what weight bullocks to you buy in oct/Nov?

NewBeefFarmer

title meant to say, "do you buy"

as i hope to sell some,

i was just wondering what farmers look for, is it lighter, heavier. . middle of the road weight wise.

as Im new, i have no pattern established yet. ..

NBF

Farmer Pudsey

TBH your job is to have as heavy as possible cattle to sell. I try to buy value as I over winter before summer grazing. I try to buy with as much weight as possible. However you are completing against winter finishers for the heavier cattle 500kg++. Generally I try to get bulllocks that I would buy in Oct/Nov as near to 500kg as possible while in August I would buy the around 450kgs.

NewBeefFarmer

well, yes, i will be selling cattle in the 480-520 region.

does anyone know how many KGs a decent bulluck will gain in a month,

from past experience (.01 knowledge) i have estimated 20KGs a month.. . . they are on good grass and filling up nicely. . .

my estimation was based on winter feeding of silage last year on a few bullocks that done very well for me.. .

NewBeefFarmer

Pudsey, i know your offline now, but maybe tomorrow you can get back to me,

you see, i agree with you, heavy as possible. .. then i think the following also,

make them heavy, but
don't leave too little for another farmer to gain, otherwise the animal might not be as attractive in the ring,
so, .. keep him in a limit!. . i reckon around the 500kg leaves scope.. .

Prices seem so low at the moment though. . at today's price id be happy to get me money back !

sher ill learn, ye all did.

Thanks
NBF

Farmer Pudsey

NewBeefFarmer wrote: »

Pudsey, i know your offline now, but maybe tomorrow you can get back to me,

you see, i agree with you, heavy as possible. .. then i think the following also,

make them heavy, but
don't leave too little for another farmer to gain, otherwise the animal might not be as attractive in the ring,
so, .. keep him in a limit!. . i reckon around the 500kg leaves scope.. .

Prices seem so low at the moment though. . at today's price id be happy to get me money back !

sher ill learn, ye all did.

Thanks
NBF

I would not say prices are low at present. There are low compared to spring early summer prices. However the cattle marts are small what will happen when the glut cones in 4-10 weeks time.

Is there a point in holding cattle on marginal land gaining 10-15 kg's a month. Even at todays price I be inclined to move heavy stores. I am not in the market for then by the way. Bob might be.

Last spring/early summer prices for young cattle was silly, numbers was all wrong, even if we got a good summer it would still have been awful. At present the price of grain/ration for finishing is putting farmers off.

Mind you I think at finished cattle are undervalued at present....unless the autaun is brutal and the factories starting killing 400-550Kg stores

Tipp Man

Basically you have 2 types of buyer in the autumn

1 is the autumn to autumn finisher so buys cattle from now on, winters them and then kills them of grass next autumn. Generally they are buying anything from 420-500 kg depending on breed. Certainly for AA and Her they don't want them too heavy

2 is the winter finisher who will be buying from Sept onwards for killing in the shed anytime from Christmas to April. Typically these will want a 500kg+.

From your point of view if you are selling cattle in the autumn then you need to hold them as long as possible - i'm talking right up until the mid of november if you can. Cattle are always much better in the marts (for the sellers) in mid Nov than in mid Sept

Bigbird1

Its surely in the farmers best interest to sell his cattle as heavy as possible,Im not talking about meal feeding but try to keep a steady supply of good quality grass ahead of them.
I mean your only talking about a 500kg animal at sale to get this animal into 550kg your only doin yourself a favor,where if there are good continental cattle they will need another 150-250kgs before been fit for slaughter

Bizzum

Are you completly tied to buying bullocks? On a smaller scale heifers might give you more options?

Tipp Man

Bigbird1 wrote: »

Its surely in the farmers best interest to sell his cattle as heavy as possible,Im not talking about meal feeding but try to keep a steady supply of good quality grass ahead of them.
I mean your only talking about a 500kg animal at sale to get this animal into 550kg your only doin yourself a favor,where if there are good continental cattle they will need another 150-250kgs before been fit for slaughter

Not necessarily

More often than not the demand is stronger for 450kg than 500+kg. Depends on your area i'd say

Reason being that a 500kg bullock is too big to be carrying over the winter and bring to grass next year but he is a long way from being finished for the winter fattners

NewBeefFarmer

@ Tipp man, thanks, yes, it will be Mid Nov probably by the time im off loading them, plenty of grass around me. . . its to throw rain/shelter/muck/damage to land in to that mix thats messy. . . but Ill be ok. . .
I get ya though on those 2 types of farmers. . we have done both in the past 20 yrs id say.

@Bizzum. . .Heifers. . . hmm. always keep coming back to me, i have a friend that says the same thing to me, and then adds, "buy a few heifers and then sell them off in calve". . my only problem with this is, . . . 1, we only ever had bullocks on the land in all of my life time,. . . 2, i have just started in to the whole farm thing on my own in the last 2 yrs, and since loosing dad, i think i need to go slow for a few yrs. . .

mind you. . . with the weather, (which is the only thing ####ing me off) i was thinking, bucket fed bull calves over winter/get them to grass, squeeze them. . . I dont know. .

just up there moving the ling on the side of a hill for strip grazing, and im telling ya, its muck. . . pure muck. . . eating id say 60/70% and mucking the rest. . . . .. my father would have never ever seen the land as wet, and we have all high land, nice hills like. . . . . grumpy now, , , need a coors light

1chippy

need a coors light[/QUOTE]
Your a farmer now, guinness or smithwicks is a far more associated drink.