dairy heifer rearing??

MFdaveIreland

Hi there, new to this. I have been preparing to start into farming for a while now. I've been working with family dairy herd for a long time but wud like to start of on my own.

Do any of you lads see a market for buying heifer calves at a few weeks old and rearing them to point of calf at 2 years old. I have a sound understanding of dairy industry and the workings in it. I wud like to implement what I know from my degree in agriculture as well as the years of milking for various people into a business for myself. I don't have land atm but would seek to lease of family until I could afford to purchase. Do you lads and ladies see any profit in dairy heifer rearing or what would you suggest.

Timmaay

Contract rearing would be a much better bet in my view, most farmers prefer to bred theirown replacements, as they have much better control of genetics, and less issues with disease etc. The replacement dairymarket this year was very depressed, with the fodder crisis etc, plenty of farmers who were hoping to make afew extra quid selling off replacements only made enough to just about cover their costs, in many cases they would have been much better off with a beef calf instead.

Having said all that, your location says Down, the north might be a totally different market, is there even any facility to contract rear replacements like down south?

49801

I agree,
Contract rearing sounds like what your after.
Finding the right dairyman you can work with is a very important part of the puzzle though.

Sam Kade

I spent two years buying maiden heifers and selling them calved. I made a small profit the first year as the export market was strong. Last Spring was a disaster. Back to beef again this year. To make the big prices from dairy heifers you would need to have your own dairy herd and have great breeding and be well known for that.

bob charles

Dairy farmers will only contract rear if they find someone that can do it cheaper than themselves. Some of the daily rates I have heard mentioned for rearing dairy stock are mental low. If I could find some individual to carry all my light store animals for around a euro a day I wouldnt have an acre of ground

bbam

bob charles wrote: »

Dairy farmers will only contract rear if they find someone that can do it cheaper than themselves. Some of the daily rates I have heard mentioned for rearing dairy stock are mental low. If I could find some individual to carry all my light store animals for around a euro a day I wouldnt have an acre of ground

And what would the €1 cover??
Winter feed?, medicines?, vet?

PatQfarmer

bob charles wrote: »

Dairy farmers will only contract rear if they find someone that can do it cheaper than themselves. Some of the daily rates I have heard mentioned for rearing dairy stock are mental low. If I could find some individual to carry all my light store animals for around a euro a day I wouldnt have an acre of ground

Me too, Bob. If you find one, let me know. I'll send him up all mine as well:)

bob charles

feed and water all year round. ie quality grass during summer, decent silage during the winter, presume I supply grains if needed. They can have the slurry for free just me being nice. I carry all other costs.

Or else I pay €X for each kilo of live weight gain

I hear of plenty of people telling me they have cattle with guys for a euro a day during the winter. biggest problem we found doing this years ago is most of these individuals were failures in the own right first and had to get out of cattle. Remember father having animals with a well known Tipp farmer and went to see them one day out of the blue and the cattle were lying in slurry on the slats. needless to say we collected them the following day and brought them home.

Sam Kade

bob charles wrote: »

Dairy farmers will only contract rear if they find someone that can do it cheaper than themselves. Some of the daily rates I have heard mentioned for rearing dairy stock are mental low. If I could find some individual to carry all my light store animals for around a euro a day I wouldnt have an acre of ground

I checked out contract rearing and couldn't see a profit out of it at a Euro a day for a heifer. Also what happens if you get locked up before calving I presume you would then become an accidental dairy farmer

49801

Sam Kade wrote: »

Also what happens if you get locked up before calving I presume you would then become an accidental dairy farmer

The dairy farmer could opt into being locked up and obtain permission from dept to intake the animals. dont forget the source of the reactors gets tested too so every possibility the dairyman gets locked up anyway. It would be a worst case scenario though.

It allows the dairyman dedicate his milking platform to milking to make more money and not be distracting away from his main business, milking.

It has allowed us to expand without any expenditure on buildings or cattle. But we have gone from low input to high input. The income would not be worth it at low input.

bob charles

49801 wrote: »

The dairy farmer could opt into being locked up and obtain permission from dept to intake the animals. dont forget the source of the reactors gets tested too so every possibility the dairyman gets locked up anyway. It would be a worst case scenario though.

It allows the dairyman dedicate his milking platform to milking to make more money and not be distracting away from his main business, milking.

It has allowed us to expand without any expenditure on buildings or cattle. But we have gone from low input to high input. The income would not be worth it at low input.

and who would opt into being locked up with a big herd of say 300 cows when one of their 60 heifers off for rearing goes down with TB in December with the calves having left the farm 22 months previous.

bbam

I think its fraught with potential disasters..
How about mortality rates?? If a lad had 50 heifers in and not paying the vet, but there was a mortality clause... I'd say the vet would be out at any cough/snotty nose.

So what would lads consider a profitable rate ? €1.5/day to keep and feed, all concentrate & other costs to be covered by the dairy man??

49801

bbam wrote: »

I think its fraught with potential disasters..
How about mortality rates?? If a lad had 50 heifers in and not paying the vet, but there was a mortality clause... I'd say the vet would be out at any cough/snotty nose.

So what would lads consider a profitable rate ? €1.5/day to keep and feed, all concentrate & other costs to be covered by the dairy man??

Yes there are pitfalls. As with any business arrangement. Trust is crucial.

Owner pays vet costs.
Rearer pays cost of knackery as looses future income that animal with bring.
Our deal is we contact owner before vet unless owner is not contactable.
It's not in any1s interest for animals not to be cared for or to be to scaby to call the vet if needed

49801

bob charles wrote: »

and who would opt into being locked up with a big herd of say 300 cows when one of their 60 heifers off for rearing goes down with TB in December with the calves having left the farm 22 months previous.

Nobody opts into being locked up unless it is a last resort.
The owner still wants his quality replacements back that have cost him.

It is practical to test 3-4 mths at a minimum in advance of return to owner to allow time to go through the 2 clear tests rule.

MFdaveIreland

Thanks for the reply , I understand where use are coming from regards contract rearing but I honestly wud rather be using my own stock rather than looking after others. As I said, I'm trying to start myself in farming and I don't have any particular affiliation with beef or sucklers. Regards the heifer rearing , I have seen a few people in Britain featured in dairy magazines for rearing heifers without milking , I was wondering what peoples opinions on it were. I was thinking of worst case scenarios , eg, calving down and having no buyer then needing to milk them or getting closed with tb before calving and same situation occurring. Also, would you be keeping the heifer until she calves or getting rid before hand, and thus how would you ensure a contingency of heifers to breed from in the future. I think it would be foolish to rely on buying heifer calves each year or am I wrong

MFdaveIreland

What's people's opinions then?

Timmaay

If you want to make money your wasting your time in my view, rent out the land and get a job elsewhere.

MFdaveIreland

Timmaay wrote: »

If you want to make money your wasting your time in my view, rent out the land and get a job elsewhere.

It would be part time as well as a job, I still think that there may possibly be a turn in it