Rearing suck calves opportunities

locky76

Hey folks,
I'm collecting the last of my suck calves today....
I'm rearing 26 of them in total-
15 Angus heifers (€300 each) to finish in October 2016 in the AAA Angus scheme
5 Hereford heifers (€330 each) as replacement suckers
6 friesian bull calves (€120 each) to finish as bullocks in December 2016.
They are all February born so will be in and out to grass within a fortnight.
It seems like a lot more sustainable type of farming than sucklers (I also run a May/June calving sucker herd).
I buy directly off a few local dairy farmers, one of them uses sexed semen for his replacements and AIs the rest to beef Angus and Hereford bulls.

AP2014

locky76 wrote: »

Hey folks,
I'm collecting the last of my suck calves today....
I'm rearing 26 of them in total-
15 Angus heifers (€300 each) to finish in October 2016 in the AAA Angus scheme
5 Hereford heifers (€330 each) as replacement suckers
6 friesian bull calves (€120 each) to finish as bullocks in December 2016.
They are all February born so will be in and out to grass within a fortnight.
It seems like a lot more sustainable type of farming than sucklers (I also run a May/June calving sucker herd).
I buy directly off a few local dairy farmers, one of them uses sexed semen for his replacements and AIs the rest to beef Angus and Hereford bulls.

Best of luck with it locky, I reckon you are right. Let other lads do the work. I would nearly consider letting someone else finish them As well.

Be interesting to compare profits against your suckler setup.

_Brian

locky76 wrote: »

Hey folks,
I'm collecting the last of my suck calves today....
I'm rearing 26 of them in total-
15 Angus heifers (€300 each) to finish in October 2016 in the AAA Angus scheme
5 Hereford heifers (€330 each) as replacement suckers
6 friesian bull calves (€120 each) to finish as bullocks in December 2016.
They are all February born so will be in and out to grass within a fortnight.
It seems like a lot more sustainable type of farming than sucklers (I also run a May/June calving sucker herd).
I buy directly off a few local dairy farmers, one of them uses sexed semen for his replacements and AIs the rest to beef Angus and Hereford bulls.

Good luck..
Really enjoy rearing sucks and if you have a decent setup it hardly feels like work.. You're probably right to bring them to finish as margins are tight and if you have the finishing capabilities there is no point in splitting whatever profit there is with a finishing operation.

Reggie.

Welcome to the calf rearing club

sh1tstirrer

300 for aa heifers, February born are only making 150-250 in the mart.

locky76

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

300 for aa heifers, February born are only making 150-250 in the mart.

Good man sh1tstirrer, always the good word! :-)
They were 5 weeks plus when I got them, direct from a beefy friesian herd and are all AI bred, all trained to the big drinkers, no health issues, word the extra few quid not to be fluting around with the mart lottery...
Always love the anecdotal evidence of mart prices being so much cheaper, I've been buying direct from local farmers for the past three years and it's always worth the extra few quid...

CloughCasey1

locky76 wrote: »

Good man sh1tstirrer, always the good word! :-)
They were 5 weeks plus when I got them, direct from a beefy friesian herd and are all AI bred, all trained to the big drinkers, no health issues, word the extra few quid not to be fluting around with the mart lottery...
Always love the anecdotal evidence of mart prices being so much cheaper, I've been buying direct from local farmers for the past three years and it's always worth the extra few quid...

Completely agree the only two sucks I bought in mart this year gave me trouble. It's definitely worth 50quid to know where calf comes from what set up they have and how calf was reared for first few weeks. Also with lads holding onto calves a week or three longer this year with quota some dairy lads were nearly giving cows milk to calves ad-lib which does not bode well when brought back to OAD or TWD. And especially when moved onto milk replacer. Seen soft fat sucks this yr at 8 weeks that never seen the colour of nuts/meal. The go back to fook when brought home.

orm0nd

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

300 for aa heifers, February born are only making 150-250 in the mart.

and from what I've seen a lot of them are a €100 too dear. some screw bulls been used to mop up last year imo

best of luck with the calves Locky

nice selection there

sh1tstirrer

orm0nd wrote: »

and from what I've seen a lot of them are a €100 too dear. some screw bulls been used to mop up last year imo

best of luck with the calves Locky

nice selection there

I don't know what mart you go to, my local mart always have a plentiful supply of healthy strong calves you'll never see a scoury calf there. They're well bred as well.

sh1tstirrer

locky76 wrote: »

Good man sh1tstirrer, always the good word! :-)
They were 5 weeks plus when I got them, direct from a beefy friesian herd and are all AI bred, all trained to the big drinkers, no health issues, word the extra few quid not to be fluting around with the mart lottery...
Always love the anecdotal evidence of mart prices being so much cheaper, I've been buying direct from local farmers for the past three years and it's always worth the extra few quid...

Do you make a profit from them?

4512

How do the black herefords cross with a charolaois or limousin? Would they be hard to finish as bulls or would you be able to trie any more muscly breeds if the cow is wide?

locky76

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

Do you make a profit from them?

I'm happy with my lot, top 10% on the teagasc profit monitor...
The journal did an article on me in January :-)