a bit along with €200 each after ALL costs were accounted for, not a killing but a profit at least...

Similar calves are at least €150/€200 dearer now but I have no faith that weanlings will hold their current price never mind increase another €200 a head to leave a profit...

The problem is taking the gamble over 12 months against prices.. I'd rather buy a few 300kg heifers and graze them over the summer to hit a small profit in the short term... A small short term profit is better than a long term gamble on a loss.. And if prices start to fall they'll be easier offloaded than half reared sucks..

IMHO continental cross calves from BF cows have a limit to their potential beef and so I think anything above €400 for the best of them won't leave a profit worth talking about if they have to get milk replacer... Maybe for a dairy man who is over quota, may as well feed a calf with the milk... But they are paying way over the odds to make the best of their situation rather than a profit making exercise, the milk still costs money to produce, paying €500/€600 for LIX, CHX calves is just too much..

dasheriff

I sold a red limo bull calf 5 and a half weeks old out of a whitehead today in castleisland got €495 for him..the best blue calf three weeks old made round 545..

6480

dasheriff wrote: »

I sold a red limo bull calf 5 and a half weeks old out of a whitehead today in castleisland got €495 for him..the best blue calf three weeks old made round 545..

why would u ever keep a calf at that money it will be a long time before he will cash in at 1000 euro and a lot of stuff eatin aswel

charityboy

6480 wrote: »

why would u ever keep a calf at that money it will be a long time before he will cash in at 1000 euro and a lot of stuff eatin aswel

change the word KEEP to BUY :D:D

awaywithyou

lads and ladies the boom times for farming are just going to get boomier... and in any case i predict a soft landing for calf prices in the future as the fundamentals are sound......................