buying in fancy Charrollais weanlings vs suckler angus

Dickie10

i have 20 suckler cows, i have limo bull, i fininsh the heifers and sell bulls as weanlings around apri also buy in weanling heifers, i am finishing another batch of charrolais weanlings tuesday so i will know better then, but they have taken an awful lot of meal to fininish them as they have big frames.
- now the price is on the floor as it always is this tiime of year, so would i be better off to have 30 suckler cows and an angus bull and finsh everything in may june and july than buying in expensive weanlings and trying meal finish when price is bad in august sept and october.

angus beef in factories in clonee and ballyjmsduff is 0.10 cent bonus.
- bought in weanlings chx at €800, all ate 150 ero of meal

squinn2912

That's a good question and I'm looking forward to hearing some responses from the boys that are doing this and can tell you what they make Year on year. I'd say some years one is better than the other.
On another note I'm just in from a weanling sale. Ch heifer supreme champion fetched £2050 at 360 kgs. I'm wondering what the hell the plan is to make profit from her. Super animal but no margin imo

Dickie10

well my father lucky enough is extremly open minded, im farming on my own the last three - four years totally my own choices, so i have dabbled in almost every beef system yet. i have to say angus and hereford suck calves to beef is quite good, i love the small meal input to these animals. just wondering how better or heavier the carcass would be without a dairy cow and a good beef cow like a charrolias instead?

charolais0153

Dickie10 wrote: »

well my father lucky enough is extremly open minded, im farming on my own the last three - four years totally my own choices, so i have dabbled in almost every beef system yet. i have to say angus and hereford suck calves to beef is quite good, i love the small meal input to these animals. just wondering how better or heavier the carcass would be without a dairy cow and a good beef cow like a charrolias instead?

A lad neae me has charolais cows and angus bull. Dont know kf he makes money though. I wouldnt though. A big cow for a small carcase. Keep angus cows and charolais bull. Theyll put plenty of flesh on them and keep them relatively small

memorystick

I'm finishing a batch of AAx heifers. All dairy bred. Bought in last spring for small money. 12-14 month old heifers for€630 in yard. They should make money. But I'm thinking of those good CH bulls and keep them into the big weights. Is there a market for the heavy carcass?

Western Pomise

I would be interested in any replies (honest ones that is ....) that you get from people finishing cattle.Personally I despair at the direction Beef farming is taking in Ireland currently.
What I mean by that is this push to include some element of dairy crosses into beef cattle.Pardon my French but I fear that 10 years down this road we will end up with c**nts of cattle with maybe a Chx or AAx card but the animal will be tall leggy and narrow grading O!!
IMO if you get a good stocky Hereford or Angus beast that will carry enough weight and kill out under 16 months you would prob be best off.
Personally I have good quality Sh and Chx cows which I put to a good Ped Ch bull as I hate looking at bad cattle:).....calve in Spring,sell in back end as weanlings.Cows are milky so no concentrates bill of any account against their calves.