Finishing Fresian Bulls

pat73

I have a number of weanling dairy fresian bulls all around 350kgs.Given the drought that we have/had no one would buy fresians unless they got them for nothing.I was thinking of finishing them as bulls but i have never went down this route before.What weight would they want to be before i put them in to start finishing them.

Bass Reeves

pat73 wrote: »

I have a number of weanling dairy fresian bulls all around 350kgs.Given the drought that we have/had no one would buy fresians unless they got them for nothing.I was thinking of finishing them as bulls but i have never went down this route before.What weight would they want to be before i put them in to start finishing them.

What age are they it is a kind of weight to age ratio

pat73

Bass Reeves wrote: »

What age are they it is a kind of weight to age ratio

12 months

Bass Reeves

300kg Dw would be the minimum you would want to get them to. That is about 315kgs LW weighted on the farm. You would have to put 260 kgs onto them. If they were older you would need to put more weight on them and if younger a bit less.

Rations are going up in price if they were mine I squeeze them and carry them to springtime and hope there would be a good markets for them. You could chance leaving them as Bulls and put another 50-100kgs on them and hope you would get a finisher to buy them after Christmass for late spring finish but it is a risk. at the moment they are neither here nor there. At a guess it will cost you the bones of 500 euro to finish them to 615kgs. 300kgs DW will come into 1080-1150euro depending on price

freedominacup

Bass Reeves wrote: »

300kg Dw would be the minimum you would want to get them to. That is about 315kgs LW weighted on the farm. You would have to put 260 kgs onto them. If they were older you would need to put more weight on them and if younger a bit less.

Rations are going up in price if they were mine I squeeze them and carry them to springtime and hope there would be a good markets for them. You could chance leaving them as Bulls and put another 50-100kgs on them and hope you would get a finisher to buy them after Christmass for late spring finish but it is a risk. at the moment they are neither here nor there. At a guess it will cost you the bones of 500 euro to finish them to 615kgs. 300kgs DW will come into 1080-1150euro depending on price

The late spring finish is the risk. Too many finished cattle around then. Very easy for a factory to find a reason not to pay for them in late March early Apr. Breed will play a factor in it too. Ho bulls will easily come into 375kg dw at 18-20 months but you need there to be a bit of demand or lower throughput in the factories to get paid for them.

Bass Reeves

freedominacup wrote: »

The late spring finish is the risk. Too many finished cattle around then. Very easy for a factory to find a reason not to pay for them in late March early Apr. Breed will play a factor in it too. Ho bulls will easily come into 375kg dw at 18-20 months but you need there to be a bit of demand or lower throughput in the factories to get paid for them.

Could not see them bulls no matter Ho or not hitting 375 DW by April. They would want to put on 400kgs LW to hit that. Interesting thing this June looking at figure from two lads finishing U16 month bulls. One lad was hitting an average of 280 kgs DW and grading O=/+ and FS2+/3(mostly 3's). Other lads was 250 DW P+ to O= and FS2=/2+ with a smattering of 2-.

The lighter bulls got a flat price the lad with the better bulls went on the grid. The lighter ones ate 1.5 ton of ration the heavier ones 2.1 tons since birth. I calculated that the lad with the heavier bulls made about 20-30/head more at most.

But going back to Pats bulls I cannot see a margin in them to finish.

Willfarman

teagasc were pushing this system not long ago.. 1000 euro output and yardage haddock hadda.