small herd start up

Wessel3

Hi guys,
Im currently in the process of setting up a very small to start off with herd.
as it stands,
ive access to 3 acres thereabouts, and a yard, not linked unfortunately. the yard can house a fair bit with few sheds and silage slab, yet no land available to me in the short term.
im no beginner to farming as ive dairy experience/ back ground and a fair bit of knowledge ( I like to think so anyway). with out sounding like a know at all though.
my problem is what to start of with as this will be my first attempt at animals of my own , and obviously the land is the limiting factor here. ideally im looking to expand land by letting asap but in the very short term any suggestions on animals to rear and turn around.
Friesian bull calves are cheap as chips but might not turn into money. possibility of HE heifers to maybe rear to 1 year old and sell? I can house more than I can graze in a strange way.
all views very welcome, im not trying to make a fortune but im looking to get out on my own and finally getting somewhere.

wiggy123

pedigree route? 1/2 cows? or buy few stores-spring--re sell autumn tme..be interest+make little profit maybe

Wessel3

thanks wiggy. to start off il have to buy silage for the winter as I not have enough to graze/ cut.
I wasn't thinking pedigree to be honest but suggestions? I just seend HE calves on donedeal and thought a bit from that

Water John

Yeah, hard one to call. Depends on what time and money you have?
The lowest risk and labour is stores in the spring sold in the autumn. Need a crush on the land. Be sure to pick quiet animals.
Also watch animals won't be out of TB test before selling, 1 risk less.

Just because you have housing, doesn't mean you have to use it.

Had a relative who had something like you describe. It was his hobby and loved it.

pedigree 6

Yeah get 2 pedigree Hereford cows. Breed and sell their stock.

Crow Pigeon and Pheasant

Just be careful what you buy of DoneDeal as not only is there tricksters on it but also be careful not to buy in disease! Also some sucklers can be hard to handle!

Wessel3

hi water john, thanks for reply much appreciated.
I know the housing doesn't need to be used, but its there. im for buying a second hand 3pt linkage crush and make a run with gates in the fields, and theres a crush at the yard I can use too. tb is a good point.
as I said , ive a lot of experience with dairy cattle docile pets of things, beef cattle / sucks not much experience

Wessel3

crow pedigree, again thanks for input. much appreciated,
Il be honest, I wouldn't have the nouse for cattle marts and il only be stitched up on price, as I said I could buy FR bull calves but its what theyre worth at the end of the day and whether its worth looking at them,
I like the idea of cows/ calf . maybe start with weaned calves and work up short term . my only experience of calving is pulling dairy calves out and milking cows out in the parlour for colostrum, no experience of beef etc thanks

Wessel3

thanks for input, any more views welcome!

Willfarman

If you have the time and inclination you could keep a cow and double or treble sucked calves on her.

simx

Willfarman wrote: »

If you have the time and inclination you could keep a cow and double or treble sucked calves on her.

+1 buy a high cell count cow off someone early in spring, make sure nice quiet cow and will be grand, did this a few times, had a cow 2 years ago, bought in September for €540, not a savage big cow, she calved in early February with fr bull, bought a blk lim heifer for her €280, brought home lim calf and put her and her own calf in a pen in shed so she could still see her own calf, let them be hungry for morning and let two calves out and two hungry calves pucked away while she ate nuts, did this for 4/5 days and straight out to field after that sold two calves at end of year no meal or extra attention fr bull €460 lim hf €600

Wessel3

Simx, thanks for this, I hadn't thought of double sucking on triple, even heard of fours.
decent enough cow should be fit for 30 litres with good enough feeding, how long do you suck the calves on the cow in this situation,

good ideas by the way , thanks a lot

L1985

We double suckle prob half our herd. We take the calves off or one at least at around 5/6 months. Hasn't had a huge impact on going back in calf-mightn't be textbook but we are happy with it. Raise two calves v cheap!! You need to out the two calves together though and let them in gradually in to the cow to get her accustomed. Also keep an eye the foster sticks to his own cow.i looked out the window one day and four calves were drinking one cow!!not good lol!!

Wessel3

I was thinking after the suggestion of buying a high scc cow , anyone any experience of sucking dairy cows etc, just thinkin about the cow being milked out right and not getting mastitis from a quarter not milked/sucked

Wessel3

hi guys, as above?
also any buy and rear heifer calves on milk and sell on ?

Wessel3

sorry to be a pain guys, any views? more the merrier

davidk1394

Buy in calves off a dairy herd thay are about 3-4 weeks old. Buy them off 2 local farms so we know what were getting. Rear them until about May of next year. It's a simple set up and the busy and expensive part is the first 6-7 weeks where your giving them milk. If you have good stock you'll sell them no problem

BnB

davidk1394 wrote: »

Buy in calves off a dairy herd thay are about 3-4 weeks old. Buy them off 2 local farms so we know what were getting. Rear them until about May of next year. It's a simple set up and the busy and expensive part is the first 6-7 weeks where your giving them milk. If you have good stock you'll sell them no problem

Hi - I was thinking of doing something similar. I currently have about 40 weanling bullocks but was thinking of starting with a few calves to see how I get on with them. My biggest concern is time. Can I ask you one or two quick questions - Sorry if they are a bit basic.

What milk are you feeding them ?
What is your rough cost on milk per calf per day/week or whatever ?
How many times a day do you feed them milk ?
Do you use individual buckets or some kind of a shared feeding setup ?

davidk1394

BnB wrote: »

Hi - I was thinking of doing something similar. I currently have about 40 weanling bullocks but was thinking of starting with a few calves to see how I get on with them. My biggest concern is time. Can I ask you one or two quick questions - Sorry if they are a bit basic.

What milk are you feeding them ?
What is your rough cost on milk per calf per day/week or whatever ?
How many times a day do you feed them milk ?
Do you use individual buckets or some kind of a shared feeding setup ?

We used Maverick milk replacer and fed them twice daily until they were about 8 weeks old and then back to once a day. They were fed 6 litres of milk and calf crunch until they were 5 weeks old and then on gold grain cubes. They were out grazing during the days and brought in at night time until it became warm enough at night. I don't know the exact cost per calf a day but I'll find out later. We used 2 five teat calf feeders and put them into groups of 10 until they were 5 weeks old then put into groups of 20. We used a feeder like this one

https://www.google.ie/search?q=milk+bar+feeder&client=ms-android-h3g-GB&prmd=inv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivxMDVz5nQAhWsJMAKHSItCFIQ_AUIBygB&biw=360&bih=511#imgrc=0dfF1K22gpU6IM%3A

BnB

Thanks for the info David - Very helpful

davidk1394

BnB wrote: »

Thanks for the info David - Very helpful

No problem. Once their off milk they're easy enough look after. But you may need to divide fields with strip wires to allow fresh grass for them and treat them every 5-6 weeks for worms and lice

wiggy123

milk replacer is what these days? 60+.. bag+half per calf = 90, then nuts-say bag+, spend be 100, as suck calf+hay..so take what to rear a calf-dose etc, say to 6 mths--€200 . gd bull calf, b what €250?? so 450-sell at what???

Who2

wiggy123 wrote: »

milk replacer is what these days? 60+.. bag+half per calf = 90, then nuts-say bag+, spend be 100, as suck calf+hay..so take what to rear a calf-dose etc, say to 6 mths--€200 . gd bull calf, b what €250?? so 450-sell at what???

I bought a batch this year. They were on average 5 weeks coming in and after six months they had cost 142 euro on top of the price of the calf, including one loss and getting a kilo of meal all summer.

wiggy123

so did u make money on them

Who2

wiggy123 wrote: »

so did u make money on them

the proof will be in the selling and i wont know that for a good while. estimating a price is all well and good but the little bit thats in farming can easily be eroded on a bad day in the mart.