Beep scheme - anyone joining

Mac Taylor

As above, €40 euro per calf, seems you can rent the scales for €50 euro.
Not sure on the number of weigh ins required. For me it would be ~800 euro, can’t say whether I’m interested or not

tanko

The details are supposed to be out next week so it'll depend on what they say. It would be €1000 - €1200 a year for me so worth considering anyway.

kollegeknight

€480-€520 before equipment use for me depending on numbers so definitely not doing it. I have learned from bdgp- not worth the hassle.

Grueller

€2500 - €3000 from it here. Not to be sneezed at for me. If they put a 5 yr commitment on it though they can go be fcuked.

jfh

Grueller wrote: »

€2500 - €3000 from it here. Not to be sneezed at for me. If they put a 5 yr commitment on it though they can go be fcuked.

Same. I'd be slow to commit to another 5 yrs

Never wrestle with pigs

No, they only want another stick to belt us with.

tractorporn

Grueller wrote: »

€2500 - €3000 from it here. Not to be sneezed at for me. If they put a 5 yr commitment on it though they can go be fcuked.

Is it open to suckers and drystock? We're in the process of phasing out the cows here but would be keen enough to join. The brother in law already has a scales that he has said I can use so no money cost only time.

Dozer1

is there a reference year like the BDGP scheme, that frigged me right up as I'd low numbers the ref year so I actually keep double the cows I got paid for...

bogman_bass

The way I see it, i’m Getting to weigh my cattle for free. And get a few bob thrown in as an added bonus.
That’s good enough for me.

Limestone Cowboy

I'd doubt it. It's enough of a job here to round everything up for the herd test.

Buford T. Justice XIX

I'm thinking I'll let this one slide. I still haven't been paid the BDGP money, small as it is, so I've lost confidence that anyone actually gives a damn about their side of the agreement.

Hurling Hereford

Mac Taylor wrote: »

As above, €40 euro per calf, seems you can rent the scales for €50 euro.
Not sure on the number of weigh ins required. For me it would be ~800 euro, can’t say whether I’m interested or not

They can 'Beep' off with their Stupid Scheme

TooOldBoots

Priced a new scales, it comes in at €1450 Inc vat.

Sligoronan

Did anybody register scales yet. I can seem to find how to do so on the ICBF site.

TooOldBoots

No I'll be renting the scales.
Ticked the two boxes this morning so I'm in.

Sami23

TooOldBoots wrote: »

Priced a new scales, it comes in at €1450 Inc vat.

Where you price that - what make etc.
Was half thinking about buying one through Tams myself

Parishlad

I signed up. 'Only' worth about €600 to me but if, as it appears, that's for one days work then I'll take it all day long!!

Sami23

TooOldBoots wrote: »

No I'll be renting the scales.
Ticked the two boxes this morning so I'm in.

Does anyone know if the calves you are weighing have to be born on your farm or if bought in Cows & Calves qualify too ?

Also, is there a certain age the calves need to be for weighing ?
TIA

TooOldBoots

Sami23 wrote: »

Where you price that - what make etc.
Was half thinking about buying one through Tams myself

http://oneillweighing.ie/livestockweighingscales.html


It was inside in liffey mills, I didn't do any negotiation so I was thinking it could be bought for €1400 inc vat
With the VAT back and a TAMs grant it would come in at a cost to me of around €700

Keepgrowing

Is it open to dairy heifer calves, if so I’m in

charolais0153

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Is it open to dairy heifer calves, if so I’m in

No. Just sucklers

Mad_maxx

How long must you stay in this new scheme?

Sami23

Mad_maxx wrote: »

How long must you stay in this new scheme?

1 year

Mad_maxx

Sami23 wrote: »

1 year

Mate of mine with sucklers thought it was five, same as the bdgp?

charolais0153

Mad_maxx wrote: »

Mate of mine with sucklers thought it was five, same as the bdgp?

Its 1 year

patsy_mccabe

Parishlad wrote: »

I signed up. 'Only' worth about €600 to me but if, as it appears, that's for one days work then I'll take it all day long!!

Where did you sign up? Can you do it online?

Some info here;
https://www.icbf.com/wp/?page_id=12735

Simmental.

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Where did you sign up? Can you do it online?

You can sign up on agfood

Dozer1

Signed up one year what the hell can't be that bad,

Don't plan on buying a scales will get a lad in to weigh them as I don't have the numbers

I assume I can weigh 2 times in the year, ideally I'd weigh the autumn calves in March and the spring born ones in Oct

leoch

can anyone explain wat this scheme is for or about in simple terms ??

patsy_mccabe

leoch wrote: »

can anyone explain wat this scheme is for or about in simple terms ??

You have to weigh the suckler cows and their calves between the dates of 4th Mar – 1st Nov 2019.
From this they can measure the milk the cow produces (indirect tru the weight of the calf) and also what weight she is. Milk has always been difficult for ICBF to measure as it gets mudddled up with the amount of meal fed to the weanlings before they are sold.

coolshannagh28

Its debatable if this is an effective means of recording cows milk potential , would the calf not need to be weighed at birth for any level of accuracy ? Its interesting that the drive towards milk will benefit dairy farmers as demand for dairy x heifers will increase as the govt proves their point .

charolais0153

coolshannagh28 wrote: »

Its debatable if this is an effective means of recording cows milk potential , would the calf not need to be weighed at birth for any level of accuracy ? Its interesting that the drive towards milk will benefit dairy farmers as demand for dairy x heifers will increase as the govt proves their point .

Birthweight is +/-10 kilos. Weight gain lost through scour /pneumonia has a much more pronounced effect

TooOldBoots

Its still going to be a very crude method of scoring a cow for milk and performance when so many other factors can effect the performance of the cow and calf.
Stocking density
Weather
Grass Quality
Time to pasture
Heath of the animals
etc etc

Buford T. Justice XIX

TooOldBoots wrote: »

Its still going to be a very crude method of scoring a cow for milk and performance when so many other factors can effect the performance of the cow and calf.
Stocking density
Weather
Grass Quality
Time to pasture
Heath of the animals
etc etc

Which will be catered for by large numbers of cattle under the different conditions to even out the different management practices.

TooOldBoots

No it wont, it'll be the same as the suckler welfare scheme in the past. Farmers back then filled out the forms, put down any old dates etc and there were very few Weaned Weanlings at the autumn sales.
The same thing will happen again. Farmers will get the number of the scales from a neighbor or wherever then eyeball the cow and calf weights for the form and collect the money.

patsy_mccabe

TooOldBoots wrote: »

No it wont, it'll be the same as the suckler welfare scheme in the past. Farmers back then filled out the forms, put down any old dates etc and there were very few Weaned Weanlings at the autumn sales.
The same thing will happen again. Farmers will get the number of the scales from a neighbor or wherever then eyeball the cow and calf weights for the form and collect the money.

Not with statistics, they'll know if you just put down any old info. They're not stupid. These weanlings will end up in the mart, where they are weighed and weights sent to ICBF. Your weights won't correlate right with the mart weights. Also if you use AI or have bulls of known breeding, all the odd stuff will show up aswell.
If they do spotchecks, you'll be first on the list.

TooOldBoots

Yeah and they did spot checks for the suckler welfare scheme did they?
I remember I was the only fool in the Mart with weaned and on meal stock. Every other Weanling there was bawling for the cow.
And since when is a mart scales or (factory scales) within calibration or spec?
Most farmers worth there salt can eyeball a Weanling weight to within 50kg.

wiggy123

what is this system--worthwhile or not... payment €40 a calf-that right??

bogman_bass

TooOldBoots wrote: »

Yeah and they did spot checks for the suckler welfare scheme did they?
I remember I was the only fool in the Mart with weaned and on meal stock. Every other Weanling there was bawling for the cow.
And since when is a mart scales or (factory scales) within calibration or spec?
Most farmers worth there salt can eyeball a Weanling weight to within 50kg.

My memory is there was way less bawling during the scheme

charolais0153

bogman_bass wrote: »

My memory is there was way less bawling during the scheme

Yep it made a big improvement in my opinion.

croot

bogman_bass wrote: »

My memory is there was way less bawling during the scheme

Yes I agree.

It was much more noticeable when a pen of weanlings were bawling as a result.

Limestone Cowboy

TooOldBoots wrote: »

Yeah and they did spot checks for the suckler welfare scheme did they?
I remember I was the only fool in the Mart with weaned and on meal stock. Every other Weanling there was bawling for the cow.
And since when is a mart scales or (factory scales) within calibration or spec?
Most farmers worth there salt can eyeball a Weanling weight to within 50kg.

You'd be a long way out at 50kg. Would normally be within 10-20kg with a weanling. Not that sharp around cows and heavier stock though.

Limestone Cowboy

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Not with statistics, they'll know if you just put down any old info. They're not stupid. These weanlings will end up in the mart, where they are weighed and weights sent to ICBF. Your weights won't correlate right with the mart weights. Also if you use AI or have bulls of known breeding, all the odd stuff will show up aswell.
If they do spotchecks, you'll be first on the list.

This is one of the things that peeves me about Icbf and I brought it up at one of those nights at the Mart where they had a speaker there. They already have a huge amount of this info from marts, weights and price per kilo and all the info we have filled in for the bdgp to correlate with it and I don't see what benefit weighing the cow brings to it. The heaviest weanling I sold last October was a February born black lim out of a 5 star Hereford cow 365kg-680. Grand straight calf but nothing fancy either. Sold 9 red lims out of lim cows at an average of 280kg-840. There is only one statistic there that matters.

patsy_mccabe

I think you have to read between the lines with this scheme. The dept know this has been a disastrous year for beef farmers. The can't just hand money to farmers. That day is gone so it has to come in under another guise. What better way than reducing barbon footprints. At the same time ICBF will collect the only bit of missing data they need - cow and weanling weights.

blue5000

Weighing the cow is to find out how efficient she is. The higher the percentage weight the calf is of the cow's weight the more efficient the cow is at converting grass to calf, therefore the smaller her carbon footprint is.

Limestone Cowboy

Efficient at producing kilos or Money?

TalkingBull

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

This is one of the things that peeves me about Icbf and I brought it up at one of those nights at the Mart where they had a speaker there. They already have a huge amount of this info from marts, weights and price per kilo and all the info we have filled in for the bdgp to correlate with it and I don't see what benefit weighing the cow brings to it. The heaviest weanling I sold last October was a February born black lim out of a 5 star Hereford cow 365kg-680. Grand straight calf but nothing fancy either. Sold 9 red lims out of lim cows at an average of 280kg-840. There is only one statistic there that matters.

your not allowed to talk about colour anymore

bogman_bass

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Efficient at producing kilos or Money?

If you have the data you can figure out both

White Clover

bogman_bass wrote: »

If you have the data you can figure out both

Which one do you think is the most important one to limestone cowboy? Or any farmer for that matter?

Limestone Cowboy

White Clover wrote: »

Which one do you think is the most important one to limestone cowboy? Or any farmer for that matter?

I think I made my point clear

patsy_mccabe

Did anyone apply on-line yet Lads? If so, how?