Contracting rearing heifer

darragh_haven

Hey All,
I've been looking into contract rearing heifers as an alternative to beef cattle (buying at 350kg to 450kg, and finished to the factory) that we are currently doing.
Contract rearing seems like there is a lot of risk put on the the contract rearer. All losses and heifers not in calf hits the pocket. and the dairy farmer who gives you the calves to start with gets his guaranteed return with no risk. I know he hands over the cash on return but the prices per returned in-calf heifer, butthe prices i have heard mantioned is only very avaerage.
Has anyone experience of this in ireland.

49801

we're starting to explore this option.
the rearer gets paid monthly (1euro/hd/day). So the dairy man is paying out quite a bit of money.
Hitting targets is important though

lakill Farm

is the €1 per head a day inclusive of all milk, vet and meal & hay?

What happens if a calf dies?

sh1tstirrer

€1 a day includes everything. €700 to rear a heifer and have her calving down at 2 years. You would want to be rearing a lot of them to make any decent profit from it.

lakill Farm

more out of it than rearing calves and selling them at 18 months

darragh_haven

The contract rearer has to pay for the feeding, TB testing, worming, vets bills, and the 100 othe costs that i can't think of on short notice.
I suppose the pro and cons that i have to consider is..... i have an off farm job, and beef cattle allows me to continue doing that. I can see contract rearing could be profitable, but would it be more time consuming than bullocks? therefore forcing me to give up the Off Farm Job

bbam

darragh_haven wrote: »

The contract rearer has to pay for the feeding, TB testing, worming, vets bills, and the 100 othe costs that i can't think of on short notice.
I suppose the pro and cons that i have to consider is..... i have an off farm job, and beef cattle allows me to continue doing that. I can see contract rearing could be profitable, but would it be more time consuming than bullocks? therefore forcing me to give up the Off Farm Job

Jebus... you'd want a written contract and you'd want to be really sure of the content...
How about vaccination and dosing regimes, is that left to the rearer or in the contract - who decides what products to use??

There is a big difference in an animal reared to two years or a well reared animal, would there not be a danger of the rearer cutting corners to keep costs down...

Then what happens if your rearing 50 or 100 heifers and your herd goes down in the test??

If an animal dies what is the position?? If you were after spending a snot of money on the vet and an animal dies??
What happens if an animal dies and the owner isn't happy with the treatment it received.. I know not many farmers agree on how to treat animals, it could be messy.

Sooooo many questions

C0N0R

Teagasc have a leaflet on it I think. The system works very well over here with the majority of dairy farmers doing it.

darragh_haven

C0N0R wrote: »

Teagasc have a leaflet on it I think. The system works very well over here with the majority of dairy farmers doing it.

Where is over here? NZ!
The bones of the system is. The contract rearer gets 3 to 4 week old calves, gets approx €1/day/ per returned IN-Calf heifer. So if the animal isnt in good condition, you won't get her in calf. There isn't much of it happening in ireland at the moment..... I just wondering why.
Is it work load for the return. is the return just too tight for the risk involved.

49801

darragh_haven wrote: »

Where is over here? NZ!
The bones of the system is. The contract rearer gets 3 to 4 week old calves, gets approx €1/day/ per returned IN-Calf heifer. So if the animal isnt in good condition, you won't get her in calf. There isn't much of it happening in ireland at the moment..... I just wondering why.
Is it work load for the return. is the return just too tight for the risk involved.

I'd say there has not been enough demand for this type of service up till now in Eire. With 2015 changes coming accessing this type of service is the only way for the dairies to expand without purchasing expensive land.

We've done the figures here and tbh is looks more profitable than our suck to beef system with a monthly cheque in the door rather than a once a year payment. I just dont like the idea of being so reliant on 1 other business for income. While we dont get paid enough for the beef we produce at least there is several routes to market available to us.

Farmer Pudsey

Most farmer that are willing to contract rear heifers would want calves older than 4 weeks. If you get Dairy calves at 4 weeks you would have an average arrival date of April 1st or earlier as dairy cows calve quite early. Most drystock farmers are now part time and have 40+ calves arriving mid late march requires housing and a lot of time. Also there is still alot of expense involved until the calf is 3 months of age.

I have seen some of the figures for contract rearing yearlings from mid March to early November and the figures seem to be in the 70-80c/day and this gives a figure of around 180 euro/head/year.This seem's good on paper if you can stock at 1.5H/Acre. However after costs it would little or no margin. If you cost grass at 50cent/H/day add herd test vetinenary and management it is no better that herding your own. There is also the issue that the department are clamping down on B&B/Contract rearing type situtation and not allowing them for stocking rates.

If you do the figures on contracting rearing from calves to returning incalf in November at 18-20 months. If calf arrives at 4 weeks allow
1 bag milk powder = 38
80kgs Calf ration = 24
Straw/Hay =25
Summer ration = 37.50
Vet/Testing/Med = 20
Loss =20
Grazing =70
Wintering 1.1euro/H/Day over 110 day winter =121 + 10 euro for dose etc
Yearling costs
Grazing/50c/h/day 120 euro
Bulling 20 euro/head
Testing/dosing =15
Misc =50

This comes to 550 approx euro's now your now i am assuming calves arrive April 1 and stay until November 15th this gives a total of 595 days and euro'd leaving a margin of 45 euro's to cover fixed costs machinery labour etc. I am giving these as a rough costings some may agree or disagree.

I chose April 1 as arrival day because it seemed apt.

KCTK

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Most farmer that are willing to contract rear heifers would want calves older than 4 weeks. If you get Dairy calves at 4 weeks you would have an average arrival date of April 1st or earlier as dairy cows calve quite early. Most drystock farmers are now part time and have 40+ calves arriving mid late march requires housing and a lot of time. Also there is still alot of expense involved until the calf is 3 months of age.

I have seen some of the figures for contract rearing yearlings from mid March to early November and the figures seem to be in the 70-80c/day and this gives a figure of around 180 euro/head/year.This seem's good on paper if you can stock at 1.5H/Acre. However after costs it would little or no margin. If you cost grass at 50cent/H/day add herd test vetinenary and management it is no better that herding your own. There is also the issue that the department are clamping down on B&B/Contract rearing type situtation and not allowing them for stocking rates.

If you do the figures on contracting rearing from calves to returning incalf in November at 18-20 months. If calf arrives at 4 weeks allow
1 bag milk powder = 38
80kgs Calf ration = 24
Straw/Hay =25
Summer ration = 37.50
Vet/Testing/Med = 20
Loss =20
Grazing =70
Wintering 1.1euro/H/Day over 110 day winter =121 + 10 euro for dose etc
Yearling costs
Grazing/50c/h/day 120 euro
Bulling 20 euro/head
Testing/dosing =15
Misc =50

This comes to 550 approx euro's now your now i am assuming calves arrive April 1 and stay until November 15th this gives a total of 595 days and euro'd leaving a margin of 45 euro's to cover fixed costs machinery labour etc. I am giving these as a rough costings some may agree or disagree.

I chose April 1 as arrival day because it seemed apt.

I looked into this and may not agree on every line of your costings but what I would agree on is that bottom line you will have very little if any "profit". Also if going down this road you would want a water tight contract re responsibilities of both parties (especially if something goes wrong, eg losses, heifers not going incalf at correct dates etc). And even with that in place both parties would need to be reasonable as dealing with rearing a heifer from a calf to an animal ready to calve is not as simple as it looks on paper. Its not like outsourcing the manufacture of some component that goes towords making some product in a factory, where once A, B and C are done correctly the component will be what is required. As we all know you can do A to Z correctly with cattle and still something might go wrong!!

delaval

We had our heifers cotract reared for 2 seasons. We reared calves for first summer and deliverad to rearer at housing time. All heifers were weighed and targets agreed. We paid for vaccinations and AI that was it.
Because we had then weighed only 25% of them required meal over winter. The biggest issue was trying to persuade our man to put them to grass on 1 Feb. We did not push the point as he was doing an excellent job. We also agreed that we would only call to see them once a month to allow him a bit of space.
We no longer do it as another option became available. I would have no hesitation in doing it again. The fee was €1 per day.
We put alot of effort into the agreement as we needed certain things and he needed a certain income. We also appointed another person to act if there was a problem.
The only deal breaker was that he could have no other animals on his farm.

maxxuumman

I was approached for this setuP
Rearer gets heifer at 12 weeks ready for grass.
Does all dosing and med&meal if necessary
Returns them to me mid oct for housing
Cost: 100 euros

Rearer gets heifers again mid feb
Does 1 round of AIing with certian targets and supplies all doses and treatments necessary.
Returns Incalf heifer mid oct
Cost: 200

For 40 heifers that = 100+200*40 = 12000
Person is very trustworthy and an excellent stock man.Well what do ye think.