Buying In Calf Heifers/Suckler Cows

GoodMan55985

Hi All,

I need to buy a few replacements either in calf heifers/suckler cows. I'm in the Beef Progency scheme so will probably need to buy ones 4 or 5 star. Is this announced at the mart?

Also any advice on what I should be looking for before the sale, good traits to notice. Any advice appreciated. thanks

Kovu

Not announced at the mart no, so will have to go on trusting the seller or solely go to four/five star sales.

Good traits? Good feet, nice neat udder. Not batshít crazy- an animal that is looking around her with interest but not circling the pen or has her head up and white of eye showing. Width at the hip bones for ease of calving, I also like a nice flat tail head to go with that. In good nick but not overfat.
Do you have much prior knowledge of cattle yourself?

greenpetrol

GoodMan55985 wrote: »

Hi All,

I need to buy a few replacements either in calf heifers/suckler cows. I'm in the Beef Progency scheme so will probably need to buy ones 4 or 5 star. Is this announced at the mart?

Also any advice on what I should be looking for before the sale, good traits to notice. Any advice appreciated. thanks

Buy dairy cross Angus or Hereford straight from the farm ! See the bull and check his tag number on icbf bull search! If he is 4 or 5 !! Even 3 star mixed with the dairy cross you will have a great chance of a heifer that will qualify under the scheme come time of her calving down !!! if the bull does not show on icbf he is not registered and an extra hassle !!!
I say chance because that's all it is with the icbf ratings !

GoodMan55985

Thanks for reply Kovu. I do have an idea on cattle just haven't bought sucklers in a while been relying on replacements reared in house. Mostly char and lim. I find milk is lacking now and want to buy some new stock in. thanks

Kovu

GoodMan55985 wrote: »

Thanks for reply Kovu. I do have an idea on cattle just haven't bought sucklers in a while been relying on replacements reared in house. Mostly char and lim. I find milk is lacking now and want to buy some new stock in. thanks

As above if you feel that milk is lacking look for dairy crosses, even second generation bred should be grand for that, though the stars may say different depending on the bull. The first % of 4* animals isn't until 2018 though is it not? You are starting in plenty of time at least!

Miname

I've been buying springers the last couple of years as well as breeding the pick of my own. I've came to the conclusion unless your willing to spend 1800 or above for a springer your better off buying nice replacement heifers for bulling. Angus and Hereford are good mothers but to get the real good calf you need a bit more style with your cows. Angus imo especially are a very limited cow in regards to what they can produce.

cacs

GoodMan55985 wrote: »

Hi All,

I need to buy a few replacements either in calf heifers/suckler cows. I'm in the Beef Progency scheme so will probably need to buy ones 4 or 5 star. Is this announced at the mart?

Also any advice on what I should be looking for before the sale, good traits to notice. Any advice appreciated. thanks

I wanted to build numbers so two years I bought four cows with calfs at foot. Most were second calf. They were all duds. Everyone after factoried after 6 to 12 months. They all came with problems and that's why they sold. Last year I bought from four incalf heifers I lost one calf this year during calfing. Now I am to blame on this because I was adlib silage feeding and the calfs got too big. But they other two of the heifers that I bought calfed fine. What was the difference. The cow that lost the calf was out a lim bull that 22.5% calfing diffficulty and she threw back to the bull she was out of. Also I would not touch an incalf heifer in calf to lim stock bull. The reality is you don't have any idea of the calfing difficulty of the bull and all lim bulls are getting bigger and bigger. Will any say they stock bull is s hard calfer. Form now on I will only bring up replacements from within the herd. If was buying replacement bulling heifers I would only buy from a yard or special sale where if possible see what she is out of or get ascess to he icbf report where I would be looking at ancestry. Calfing diffficulty milk yield stars etc. I know the % reliability will be low but it will be an indicator. Lastly I would only give them easy calfing AI Bulls with a percentage calfing difficulty less the 2.5% with high reliability index of 85% or greater . First calf bull choice AA . Easy calfing where the heifer calfs unassisted will give a long life easy calfing cow that will be with you for years

carrollsno1

If your buying springers try by them at least 6 weeks pre calving to allow them build up antibodys in the colostrum tailored to your own farm

50HX

i bought in AA X heifers from BR Friesian herd last yr

rang icbf to enter the bull tag and all of them are showing up 5 star

nice heifers - easy calve and good drop of milk from the dairy side - calves performing well so far

Bullocks

carrollsno1 wrote: »

If your buying springers try by them at least 6 weeks pre calving to allow them build up antibodys in the colostrum tailored to your own farm

Good point , especially if it's different land types

Farrell

cathal irwin wrote: »

I wanted to build numbers so two years I bought four cows with calfs at foot. Most were second calf. They were all duds. Everyone after factoried after 6 to 12 months. They all came with problems and that's why they sold. Last year I bought from four incalf heifers I lost one calf this year during calfing. Now I am to blame on this because I was adlib silage feeding and the calfs got too big. But they other two of the heifers that I bought calfed fine. What was the difference. The cow that lost the calf was out a lim bull that 22.5% calfing diffficulty and she threw back to the bull she was out of. Also I would not touch an incalf heifer in calf to lim stock bull. The reality is you don't have any idea of the calfing difficulty of the bull and all lim bulls are getting bigger and bigger. Will any say they stock bull is s hard calfer. Form now on I will only bring up replacements from within the herd. If was buying replacement bulling heifers I would only buy from a yard or special sale where if possible see what she is out of or get ascess to he icbf report where I would be looking at ancestry. Calfing diffficulty milk yield stars etc. I know the % reliability will be low but it will be an indicator. Lastly I would only give them easy calfing AI Bulls with a percentage calfing difficulty less the 2.5% with high reliability index of 85% or greater . First calf bull choice AA . Easy calfing where the heifer calfs unassisted will give a long life easy calfing cow that will be with you for years

3-5 star sales are taking off in the last few years, with 1 in Autumn & the other in early spring, allot of marts seam to be doing them.
ICBF have being in discussions with marts to get a screen to show ratings for cattle being sold, this is supposed to cost around 10k, but only details to farms registered to icbf