What size suckler herd do you have??

Feckthis

What size suckler herd do you have and what breed takes up the majority of your herd.? Here it's red LImoiusins with some LMx and AAX FROM the dairy herd. Use all AI here picking different bulls for each cow. What's yours?
Edit to say 50 cow herd here.

whelan2

just 12 pb aa cows now, had up on 20 , sold a few off

grazeaway

45 here, mostly have LMX but older cows are AAX and majority of LMX are home breed from Frx and AAX cows crossed with PB lim bull.

Used to have a few fr cows up to last year they were left overs from the dairy herd and breed a fair chuck if the suckler herd and raised calves we bought in.

Count Mondego

Usually between 20-25 but a belt of TB and infertility casualties reduced me down to 18 at the moment. Should be back up next year.

Was mainly LMX and SimX but starting to integrate a few AA and LM out of FR. With a LM bull I'm surprised how well the FR offspring hold up against the reds. Long term I might go all out with them as they are handy cows to manage, hardier and docile.

jimmy G M

Circa 40 on fathers farm here, have cut back from 70 over past few years trying to lighten workload on father as the rest of us are working off farm. Likely to go down to 20 for nxt year. Keeping all calves to stores and buying in some more in the back end is the way we're moving.

Cows were mainly chx, limx, simx, (3/4 beef breeding) covered mainly by our own 5* ch bull. A few bwh & AAX out of local dairy farm in herd also.

Limestone Cowboy

Usually somewhere between 40 and 50. Got rid of a lot of the loose ends around the place last year though so at the lower end of that scale at the moment. Mainly lim cows with a few charolais and Herefords. Would be a bit of sim breeding back along in the most of them.

keysersoze1

Feckthis wrote: »

What size suckler herd do you have and what breed takes up the majority of your herd.? Here it's red LImoiusins with some LMx and AAX FROM the dairy herd. Use all AI here picking different bulls for each cow. What's yours?
Edit to say 50 cow herd here.

Do you find it hard to have a compact calving with all ai on that number of cows,cant be easy with silent heats etc..what do you find works best as an aid..teaser bull,tail paint,patches..do you calf autumn or spring or both

foxfield21

8 in total, keep 4 pb simmental and this year calved down 4 red lim to sexed sim and very happy with progeny!
Rest is dry stock

blue5000

Count Mondego wrote: »

Usually between 20-25 but a belt of TB and infertility casualties reduced me down to 18 at the moment. Should be back up next year.

Was mainly LMX and SimX but starting to integrate a few AA and LM out of FR. With a LM bull I'm surprised how well the FR offspring hold up against the reds. Long term I might go all out with them as they are handy cows to manage, hardier and docile.

I know how you feel. About a quarter left due to TB, nearly all angus x cross cows here now. 16 left and not looking forward to next test.

visatorro

have a total of one here, she'd been double suckled at the minute. thinking of weaning as double suckling is very hard on all concerned!

foxy farmer

Down to 32 here at moment. Can't keep replacements from last SIM bull as they are all nervous to the point of being dangerous. In 20 odd years at cattle i never thought cattle could be so wired. Afraid to eat ration till im gone out of shed. Thats bad. Back to a nice quiet Hereford this time.

CallofGuti

41 here. Moving up to 60 by 2017 as land and grass improvements are made.

Chx, Limx, are the pillars.

blue5000

CallofGuti wrote: »

41 here. Moving up to 60 by 2017 as land and grass improvements are made.

Chx, Limx, are the pillars.

Good luck with that;)

CallofGuti

blue5000 wrote: »

Good luck with that;)

Great reply. Clever, witty and thought provoking. The full package.

blue5000

CallofGuti wrote: »

Great reply. Clever, witty and thought provoking. The full package.

Ok how many 5 star maternal cows have you got?
What's your average calving interval?
Weaning weight without creep meal?

Miname

Anywhere from 30-50 on and off. I was too fond of the mart and loved searching for value but have found the ones that last are the homebred ones. Will bring to fifty next year and stay at that. My calving pattern is non existent. Breed of choice is a nice limo out of a sim ran with charlaois bull or limo out of a blue x fr cow ran back with a limo bull. I've heaps to do and to be honest not sure where to start.

Feckthis

keysersoze1 wrote: »

Do you find it hard to have a compact calving with all ai on that number of cows,cant be easy with silent heats etc..what do you find works best as an aid..teaser bull,tail paint,patches..do you calf autumn or spring or both

Yea we do. The thing is is it doesn't really bother us here we have cows calving in autumn and spring and even in July. We're not fussy with compact calving people will tell us were wrong but sure it works for us. We watch them keenly twice a day and use patches. We had a stockbull but got rid as i didn't like the thoughts of something happening with dad and I wasn't there. Peace of mind really.

Farmer Pudsey

None and that is nearly too many. Had a laught over this in the pub last night. Was told the reson I had none was I was a lazy Bas###d.

Jim Simmental

26 suckler cows here, highly stocked on small acreage I was/am lashing out fert but, I will be cutting back to about 10 - 12 cows over the next 12 months

Less costs and expenses and hopefully more money in pocket as I also work full time.

In my opinion extensive farming is the only the make money in suckling.

sucklerlover

45 mainly Simmental and few aa out of fresian. Keep all offspring from lim bull. Def will not be expanding. Think I will cut back next year. Fine big cows have fine big mouths.

letterkenny man

jimmy G M wrote: »

Circa 40 on fathers farm here, have cut back from 70 over past few years trying to lighten workload on father as the rest of us are working off farm. Likely to go down to 20 for nxt year. Keeping all calves to stores and buying in some more in the back end is the way we're moving.

Cows were mainly chx, limx, simx, (3/4 beef breeding) covered mainly by our own 5* ch bull. A few bwh & AAX out of local dairy farm in herd also.

Hi how long do you keep the stores for always liked the idea of cutting back on cows and having a few dry stock we have never done it on or farm as I'm a young fella and one day I might take over the home place

raypallas

A few years ago 32, now we are upto 52 through farm improvements by tidying up ditches and fencing the place properly. Currently have about 25 acres reseeded, with 6 burnt off at the moment to seed in about 3 weeks time.

Grueller

78 here at the moment with bertie basset in charge of the breeds. All sorts. Limo, blonde, charolais, simmental, blue, piedmontese, parthenaise. We run two blue stock bulls and always have a limo bull about too as we have a scattering of pedigree limo cows. We use ai to breed replacements from first cross cows and then throw the limo on these replacements for the first calf. Blue all the way after that. We sell all weanlings.

tismesoitis

76 incalf this year with 90 to be served before the year is out. All ai except for 8 or 10 that get moped up by lim stock bull. Use limousin parthenaise Belgian Blue charolais and this year blonde and a little Aubrac on heifers....just like the last poster a bit of bertie bassett

Kovu

God I feel inadequate here :pac:

Usually run between 10-20 & aim for quality rather than quantity. Varies between years as we sell if we haven't the fodder for winter. Could definitely stock a lot more and will come to that decision in time.

jimmy G M

letterkenny man wrote: »

Hi how long do you keep the stores for always liked the idea of cutting back on cows and having a few dry stock we have never done it on or farm as I'm a young fella and one day I might take over the home place

Generally keep stores on till Oct of second year so around 18 mths. Might sell a few in the spring / early summer if prices are good for cash flow / spreading of risk. A lot easier to keep on weanlings over the winter compared to cows. Leave em out till Dec on a reasonable year, back out again in March, a lot less bales needed & a lots less slurry. We don't go crazy pushing em on, just a shake of nuts for the first couple of weeks indoors & good silage. Same over the summer, just good grass, let someone else take on the risk of finishing.

jimmy G M

tismesoitis wrote: »

76 incalf this year with 90 to be served before the year is out. All ai except for 8 or 10 that get moped up by lim stock bull. Use limousin parthenaise Belgian Blue charolais and this year blonde and a little Aubrac on heifers....just like the last poster a bit of bertie bassett

Fair play Tis, a bit of work there, all spring calving or some autumn? How do you handle them in spring till ground is fit for turnout?

grassroot1

32 cows lm x fr and sim x fr with a number of first cross stabilizer heifers some Diy Ai rest served to stabilizer stock bull. Weanling bulls sold and heifers retained.

tismesoitis

jimmy G M wrote: »

Fair play Tis, a bit of work there, all spring calving or some autumn? How do you handle them in spring till ground is fit for turnout?

Mainly summer june july aug will go all summer over next couple of years. Wean all calves just b4 turnout and those along with incalf heifers go out 1st. When ground is good enough cows go out cleaning padocks behind the couple of groups of youngstock.

farawaygrass

20 calved this year and up to 25 next year hopefully. Finish all stock at the moment. For the lads who keep 2+ bulls, can ye run them together or keep them well apart?

weatherbyfoxer

14 left here to go to the factory this autumn...cant get out of them quick enough tbh!..calf to beef and sheep for me from now on

High bike

15 here at the moment one left to calve this week hopefully,will be up to 22 next year as have a few home bred replacements coming through.Normally sell the bulls in oct and keep the heifers,so lots of sleepless nights to look forward to next feb ,march.

jfh

Taking over from the father who wanted to flog the lot. Reckons he actually make money in sheep as opposed to sucklers.
To answer the ops question, around 30 cows, hope to build this up over the next couple of years but will be gauging it to see how I can manage full time job.
At the moment, we calve from March to Jul so not exactly compact but it has suited the system but will try to compact it going forward..

manjou

Between 35 and 40 simmental crosses using angus bull and switching cows to angus cross used to have 70 but switching to organic so reducing numbers till find out what numbers will be able to carry. Calving mid feb to mid april.

50HX

27 - all AI - cows are mainly BBX, LMX & HDX

Brought 5 x in FR/AAX yearling heifers as replacements - see how it goes, heavy land so need to carry a lighter cow, some of the older LMX cross are beef of beef - great calf even if the milk supply ain't mighty but the cows are just too big - more like the old 36mnt old bullocks......god be with the days