efficent use of land

bull_bar

hello there

thought id sign up having been a follower for a while

thought i might ask the room for their opinion on something im doing

i recently inherited land from an uncle , 48 acres of dry land , i hope to run a spring calving herd of suckler cows and sell the calves off the cow , i will probabley breed the nesscessery amount of replacements so not all calves will be sold

anyhow , what is a realistic sized herd for a farm of this size , thirty was the figure i had in mind

ideas welcome

kerryjack

bull_bar wrote: »

hello there

thought id sign up having been a follower for a while

thought i might ask the room for their opinion on something im doing

i recently inherited land from an uncle , 48 acres of dry land , i hope to run a spring calving herd of suckler cows and sell the calves off the cow , i will probabley breed the nesscessery amount of replacements so not all calves will be sold

anyhow , what is a realistic sized herd for a farm of this size , thirty was the figure i had in mind

ideas welcome

Well Bull Bar

I might as well try to get this started as they dont see to be many takers probably the fine weather we are having ,a few questions for you
What kind of set up is there already
Have you experience of farming
Are you thinking of full time or part time,
If every thing is in place you should be able to take of were the uncle left off and 30 suckers is realistic enough, although you would be out with the spreader keeping the grass growing in front of them

bull_ring

kerryjack wrote: »

Well Bull Bar

I might as well try to get this started as they dont see to be many takers probably the fine weather we are having ,a few questions for you
What kind of set up is there already
Have you experience of farming
Are you thinking of full time or part time,
If every thing is in place you should be able to take of were the uncle left off and 30 suckers is realistic enough, although you would be out with the spreader keeping the grass growing in front of them

thanks for the reply

im new to owning land but not new to cattle or farming

their is a four link slatted shed , a hay shed and a few calving box type sheds

judging by your comment about spreading fertilizer fairly regular , you obviously think thirty is a sizeable stocking rate , therefore thirty five or forty would be completley out of the question

just do it

To answer the title "efficient use of land" as it is inherited see what entitlements you can get from the national reserve. Maybe the most efficient thing you can do, particularly if you take man hours into account, is lease it or sell hay/silage off it. Next what about grazing it buying young stock in early spring and selling off in Autumn - no great workload with this.

But if you're set on a suckler herd 30cows is a good size herd for 48ac of good dry land. Whether it is "efficient use of land" though is a separate debate! What type of cows are you thinking? Traditional vs Continental? If you're looking to sell weanlings then your really looking at continental breeds. Quality breeding females are dear these days and you'll be waiting a while to get a return, particularly seeing as you could be buying at the end of price bubble;)

Pulsating Star

You seem to be in two minds about this!

kerryjack

you are not new to farming, thats a good thing so you know what to expect , good day , bad days, to me efficient is the same as intensive farming but you could end up working for Mr Goulding and Mr Red Mills. Intensive is good if you are getting a good price for your product, prices are still not good enough to make a living out of the sale of 30 calves

bull_ring

kerryjack wrote: »

you are not new to farming, thats a good thing so you know what to expect , good day , bad days, to me efficient is the same as intensive farming but you could end up working for Mr Goulding and Mr Red Mills. Intensive is good if you are getting a good price for your product, prices are still not good enough to make a living out of the sale of 30 calves

im not relying on the sale of weanlings for a living but i dont really want to focus on how financially worthwhile this venture is if its ok

i just want to get an idea as to whether thirty cows is about the limit for a forty eight acre dry farm , i imagine you would need around five replacement heifers per year for a thirty cow herd so that means i would have five replacements plus thirty cows and their calves each grazing season , would also have to make silage for the winter but would have thought around 250 bales was more than enough , a single cut of 25 acres should suffice which would leave twenty three acres to graze for the peak growing season from april to july , would a suckler cow and her calf eat any more than one dairy cow , twenty five acres is more than enough for forty dairy cows during the peak grass growing part of the season , i think its easier to manage grass when your heavily stocked

just do it

bull_ring wrote: »

i think its easier to manage grass when your heavily stocked

and have good dry land!

1chippy

if its 48 reasonably good acres you should have no bother running 30 sucklers. I worked out an average for our own place here and its taking just over half an acre of bulky first crop silage to winter a suckler cow here. A lot depends on how early they go in and out of the sheds though. If you are baling you could also run with just closing off strong fields as you go throughout the year so at least you wouldnt be under as much pressure. you would be pretty stretched this year though with the weather at those numbers but should be still manageable. Best of luck with it.

kboc

cow/acre

1chippy

kboc wrote: »

cow/acre

you would be under pressure on the best of land imo.

just do it

Anyone know what's the stocking rate of cows/acre in the Derrypatrick herd? Isn't the whole point of that herd to see how far productivity can be pushed, and therefore heavily stocked?

Atilathehun

kboc wrote: »

cow/acre

Cow to acre!!! He wants to keep replacements also! So 48 cows, 48 calves, say 10 replacements kept back! 106 animals on 48 acres. Rather you than me!!!!!!

bull_ring

Atilathehun wrote: »

Cow to acre!!! He wants to keep replacements also! So 48 cows, 48 calves, say 10 replacements kept back! 106 animals on 48 acres. Rather you than me!!!!!!

on a slightly seperate note

im hoping to go with angus cows , docility is important to me but not having to dehorn is also attractive , i have a slight physical handicap so horsing huge charolias calves out of continental cows with a calving jack is not something which would suit me

therefore i was planning to cross limousin on good quality angus cows , was wondering if anyone had any complaints about such a cross , apart from the obvious fact that they wont be as valuable as charolais out of a continental

redzerologhlen

bull_ring wrote: »

on a slightly seperate note

im hoping to go with angus cows , docility is important to me but not having to dehorn is also attractive , i have a slight physical handicap so horsing huge charolias calves out of continental cows with a calving jack is not something which would suit me

therefore i was planning to cross limousin on good quality angus cows , was wondering if anyone had any complaints about such a cross , apart from the obvious fact that they wont be as valuable as charolais out of a continental

All I can say about the few angus cows we had over the years is that in general they werent the most sociable around calving time, other then that you should know what to expect. Wouldnt be expecting big money for their weanlings either.

bull_ring

redzerologhlen wrote: »

All I can say about the few angus cows we had over the years is that in general they werent the most sociable around calving time, other then that you should know what to expect. Wouldnt be expecting big money for their weanlings either.

i wouldnt be putting an angus bull on angus cows , i understood that a sizeable number of suckler farmers kept angus cows but crossed a continental on them

redzerologhlen

bull_ring wrote: »

i wouldnt be putting an angus bull on angus cows , i understood that a sizeable number of suckler farmers kept angus cows but crossed a continental on them

Yes but a sizeable number of suckler farmers are working at a loss. I think you would want to be holding to year and halfs to make the most of them, you will see a lot of angus in their calves.

bull_ring

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Yes but a sizeable number of suckler farmers are working at a loss. I think you would want to be holding to year and halfs to make the most of them, you will see a lot of angus in their calves.

so putting a limousin on angus cows is not a great cross ?

redzerologhlen

bull_ring wrote: »

so putting a limousin on angus cows is not a great cross ?

No you picked me up wrong there, What I was saying is that angus are more suited to a farmer finishing his own cattle rather than the farmer selling weanlings. I know people do sell some as weanlings but the prices wont be great. The angus breed has a lot of positive points but to make any use of them you have to bring them to beef imo, otherwise you are only putting money in someone elses pocket.

dar31

Pulsating Star wrote: »

You seem to be in two minds about this!

at least he knows he is full of bull:D;)

bull_ring

redzerologhlen wrote: »

No you picked me up wrong there, What I was saying is that angus are more suited to a farmer finishing his own cattle rather than the farmer selling weanlings. I know people do sell some as weanlings but the prices wont be great. The angus breed has a lot of positive points but to make any use of them you have to bring them to beef imo, otherwise you are only putting money in someone elses pocket.

i suppose you couldnt finish the angus males as bulls , not while running with a cow , hate to sound like a greenhorn but wouldnt thier be problems with in breeding , cant a suckled calf bull at around six months

bull_ring

dar31 wrote: »

at least he knows he is full of bull:D;)

a farming forum and comedy club all in one , cant beat that

dar31

bull_ring wrote: »

a farming forum and comedy club all in one , cant beat that

ya decided to stick with bull ring then

bull_ring

dar31 wrote: »

ya decided to stick with bull ring then

dar31

[QUOTE=bull_bar;79928991]hello there

thought id sign up having been a follower for a while

thought i might ask the room for their opinion on something im doing

i recently inherited land from an uncle , 48 acres of dry land , i hope to run a spring calving herd of suckler cows and sell the calves off the cow , i will probabley breed the nesscessery amount of replacements so not all calves will be sold

anyhow , what is a realistic sized herd for a farm of this size , thirty was the figure i had in mind

ideas welcome[/QUOTE]

you originally posted as bull_bar, and then as bull_ring for the rest of the thread

ZETOR_IS_BETTER

bull_bar wrote: »

hello there
thought id sign up having been a follower for a while

bull_ring wrote: »

thanks for the reply
im new to owning land but not new to cattle or farming

Just wondering the exact same thing with the user names