are there many non birth farms?

Dickie10

just wondering ho many lads here or thst you know, that operate farm systems with livestock that there are no births on the farm. just buying in cattle as weanlings and stores and finshing them and maybe buying store lambs. have to say i would be attrated to this sytem for labour saving but im pretty sure its not as profitable as suckler to beef and lambing ewes which im at now. are many doing it?

might look into it more though.

darragh_haven

Dickie10 wrote: »

just wondering ho many lads here or thst you know, that operate farm systems with livestock that there are no births on the farm. just buying in cattle as weanlings and stores and finshing them and maybe buying store lambs. have to say i would be attrated to this sytem for labour saving but im pretty sure its not as profitable as suckler to beef and lambing ewes which im at now. are many doing it?

might look into it more though.

We buy in weanling bullocks and heifers. Having gone through figures with 2 different neighbours I think it's approx the same profit /Ha as sucklers. Some years better, some years worse.

Reggie.

No births on my little place. A poll would be a good job for this thread

_Brian

None on our little corner of Cavan.. miss it about the place though

Dickie10

out of interest id like to know how big these farms are? it can make sense in farms under 50 acres. I have 120 acres so i could prob hod 150 weanling to beef cattle handy enoough. i finsh all heifers at around 27-32 months at the minute and sell the weanling bulls in march.

Grueller

If you are buying in heifers it will be very hard to be a non birth farm as a few of them will always show up in calf.

Just had a set of twin Belgian blues out of a Parthenaise second calver. I suppose that excludes me so.

rliston

No planned calvings here for a few years. Started with buying aax\hex calves and finishing at 24-27 months. Was very labour intensive but allowed me build up numbers easier. Switched to 1yr old frx bullocks and finishing at 27 months. Around the same profit from both systems but less chance of losses with the older cattle. Grazing 35ac at the moment but I've another 35ac in tillage on an outside block that will probably be put back into grass in the next few years.

Dickie10

i know you always have a few in calf but if you can cop it the mart and seller will have to deal with it. even though i believe their is good enoough profut in suckler to beef

Someyolk

Dickie10 wrote: »

just wondering ho many lads here or thst you know, that operate farm systems with livestock that there are no births on the farm. just buying in cattle as weanlings and stores and finshing them and maybe buying store lambs. have to say i would be attrated to this sytem for labour saving but im pretty sure its not as profitable as suckler to beef and lambing ewes which im at now. are many doing it?

might look into it more though.

Buy everything in here. Buy as Calves weanlings or stores. Working full time so suites me not having to calve cows. all bulls and bullocks so no problem with heifers. Don't make a fortune but always seem to make a few euro at it and anyway when did making money ever bother us.

sea12

Probably going to do it next year. Have ewes for lambing but just not feasable any more with full time job and very young family. Also live 10 mins away from farm and father getting older.

Will buy in store lambs and keep ewe lambs as hoggets and sell for breeding.
Would sell this years ewes only for dig running them last week and damaging a few.

How much profit in it compared to other systems I'm not sure but will look into it over coming months.

Dickie10

yeah thinking the same here store lambs always leave a few quid

Western Pomise

Thinking of getting out of sucklers here,know I personally will miss the excitement of seeing calves going from new born to developing into weanlings but have full time job and young kids so something has to give.Will increase ewe numbers and still lamb ewes but for a few years might just buy in a few weanlings in Spring to watch over the summer on grass and sell in backend,prob wouldn't do anything more than wash their faces but I couldn't imagine no cattle at all on the farm.

CloughCasey1

No births on my patch. Calf to store and FIL is store to finish. He has 16 on 36acres and I have 36 on 9.

Dickie10

yes hard to know think waenlings to finish mostly of grass might be the job for me

nhg

No births on our farm. We were weanling/store to finish but since last year we are also calf to finish. 115 acres. Agent buys in weanlings/stores through Iveragh Mart for us, usually a batch of around 40 from one or two suckler farmers at a time.
Last year we reared 25 calves, this year we have a better set up with 25 calves so far, will possibly rear between 40 to 50. We buy straight from farm from the same two dairy farmers so really depends on how many bull calves they have...
Mostly LMX, AAX, British freesian and a few blondes this year too, they are usually at least 2weeks old if not more when we get them.
We try to collect in batches of 10 (but that doesn't always work out) to suit vaccines bottles & vaccine as they come out of the box.

sthilmick

_Brian wrote: »

None on our little corner of Cavan.. miss it about the place though

Yeah you'd be not so sentimental at 4:30 on a stormy January morning