calf prices and starting up

oscarodw

hello i am hopeing to set up a very very small farm with the hope of expanding if it goes well

i have land available to me around 4 acres atm i think . i was thinking of buying 5 calves or less depending on price and keeping them for a year and selling them . i have a number of questions to ask :

1.a rough estimate for the price per calve? (just so i have an idea)
2.how long until they are ready to be let out to grass?
3.what type of feed , to give them while indoors?
4. the cost of the above feed ?
5.what type of breed

thanks in advance also im not looking to make money from this its just for some good experience , but still i wouldnt mind a small profit :P

larrymiller

Hello Oscar,
Fair play on your new venture and best of luck. I will try help you with your questions
1. Depends on breed you could buy a freisan bull calf forless than a hundred or pay 500 in the mart for a charlois. Some where in the middle would be Angus or Hereford. My advice is go on to your local mart and get a fair idea, or even a quick look on donedeal.
2. I buy mine in spring so the weather would be coming too a bit, after I wean them, I bring them to the cattle shed to mix up all the pens, I also let them out to the yard during the day I have a fencer around the yard to train them, after a week or so I let them out to a small 1 acre field I have, I bring them in at night for a while until I feel there ready to be let out fully.
3. I feed silage, hay if available, and calf nuts mixed with crunch, as they eat more I get rid of the crunch.
4. I can't remember price of crunch and I THINK nuts are 9-12 a bag could be wrong.
I cant answer your last question it's what I ask myself every year, I buy Herefords and a few belgian blues as a experiment this year.
May I say that it's the first 12 months of rearing the calf is the most expensive.
Maybe someone can give you better advice than me, I'm not at it very long either! Best of luck.

oscarodw

i see you said after you wean them , what do you feed them when weaning ? thanks for the reply some great stuff there , also you should know im 15. i will have to get a herd number and everyting aswell that'll cost me a bit too haha im trying to get a part time job to build up some money for this too

do you keep yours for longer than a year ?

larrymiller

when im weaning i make sure there eating plenty of nuts and i carry on feeding them nuts for a while when they start on grass, and good silage of course. I keep mine and finish them my self all killed under 30 months. sometimes i might buy a few light weanings but i've have mixed fortunes at this.
I THINK you have to be over 18 to get herd no, also you need a crush and a shed for a sick animal. Im only 23 myself so i still have have alot to learn aswell

oscarodw

larrymiller wrote: »

when im weaning i make sure there eating plenty of nuts and i carry on feeding them nuts for a while when they start on grass, and good silage of course. I keep mine and finish them my self all killed under 30 months. sometimes i might buy a few light weanings but i've have mixed fortunes at this.
I THINK you have to be over 18 to get herd no, also you need a crush and a shed for a sick animal. Im only 23 myself so i still have have alot to learn aswell

I'll get my father to pit his name down on it he's about 47 so that should be ok. Ya I'll have a fairly substantial shed but its very old (its my grandads old farm he retired a long time ago but still has a big enough shed a farmyard an old tractor and 50 acres but I only want to test run this and see how it goes with 4 acres)


**I live just up the road to a teagasc dairy experimental farm. My dad gave them a ring the other day asking if there was any chance of getting me some experience and they said no bother and to give them a call back in early January because that's when they get busy up there, so il get some handling skills up there and hopefully learn a lot

oscarodw

I have over €400 , I'm pretty sure that should do me for a crush? What do you reckon ?

larrymiller

you will get plenty of experience up there alright. I say you should be able to make a crush up at a handy enough price ive seen some awful yokes round places, use the side of a shed or a wall somewhere as one side of your crush, you would be surprised what you might find on the farm that you could use.

oscarodw

larrymiller wrote: »

you will get plenty of experience up there alright. I say you should be able to make a crush up at a handy enough price ive seen some awful yokes round places, use the side of a shed or a wall somewhere as one side of your crush, you would be surprised what you might find on the farm that you could use.

I wouldn't know how to make one to be honest

larrymiller

Get your father or a neighbour to help, look them up on google, get work experience on the farm, you will get a fair idea!

bbam

Not being nosey.
But is there a herd number and crush in the rest of the farm.

I know of a few situations where two hers numbers share facilities within family. It might save you spending on a crush for the moment.

Hard to see where the value in calves is but if you can get HEX heifers at reasonable money they do well, are reasonably handy and sell well enough.

There's a good deal to rearing sucks and a heck of a lot to go wrong. Bit with patience and attention to detail it's great crack.

Check with a few local dairy farmers and see if you can buy directly ex farm. It's better and you'll get an idea of how they were cared for, ideally they get 3-5 days with the cow to get them started, this makes a huge difference down the road.

Calf rearing has been discussed widely here before, search back for the threads, it's worth reading them.

Whelan1 got a book last year for one of her children on rearing calves. Maybe a quick message to her could tell you if it's worth getting.

oscarodw

bbam wrote: »

Not being nosey.
But is there a herd number and crush in the rest of the farm.

I know of a few situations where two hers numbers share facilities within family. It might save you spending on a crush for the moment.

Hard to see where the value in calves is but if you can get HEX heifers at reasonable money they do well, are reasonably handy and sell well enough.

There's a good deal to rearing sucks and a heck of a lot to go wrong. Bit with patience and attention to detail it's great crack.

Check with a few local dairy farmers and see if you can buy directly ex farm. It's better and you'll get an idea of how they were cared for, ideally they get 3-5 days with the cow to get them started, this makes a huge difference down the road.

Calf rearing has been discussed widely here before, search back for the threads, it's worth reading them.

Whelan1 got a book last year for one of her children on rearing calves. Maybe a quick message to her could tell you if it's worth getting.

I'm not sure ill have a look around today or tomorrow

Thanks for the info

I'm surrounded by dairy farms so that would be handy

And ya I've been searching around gathering info from different threads
I'd rather get calves quite simply for the experience of raising cattle and dealing with different ages of cattle, il drop her a message thanks

whelan1

yup got this book last year from the book depository http://www.bookdepository.com/Your-Calf-Heather-Thomas-Smith/9780882669472

oscarodw

thanks

ally k

We are calf rearing here for a number of years very tricky operation.....we buy mainly aa british friesian hereford ....calves need a lot of attention mainly because you need to pick up a sick calf early scour pneumonia and host of other things ....we find keepin them very well bedded with fresh straw helps a lot ...usually buy them in feb and march keep them on powdered milk until they are 10 weeks think the milk costs around 40 euro a bag and introduce calf crunch early when they are eating 1 kg of meal i usually wean them off milk quickly and get them out to grass early less disease outdoors but continue with the meal outside for a month or so until they eating enough grass ....god luck if you go ahead with it