bull beef

morebabies

This year I reared a lot of calves but I have 5 Fresian bulls that are 230kg at the moment (Feb born). They are not total narrow backs, they're good squarish Fresian bulls. I'm presently feeding them on well.

Would it be an option for me not to let them to grass next spring and to leave them in shed and feed them on as full bulls, try to get them into weight, and kill them as bull beef next Jun-July.

Would there be a lot of cost involved?

What live weight could I expect to get them into if I was feeding them meal from Mar-Jun 2013 or are they too young for that? They'll be 12 months old in Feb 2013.

Bit of an experiment I'm doing, they didn't cost me much to buy them.

Farmer Pudsey

morebabies wrote: »

This year I reared a lot of calves but I have 5 Fresian bulls that are 230kg at the moment (Feb born). They are not total narrow backs, they're good squarish Fresian bulls. I'm presently feeding them on well.

Would it be an option for me not to let them to grass next spring and to leave them in shed and feed them on as full bulls, try to get them into weight, and kill them as bull beef next Jun-July.

Would there be a lot of cost involved?

What live weight could I expect to get them into if I was feeding them meal from Mar-Jun 2013 or are they too young for that? They'll be 12 months old in Feb 2013.

Bit of an experiment I'm doing, they didn't cost me much to buy them.

No it would not be an option there are too light. Most of the finishers doing this are using calves that are 300 kgs at present or heavier and still find it hard to make money. These type of bulls(300kgs) would gain on average 1kgs/day done very well assuming a slaughter date of June1 that is about 200 day so 200kgs LW gain so a slaughter weight of about 500 kgs they will K/O at 51% so they will kill 255 kgs at that stage.

Some of the very good finishers will get another 20kgs LW(10 DW) on them and some less.

How much will it cost assuming that they average the gain evenly they will consume about 2% of there body weight every day so the mediamn weight will be 400kgs so they will cosume 8kgs dry matter/day this is equivlent to over 9kgs of ration/day or 1.8 tonnes.

Now most feedes will use a mixture of silage, ration maize etc.

If the average cost/unit DM is 3 euro's then the cost will be 480 euro /head After that add for dosing, mortality, vet, transport etc.

Even the most efficient using good silage and ration will struggle to keep it under 500 euro's for these bulls this year.

freedominacup

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

No it would not be an option there are too light. Most of the finishers doing this are using calves that are 300 kgs at present or heavier and still find it hard to make money. These type of bulls(300kgs) would gain on average 1kgs/day done very well assuming a slaughter date of June1 that is about 200 day so 200kgs LW gain so a slaughter weight of about 500 kgs they will K/O at 51% so they will kill 255 kgs at that stage.

Some of the very good finishers will get another 20kgs LW(10 DW) on them and some less.

How much will it cost assuming that they average the gain evenly they will consume about 2% of there body weight every day so the mediamn weight will be 400kgs so they will cosume 8kgs dry matter/day this is equivlent to over 9kgs of ration/day or 1.8 tonnes.

Now most feedes will use a mixture of silage, ration maize etc.

If the average cost/unit DM is 3 euro's then the cost will be 480 euro /head After that add for dosing, mortality, vet, transport etc.

Even the most efficient using good silage and ration will struggle to keep it under 500 euro's for these bulls this year.

We have a similar group of young bulls just housed. At that weight would you advocate storing them(.7-.8kg/day gain)? We have plenty of good quality silage and crimp available and would be able to get them out reasonably early asssuming a reasonably normal spring. I had a late summer finishing date in mind @ around 18-20 months. The intention was to paddock graze on 2-3 day paddocks and feed 2 kgs meal also.

Farmer Pudsey

freedominacup wrote: »

We have a similar group of young bulls just housed. At that weight would you advocate storing them(.7-.8kg/day gain)? We have plenty of good quality silage and crimp available and would be able to get them out reasonably early asssuming a reasonably normal spring. I had a late summer finishing date in mind @ around 18-20 months. The intention was to paddock graze on 2-3 day paddocks and feed 2 kgs meal also.

When You said similar are they 230 or 300kgs. Assuming a turn out date of March 10th and feeding to gain 0.6/day ( reduce feeding for last 40 days for compensatory growth). I would not feed ration for first two months after turn out however I would feed from mid may if you want to finish before November. They will bomb along with grass ( I'd use soya hulls/barley maize mixture or hulls/barley by themselves). Depending on when you want to finish I would increase to 6 kgs for last 10 weeks. However it can be hard to get fat score on grass, I am thinking of using molasses next year at end of finishing period if I do any on grass.

The other factor you have to watch is that factories do not want bulls during the autaum glut of grass cattle and quote low so as to force farmers to hold bulls. I do not like to have bulls outside beyond October 1st. If you house you have to hold until Christmass.

freedominacup

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

When You said similar are they 230 or 300kgs. Assuming a turn out date of March 10th and feeding to gain 0.6/day ( reduce feeding for last 40 days for compensatory growth). I would not feed ration for first two months after turn out however I would feed from mid may if you want to finish before November. They will bomb along with grass ( I'd use soya hulls/barley maize mixture or hulls/barley by themselves). Depending on when you want to finish I would increase to 6 kgs for last 10 weeks. However it can be hard to get fat score on grass, I am thinking of using molasses next year at end of finishing period if I do any on grass.

The other factor you have to watch is that factories do not want bulls during the autaum glut of grass cattle and quote low so as to force farmers to hold bulls. I do not like to have bulls outside beyond October 1st. If you house you have to hold until Christmass.

Thanks for that. In the 230-250kg range. I'd be hoping for a turnout up to 3 weeks sooner than you assume but it would be more about reducing costs than increasing performance at that stage. I'd say you're right about the autumn, anytime we did these before they were earlier born calves and we were finishing them June, July and there was never any problem shifting them at that time of the year. Problem was they never went out after the winter and the economics weren't great. If we were relying on bought in concentrates it would have been a no-no completely.

morebabies

Thanks Farmer Pudsey.

What about (maybe this is daft) these bulls are 220-230kg now, what about just coaxing them along until next March / April, and then start feeding them strong, without letting them to grass? Would I get them into 400kg live after 5 or 6 weeks feeding do you think? That would do me for the 6 of them if I got them killed out at 200kg which at €3.75/kg would give me €750. That would do me with me L plates up.

Farmer Pudsey

morebabies wrote: »

Thanks Farmer Pudsey.

What about (maybe this is daft) these bulls are 220-230kg now, what about just coaxing them along until next March / April, and then start feeding them strong, without letting them to grass? Would I get them into 400kg live after 5 or 6 weeks feeding do you think? That would do me for the 6 of them if I got them killed out at 200kg which at €3.75/kg would give me €750. That would do me with me L plates up.

Yes it is daft first of all you are talking about 150 days and a weight gain of 175kgs the very best and feeding to virtual ad-lib only manage 1.1kgs/day. Next these calves will still be growing and not putting on flesh yet, yes they will K/O near 50% but it will be as P1 and factories do not want them if you got 2.5/kg you would be lucky.

If you cannot put to grass next year you have two choices sell now or sell in the spring.

epfff

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Yes it is daft first of all you are talking about 150 days and a weight gain of 175kgs the very best and feeding to virtual ad-lib only manage 1.1kgs/day. Next these calves will still be growing and not putting on flesh yet, yes they will K/O near 50% but it will be as P1 and factories do not want them if you got 2.5/kg you would be lucky.

If you cannot put to grass next year you have two choices sell now or sell in the spring.

+1