Mart Price Tracker

somewhat disappointed

Doing a rough feed budget how long should it take 11 cattle to eat a bale of silage it is top quality? A kg of cattle ration is equal to how much silage?

DukeCaboom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032423#Comment_118032423

A bale to 15 always was my rule of thumb

Cavanjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032241#Comment_118032241

I was thinking pyramid scheme too. They are a bit like crypto. Everyone wants in on them but at the end of the day what are they actually worth.

Who2

I used to buy a good share of this type of animal but they have gone too dear. It was the red roan blue type I was after to put to a ch to get a really well made weanling. It doesn’t make sense now and I’m gone back to more si/lm type cows or I’ve been converted to a well made saler lately.

I can’t see it going on for too long but it’s still lasting a lot longer than I predicted a year or too ago.

ive noticed an awful lot more of the fancy springer sales recently is the bar for the average suckler been raised or is it just a short term fad will remain to be seen.

somewhat disappointed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032508#Comment_118032508

Do you mean 15 cattle will have a bale eaten and cleared in a day?

patsy_mccabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032241#Comment_118032241

This is exactly what is happening in the pedigree game. A lot of cute hoorism going on. You spot it after a while, when you go to enough sales and realise the true value of stock. Huge money paid over here by UK buyers and then the bulls' straws selling for €50 or so on the back of the great selling price. Sickening to watch, to be honest.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032571#Comment_118032571

If 15 cattle cleared a bake in a day they drank it not eat it. Good dry high DM silage will do 25-30 stores for a day.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032423#Comment_118032423

A kg if ration will replace a kg of bale DM sometimes. However it can increase intake as well. A well made bale with a DM content could have 320 kgs of DM. Cattle will consume about 2% of there body weight/day

DukeCaboom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032725#Comment_118032725

99% of my business here is fr cull cows here. So that's why it's 15.

somewhat disappointed

Thanks for your feedback it helps.

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032205#Comment_118032205

I don't think so.

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032207#Comment_118032207

I sold my first PB last month off my own ones. He was a 14 month old non registered bull by SH4319 (Hussar of Upsall). A man that lives a few miles away drove into the yard one day and asked OH was he for sale. Apparently he drives by the farm on occasions and had seen him in one of the road fields. I got €1350 for him and I gave the man €20 luck money. You may remember the other pb heifer that I bought had a crossbred heifer calf by an aax runt of a weanling that was with them at the time.

The same man came back last week with another man and they are interested in buying two or three suckler cows when the calves are weaned. I bought them in calf in Feb - a shx (5 star) she had a charolais heifer calf, a black LMx (5 star) that had a red limousin heifer calf and a red LMx (4 star) had a lmx bull calf. All are back in calf to my own Shorthorn bull (roan) but I want to scan them just to make sure.

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032643#Comment_118032643

It's been going on for years and not only with beef breeds. The dairy breeders are far worse.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032770#Comment_118032770

So a Friesian cull is twice the wintering cost of 430-480 kg Friesian bullocks. Often taught of buying a few culls you put me right off it. They would like any to be making at 850 if not 1k of a gross margin to make it worth your while.

Cavanjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033279#Comment_118033279

You’ll also find your pen of friesian stores will eat a good bit more than a pen of continental store too.

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033298#Comment_118033298

Bass won’t admit that …. He’d be afraid they’d get dearer

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033110#Comment_118033110

We’ll done

If you don’t mind me asking, why wasn’t he registered?

DukeCaboom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033279#Comment_118033279

You can't stop a cull cow eating, we'd grow a good bit of beet here and feed straw too.

To be honest a friend of mine has a great attitude.... Don't make silage so you can't winter cattle.

It's hard not to winter cattle but I do have regular customers I'd always but cows off and if they ring you can't left them go to the mart with them

I've cut down alot on wintering cows , it was different years ago when cow sales were small you'd never get into enough numbers. Just go out as many days as u can from from the 1st of march till mid may , usually by then one of two things happen your out of room or out of money.

Albert Johnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033110#Comment_118033110

It's nice to get someone who appreciates your stock and wants to purchase. That seems a good price for a SH bull of that age and PBN. I keep threatening to buy a PB Irish moiled heifer or 2 and I must get around to it. There's something about roan and speckled cattle that I've always liked.

Mooooo

Dry cow would eat 12kgs + dm depending on the cow easy enough

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033298#Comment_118033298

A whitehead wouldn’t be far behind the friesian either when it comes to eating. I’d have similar sized continentals and whiteheads in pens beside one another and the same amount of whiteheads are easily eating 15-20% more and always seem to be roaring for more when the continentals are just lying down happy.

Albert Johnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033360#Comment_118033360

How early would you get to grass with cows? Around here the length of the winter and the subsequent cost is the killer especially with larger cattle as they just eat so much. You'd often see fairish type cows at €400-€600 this time of year that would make €800-€900 next April in similar condition but its the wintering that runs up the bills. There was a blue SHx bullock at work the other day, 370kg at €500. I was half sorry I didn't push him another bid or 2 as he'd make a fair bullock this time next year imo.

Cavanjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033430#Comment_118033430

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033360#Comment_118033360

Would they fatten on real good silage?

Mooooo

Wouldn't finish many outside the parlour but most I know would store and would finish off grass in summer. They'd eat plenty ration with good silage too id imagine esp if not fleshy already. I'd leave any details to someone with more knowledge than me

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033333#Comment_118033333

I would have to pay to become a member of the society and then pay to register him etc. I reckoned it wasn't worth it considering he was the only pb that I had.

jimini0

Heading to the mart Tuesday with a few weanlings. What's the procedure? First time selling at a mart. Have bought before but It's my first time there is years

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033298#Comment_118033298

They might but they come in a good bit cheaper than Continentals or coloured cattle. I have bought mostly Fr's so far this year, on average 60-100kgs heavier than last year, there is very few light hungry stores around this year. They are costing me about 1.55-1.7/kg at present. On the plus side I have all my stores still out. Friesian will preform as well as Continentals at grass........they just eat more grass.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033330#Comment_118033330

No I am happy to admit that they eat more it makes them cheaper. The hungriest cattle I ever say were Jex cross bulls they were eating up on 2.7-3% of there bodyweight per day. A pen of 10 in number 500 kg bulls on 8 kgs of ration and finishing a dryish bale in 3 days.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033360#Comment_118033360

Similar to Jex bulls and bullocks. However if 15 cows are clearing a bale a day you are at 1.7/day. There is only 2-3 euro's in the difference in cost between high and low dry matter bales. 50% of the cost is tied up in baling, cutting, plastic and transport. The other half is fertlizer mainly. Stores on good dry silage are costing 75-90c/day to over winter. On a 120 day winter that is100 euro in costs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033445#Comment_118033445

Shorthorns as a lads once said to me are ''bad to die''. They often have poor weight gain and are just a tad better to grade than Friesians but much lower DW. Having said that if he had age on his side and was still U30 months in a years time he have turned a good twist. He would kill 320-330 kgs if he was any way decent. At present prices he make 1350 euro or a tad with it in the factory. AIBP in Nenagh were paying a 10c bonus on them not any good to you but that would add another 30 yoyo's to his value.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033430#Comment_118033430

12kgs of DM would not be bad. However it all depends on the condition of the store. An animal with a bit of compensatory growth in it will eat maybe 3% of its body weight. Cull cows especially friesians that need wintering will be FS 1 or maybe just hitting FS2. Dukes figure are indicating that they are eating 16-18kgs DM/day and that is for 30-35% DM silage.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033474#Comment_118033474

They would put on weight but friesians culls are unlikly to fatten. Problem is that high quality silage costs money to make and you are scarficing DM for DMD often. A cull cow might need put 250 kgs LW+ to finish, March and April are not great beef price months better to overwinter as cheap as possible and let the grass do the work the same as Friesian bullocks

Anto_Meath

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033440#Comment_118033440

They would be 50% Fr 50%Herefords, it stands reason they would be hungry.. it's the genetic make up of the animal. The a genetically bred to produce milk so it's going to take more feeding to get them to produce beef. I would notice it big time in the shed, the pens of dairy x cattle would eat about 20% more silage than the suckler bred stock of a similar size.

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033767#Comment_118033767

If you haven't phoned the mart to book them in then do so in the morning. Otherwise make sure you have the correct card for each animal which you will hand into the office to get your numbers or at the lairage office and the drovers will number them for you. Most marts allow the seller to enter the lairage crush area where the cattle are numbered so that you can select which number goes on which animal i.e. which one is first, second ect into the ring. If you are staying at the mart to see them selling then you go into the sellers box (beside the auctioneer) as your first lot goes into the ring for sale - when they are bid up the auctioneer will ask you if they are on the market and when the final bid comes in he/she will ask you are you accepting the price. If you do then he/she will announce that the animal is sold. If however you are not going to stay in the mart to see them sold then the mart office staff will phone you 10 or 15 mins after your lots are sold advising you of their weights and what price they achieved. You then advise them if you accept the price for each lot or not.

Don't forget the cards because without them the cattle cannot be sold. OH, you will have to wear a mask in and around the mart.

jimini0

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033848#Comment_118033848

Thanks base. I have them booked in. Lot numbers assigned. I have 1 13month bull. And 4 bucket reared calves. 2 heifers and 2 bulls. Would I be better off to put the 2 bulls in one lot and heifers in 1 lot

DukeCaboom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118033360#Comment_118033360

"Similar to Jex bulls and bullocks. However if 15 cows are clearing a bale a day you are at 1.7/day. There is only 2-3 euro's in the difference in cost between high and low dry matter bales. 50% of the cost is tied up in baling, cutting, plastic and transport. The other half is fertlizer mainly. Stores on good dry silage are costing 75-90c/day to over winter. On a 120 day winter that is100 euro in costs"

I never set out to make silage. As I said I grow alot of beet and straw so I make it up that way. I like to have the place packed start killing as the grass tightens up.

Wintering cows anything over six or 8 weeks is brainless. Cows just get burned out from long winters. Buy them as close to the grass as I can. Down the coast here you could start picking out the weaker ones mid Feb on...