my dairy idea?

kevthegaff

lads im currently milking 85 cows rearing replacements, the land isnt great. Anyways i dont have any sheds for weanlings just cubicles for 100 cows, My brother was saying i should put all cows incalf to aa and herefords, sell the calves 2 weeks old and buy in 20 1 yr old replacements, i have 30 acres too far for milkers and too hilly to cut for them. This would put in the position to milk >100 cows without a lot of labour. i know a couple of dairy farmers who might sell them to me. im on my own all year round with no help. What ye think lads?

Timmaay

Not actually too bad an idea, if you did it right! Two big problems that I'd see are keeping disease out, and not ended up buying the "left overs" as such! How you'd avoid this would be to build up a healthy enough relationship with other dairy farmers ("might" sell them to you doesn't cut it, not if the milk price is good, and they decide last minute to keep them, leaving you seaching for cows!), you'd need to go as fair as sign a contract that they will sell you 10/20 heifers every year. That however is verging close on just contract rearing, which in my view is a much better path to go down! You keep control of what you breed then, heifer calves go out the door when they are a week old and come back either calved down, or just about to calf, so basically works out the same labourwise as what you suggested.

Most farmers I hear about who avoid rearing theirown replacements are cowboys to be honest ha, they would rather just milk the cow into the ground for the year and flog her on then, someone elses mess!

farmerjack

85 cows = 85 calves - 5% mortality =

80 calves to sell@€250/ hd=

€20000 calf sales (before selling expenses if going to the mart)

20 replacements purchased @€;800/ hd=
€16000

€4000 margin

These are just my rough calculations on the face of it financially you are better off and you will have significant labour saving. However the reward is completely out weighed by the disease risk you are exposed to every year and also the fact you have no real control over the genetics in your herd.

whelan1

nothing better than rearing your own replacements and seeing them coming through, buying in stock is a lottery, some you win some you loose...

delaval

kevthegaff wrote: »

lads im currently milking 85 cows rearing replacements, the land isnt great. Anyways i dont have any sheds for weanlings just cubicles for 100 cows, My brother was saying i should put all cows incalf to aa and herefords, sell the calves 2 weeks old and buy in 20 1 yr old replacements, i have 30 acres too far for milkers and too hilly to cut for them. This would put in the position to milk >100 cows without a lot of labour. i know a couple of dairy farmers who might sell them to me. im on my own all year round with no help. What ye think lads?

This a really interesting question. I would advise strongly against buying in for biosecurity reasons. The latest school of thought on stocking rate is to assess what your farm is fit to produce grass wise and then match cow numbers. Heretofore we all have been stocking our farms first and then we find out what our farm and ourselves are capable of.
Asuming you can carry 100 cows I would suggest the following. Dairy AI for 7 weeks and easy calving beef bull to mop up.I would also sync maiden heifers to calve in first 10 days all others clean u with beef bull.
I am basing the above on a 6 wk calving rate of 60% (modest), this should put 30 heifers on the ground. Because they are born early your 6wk rate will improve and obviously fertility.
You should then identify a contract rearer to take dairy calves at weaning to return to your farm springing 2 years later. By doing things this way you are only paying the contractor to rear the most fertile and therefore most productive animals.
I know I will be shot for this but on heavy land you need to consider cross breeding as they are easier on land.
I would also take a good look at my roadway infrastructure, you will be surprised how dry a farm can become with good roads and well placed gaps.

TEAT SQUEEZER

kevthegaff wrote: »

lads im currently milking 85 cows rearing replacements, the land isnt great. Anyways i dont have any sheds for weanlings just cubicles for 100 cows, My brother was saying i should put all cows incalf to aa and herefords, sell the calves 2 weeks old and buy in 20 1 yr old replacements, i have 30 acres too far for milkers and too hilly to cut for them. This would put in the position to milk >100 cows without a lot of labour. i know a couple of dairy farmers who might sell them to me. im on my own all year round with no help. What ye think lads?

at 100 cows come housing time you`ll in simple terms have 80 in calf cows 20 culls and 20 in calf heifers.. so if u offload the culls u have accom. for the following years 100 cows... imo if u got 100 cubs then thats accom for 110 animals so that gives u some leeway..

i winter my weanlings on rubber slats mats that was a beef house no probs.
have you got that option ?(locally maybe)

youve got 30 acres t o rear your replacements on so considering disease risks and heifer quality risks its prob your best option ..

get the frs in for a labour dig out when busy, its non comittal and tax efficient .
dont forget your clever brother either when it comes to sharing out the work:D:D

funny man

farmerjack wrote: »

85 cows = 85 calves - 5% mortality =

80 calves to sell@€250/ hd=

€20000 calf sales (before selling expenses if going to the mart)

20 replacements purchased @€;800/ hd=
€16000

€4000 margin

These are just my rough calculations on the face of it financially you are better off and you will have significant labour saving. However the reward is completely out weighed by the disease risk you are exposed to every year and also the fact you have no real control over the genetics in your herd.

replacement rate of 25% you need 20 heifers milking in the parlour and to get that you would need to purchase 25 to allow for empties (1-2), losses, etc., that would cancel out any margin. do you know of a good farmer that would take your calves at 2 weeks and return them in Feb-Mar of the following year to put on your 30 acres or alternatively let him bring them on until the following January and lease out your 30 acres.

blue5000

How do you overcome the possible biosecurity problem with contract rearing?

royalmeath

You cant beat your own milk and eggs Nora.
Breed for 25% replacement and if you can get someone to rear them you would be a long way better off than buying anyone elses stock.

delaval

blue5000 wrote: »

How do you overcome the possible biosecurity problem with contract rearing?

The way we do it is we only deal with a person on condition they keep no other stock. I do admit this may be difficult with a group as small as 50 animals

funny man

"50 animals small"

Timmaay

delaval wrote: »

Asuming you can carry 100 cows I would suggest the following. Dairy AI for 7 weeks and easy calving beef bull to mop up.I would also sync maiden heifers to calve in first 10 days all others clean u with beef bull.
I am basing the above on a 6 wk calving rate of 60% (modest), this should put 30 heifers on the ground. Because they are born early your 6wk rate will improve and obviously fertility.

Funny I dug out the teagasc dairy manual yesterday, basically spot on what they said also! Their whole approach to heat detection (red tailpaint for 1st heat, green next, and blue after 1st service) made a hell of alot of sense, and something I'm going to try this year definitely!

delaval

Timmaay wrote: »

Funny I dug out the teagasc dairy manual yesterday, basically spot on what they said also! Their whole approach to heat detection (red tailpaint for 1st heat, green next, and blue after 1st service) made a hell of alot of sense, and something I'm going to try this year definitely!

You will not regret it if you pat attention to detail at breeding and choosing high fertility bulls will do wonders for your bottom line.
We have been using bulls with a weighting towards solids 35kg and at least 80 for fert. Our first heifer was due today and first cow 10 Feb, started calving 1 week ago and have 10% calved this evening. Our contract rearer phoned this pm for us to collect animals tomorrow as a lot are springing. I am a firm believer in minus calving days, need to get as many calved and milking asap

delaval

funny man wrote: »

"50 animals small"

Much too small a number when you consider that 25 are maidens and 25 are calves

funny man

must be the where you are. lots of 30 acre guys around me that would be glad of a nice wee earner like that.

delaval

funny man wrote: »

must be the where you are. lots of 30 acre guys around me that would be glad of a nice wee earner like that.

Would not be a bad one at all €1/head /day. AI vaccine paid for by owner