average daily gain of friesian bullock stores at grass

briangriffin

Well lads have 10 friesian yearling bullocks just wondering should I keep them for the summer on grass only or sell now?
There about the 300kg mark and would sell in October if keeping, what would the ADG be at grass only (reseeded so good quality)?
Would get about 400 euro in the mart at the moment but have the room to keep them

The Cuban

Had similar last year, they weighed 280kg average in Jan, couldnt get a bid for them in the mart. Sold them in late Oct @ 480 - 550 kg Made between 900 and 1000 yo yos. Good money as it looked like the price would never rise all summer. One thing I`ll say is that they had loads of grass and they are well able to eat it too!!!

P_Cash

cattle for me that would be held from mar/apr to oct/nov would avg .84 kgs a day

u must remember the bullock wont gain the same weight in mar/oct as he would in june
one or two poor bullocks will pull this avg down


but for me this has been a realistic estimation

actual i was only 80kgs out in a recent estimation for the total weigh for 15 cattle

these would be ch,aa,si,her,lim

Miname

The Cuban wrote: »

Had similar last year, they weighed 280kg average in Jan, couldnt get a bid for them in the mart. Sold them in late Oct @ 480 - 550 kg Made between 900 and 1000 yo yos. Good money as it looked like the price would never rise all summer. One thing I`ll say is that they had loads of grass and they are well able to eat it too!!!

They must have been some friesains to come into that money in late oct. Were they bulls or bullocks? How much meal did you give?

briangriffin

That sounds like great money for friesians Cuban they must have been good animals.
Im thinking at 380-430 euros today at 300kg average id be better off to keep them till October when given a conservative figure adg of .65 on grass only they will weigh between 470-490 kgs and will make 200 euro with their weight with the only cost being dosing and fertilizer and a bit of luck.
Given I have the room it seems wiser to hold on to them? any thouhgts?

Miname

briangriffin wrote: »

That sounds like great money for friesians Cuban they must have been good animals.
Im thinking at 380-430 euros today at 300kg average id be better off to keep them till October when given a conservative figure adg of .65 on grass only they will weigh between 470-490 kgs and will make 200 euro with their weight with the only cost being dosing and fertilizer and a bit of luck.
Given I have the room it seems wiser to hold on to them? any thouhgts?

I kept a bunch last year and they done exactly that 300kg through to-470kg and they made 300 along with the weight on the first bunch sold and the second bunch 200 along. Im holding this years for another couple of weeks and will be buying heifers with the proceeds. They arent worth the hassle imo.

simx

briangriffin wrote: »

That sounds like great money for friesians Cuban they must have been good animals.
Im thinking at 380-430 euros today at 300kg average id be better off to keep them till October when given a conservative figure adg of .65 on grass only they will weigh between 470-490 kgs and will make 200 euro with their weight with the only cost being dosing and fertilizer and a bit of luck.
Given I have the room it seems wiser to hold on to them? any thouhgts?

Are they good friesians? Good square sorts? There is the world of difference, I bought 10 of them last spring, 6 of them were late 11s and were 415kg I paid €660 for them didn't think they were too bad at the time but the more I looked at them they were tall narrowish f@€;ers but anyway sold them the last week of November they were 536kg and made €810, never again would I buy a bad type even at small money, when in the mart looking down at them from the catwalk disgusted me even more, they were going to eat a lot of meal before finished too, the other four were 302kg and I gave €560 at the time, this was early spring before things went belly up they were "12 bullocks but they are as good as ya get, I reckon they are 500kg now, paid more than I would have liked for them but they were good frs, so my opinion is lf they are not great types get rid and take a bit of a hit

NewBeefFarmer

you gotta look at it from the selling point of view,

I buy in what i know people will want to buy when im selling
unless your a finisher

Farmer Pudsey

Thing about Friesians is you need to get them over 500 kgs before farmers are willing to pay a premium for them. If they are 300kgs bullocks(as opposed to bulls) at present from now to October they should gain 200ish especially if you feed a small bit of ration 1-2kgs for last 6-8 weeks before selling. My own thinking is that 1.5kg/day is better for 8 weeks (56 days) rather than 2kgd for 6 weeks (42 days).

At present I think that goodish Friesian are undervalued compare to WH/AA or calves. Like you say 400 euro would buy nice Friesians 300kgs you would pay nearly 600 for 280 kg HEX and over 500 for lighter AA. The AA will not out preform the Friesian. I be inclined to keep and expect them to make 800ish+ in the fall all things being equal. You have the hard work done 180 will carry them to next October including ration grass and silage and it nice to collect a ball of money togeather

TUBBY

Weight gain over grazing depends on cattle condition going out (whether they have compensatory growth), breed of animal, dosing done and grass. There are a lot of variables but 180-200kg would be very good I would imagine from march to end Nov on grass and bit of supplementation when grass gets watery in Oct/ Nov.

Farmer Pudsey

TUBBY wrote: »

Weight gain over grazing depends on cattle condition going out (whether they have compensatory growth), breed of animal, dosing done and grass. There are a lot of variables but 180-200kg would be very good I would imagine from march to end Nov on grass and bit of supplementation when grass gets watery in Oct/ Nov.

Yes 200 would neraly be as good as it gets. However he has reseeded land and if they are bullocks then they should receive no setback. If out from early march until end of October it is 240 days grazing. I imagine that he is not over stocked and it is now only january so they may gain another 10-15kgs before turn out.

MagicManCan

OP are you animals castrated?

dharn

Bullocks,.... work it out

The Cuban

briangriffin wrote: »

That sounds like great money for friesians Cuban they must have been good animals.
Im thinking at 380-430 euros today at 300kg average id be better off to keep them till October when given a conservative figure adg of .65 on grass only they will weigh between 470-490 kgs and will make 200 euro with their weight with the only cost being dosing and fertilizer and a bit of luck.
Given I have the room it seems wiser to hold on to them? any thouhgts?

I would have taken 400 euros that time but as I said I could get a bid for them. I knew they were good cattle, nice and big but deep as well. They got about 3kgs of meal each 6 weeks before sale, but they were far from finished and looked like the type of cattle that could easily do with 150kg more weight before killing. Anyway I hit a great mart and got farmers on them hence the good price

larrymiller

Well lads just wondering how are yee finding finishing fr bullocks before 30 months. Is it easily doable since there's nearly always a bit of Holstein in them

Farmer Pudsey

larrymiller wrote: »

Well lads just wondering how are yee finding finishing fr bullocks before 30 months. Is it easily doable since there's nearly always a bit of Holstein in them

No it is not easily doable. In reality there is no rush with 0- or lower grade animals as they do not qualify for QA. I buy as either weanlings or stores find it easier with weanlings. However I usually go with the flow trying to get better quality one out before 30 months and letting O- or lesser quality one put on weight from which they may grade better but also weigh well late in the year. most Friesians are over 30 months in late August.

The thing about Friesians is that you need them to be 700kgs LW before they often start to finish. 6-8 weeks can make a huge difference in grades, fatscore's and weights when you get them over 700kgs. However this may often not pay if price falls. Friesian are one animal I often would move when the price is right and often sell at fat score 3- as they can carry a lot of weight. Looking at returns from last year I had a bullock that killed 406 kgs at O- and fatscore 3= . I think he was about 34 months but would more than likly gone to O= at fatscore 4L. He would have been 850-900kgs LW at that stage.

larrymiller

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

No it is not easily doable. In reality there is no rush with 0- or lower grade animals as they do not qualify for QA. I buy as either weanlings or stores find it easier with weanlings. However I usually go with the flow trying to get better quality one out before 30 months and letting O- or lesser quality one put on weight from which they may grade better but also weigh well late in the year. most Friesians are over 30 months in late August.

The thing about Friesians is that you need them to be 700kgs LW before they often start to finish. 6-8 weeks can make a huge difference in grades, fatscore's and weights when you get them over 700kgs. However this may often not pay if price falls. Friesian are one animal I often would move when the price is right and often sell at fat score 3- as they can carry a lot of weight. Looking at returns from last year I had a bullock that killed 406 kgs at O- and fatscore 3= . I think he was about 34 months but would more than likly gone to O= at fatscore 4L. He would have been 850-900kgs LW at that stage.

Will you find to get the factory to take them when there over the 30? Friend of mine had a heifer 34 months old couldn't get her in calf and factory told him he didn't want it! That was a good weight with that bullock you mentioned there!

Farmer Pudsey

larrymiller wrote: »

Will you find to get the factory to take them when there over the 30? Friend of mine had a heifer 34 months old couldn't get her in calf and factory told him he didn't want it! That was a good weight with that bullock you mentioned there!

Never had an issue before, however you never know. I think factory's will be more afraid of real heavy cattle killing over 420kgs rather than Friesian bullocks killing 350-400kgs with a good fat cover Yes he was one of the heaviest bullocks considering he was slightly under finished in some people mind.