Spring 2020..... 1.5m Dairy calves.... discuss.

Muckit

https://youtu.be/pDqibPUDntA

This is the stark reality. Get the calf for free. Hope to achieve €82/hd after spending €1000 on inputs..... it's absolute madness. Madness. And they are talking about fresains.

What's going to happen when the dairy farmer cannot sell his calves next spring?

This is a disaster waiting to happen as far as l can see.

kevthegaff

I think you have to compare last year, things weren't that bad considering also the shipping was affected with weather. Exporters will be the key

patsy_mccabe

I saw 230 Kg weanling Friesian bulls sell today for €230 in Ennis. Is this the viable alternative to suckling?

1373

Muckit wrote: »

https://youtu.be/pDqibPUDntA

This is the stark reality. Get the calf for free. Hope to achieve €82/hd after spending €1000 on inputs..... it's absolute madness. Madness. And they are talking about fresains.

What's going to happen when the dairy farmer cannot sell his calves next spring?

This is a disaster waiting to happen as far as l can see.

Here’s what i see happening. Next spring we will looking at calves being sold for €1 and everyone saying this can’t go on, then all forgotten about in the summer and come back the following year with 1.7 million calves and be shocked again and maybe even blame the government

jaymla627

kevthegaff wrote: »

I think you have to compare last year, things weren't that bad considering also the shipping was affected with weather. Exporters will be the key

Beef trade is in a hell of a worse place now then where it was at last spring, I reckon lads will simply bobby calves this year and pay the knackery to euthanise them

mf240

Two tag and kebab

kk.man

Carnage without exports.

Sheep breeder

kk.man wrote: »

Carnage without exports.

How many calves can be exported or more to the point how many are wanted for export.

Base price

Muckit wrote: »

https://youtu.be/pDqibPUDntA

This is the stark reality. Get the calf for free. Hope to achieve €82/hd after spending €1000 on inputs..... it's absolute madness. Madness. And they are talking about fresains.

What's going to happen when the dairy farmer cannot sell his calves next spring?

This is a disaster waiting to happen as far as l can see.

IMO it will be no different than any other year. It's not like it's a feckin new situation :rolleyes:

Quality dairy bull calves will ship and go for onward feeding for veal in mainland Europe. The rest will be reared by farmers or culled in DAFM approved facilitates.

Muckit

kevthegaff wrote: »

I Exporters will be the key

1.5m = 1500,000 calves.

How many calves fit on a boat? I haven't a clue.... 1000?

What's the chances of 15 boats being chartered, let alone 1500.

Muckit

Base price wrote: »

IMO it will be no different than any other year. It's not like it's a feckin new situation :rolleyes:

Quality dairy bull calves will ship and go for onward feeding for veal in mainland Europe. The rest will be reared by farmers or culled in DAFM approved facilitates.

Will ye rear calves to beef for €82 a head? How is that going to pay?

Of course it's a new situation. Numbers are increasing and there's nobody there to rear them.

Dairy farmers only work for a profit. They're not going to when they will lose on them and take up too much time.

Capercaillie

Euthanize at birth. More humane than shipping young calves off on ferry.

Gawddawggonnit

Base price wrote: »

IMO it will be no different than any other year. It's not like it's a feckin new situation :rolleyes:

Quality dairy bull calves will ship and go for onward feeding for veal in mainland Europe. The rest will be reared by farmers or culled in DAFM approved facilitates.

Time for a rethink on calves.

Who decided that veal is socially unacceptable in Ireland?
The veal industry is strong and vibrant across Europe but it’s very intensive as regards investment and labor. Maybe a hefty grant for construction of veal rearing facilities followed by a major greenwashing from Bord Bia etc?

As a farmer I feel that it’s beyond the boundaries of common decency to kill newborn calves. A former employee now works with a herd of purebred jerseys and it’s morally repulsive (to me as a farmer) to hear what goes on with the male jersey calves.

We, as farmers, have a moral obligation to care for all the animals on our farms...if we allow our standards to include euthanasia at birth then farming will be the poorer for it.
It’s vulgarity in its extremity.

Keep Sluicing

12000 calves can be shipped per week as far as i know. There was approx 3500 calves culled/knackeried every week for Feb and March last year, will probably hit 4000 per week this year.
Know if 2 large herds locally (both school friends, so i take them at their word) that got confirmation that there jex bull calves will be taken by the usual dealer. One said hes getting a €5, the other is getting nothing because tge dealwr will collect twice a week.

mahoney_j

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Time for a rethink on calves.

Who decided that veal is socially unacceptable in Ireland?
The veal industry is strong and vibrant across Europe but it’s very intensive as regards investment and labor. Maybe a hefty grant for construction of veal rearing facilities followed by a major greenwashing from Bord Bia etc?

As a farmer I feel that it’s beyond the boundaries of common decency to kill newborn calves. A former employee now works with a herd of purebred jerseys and it’s morally repulsive (to me as a farmer) to hear what goes on with the male jersey calves.

We, as farmers, have a moral obligation to care for all the animals on our farms...if we allow our standards to include euthanasia at birth then farming will be the poorer for it.
It’s vulgarity in its extremity.

On the money fully agree ,on calves was talking to 2 exporters in last week enquiring about calves for next spring and also 2 regular customers .farmers should be doing their homework now ,wouldn’t like to be trying to offload any extreme hols or jex type calves could be hard give them away .going to do bit of work setting up an old shed to hold calves over winter in case it’s needed ,hang few gates ,put stock board up on them for shelter etc .i will never put down a healthy calf nor send a calf to be put down

whelan2

Just had a dealer here for calves. My calves are sold off cow. Have had 3 dealers on to me for calves. No problem selling them. He said he went to a farm yesterday they had 22 aa calves on teat feeder. He took none of them. Calves in the mart yesterday and some of them got no bid. He will be back next week for 7 more.

Say my name

mahoney_j wrote: »

On the money fully agree ,on calves was talking to 2 exporters in last week enquiring about calves for next spring and also 2 regular customers .farmers should be doing their homework now ,wouldn’t like to be trying to offload any extreme hols or jex type calves could be hard give them away .going to do bit of work setting up an old shed to hold calves over winter in case it’s needed ,hang few gates ,put stock board up on them for shelter etc .i will never put down a healthy calf nor send a calf to be put down

Have you got your charity status registered?

All well and good saying you or I with our square calves won't put down calves.
But the simple truth is you or I are probably exporting those poor unfortunates to be hacked with a machete on the streets of Tripoli.

The suckler farmers don't get off out of this either exporting the same out to the backyards of Turkey.

Tbh if it came to it with an either or. I'd rather pull the trigger on the bolt gun here on farm than have the animal go out to the head lobbers.

But I'm a pragmatist who depends on them for a living so the more my few bulls sell in the Mart the better.

K.G.

Good calves will still move,the trick is to have them good.the days of lamping the calf off at 10 days maybe disappearing.some of the steam for work is going out of lads a d you might see more hd/aa calves.rather than fr jex as fellas come near their potential herd size

mahoney_j

Say my name wrote: »

Have you got your charity status registered?

All well and good saying you or I with our square calves won't put down calves.
But the simple truth is you or I are probably exporting those poor unfortunates to be hacked with a machete on the streets of Tripoli.

The suckler farmers don't get off out of this either exporting the same out to the backyards of Turkey.

Tbh if it came to it with an either or. I'd rather pull the trigger on the bolt gun here on farm than have the animal go out to the head lobbers.

But I'm a pragmatist who depends on them for a living so the more my few bulls sell in the Mart the better.

I ain’t a charity and in August I refused an offer from an exporter to buy fr/aa bull weanlings for Libya,sold few weeks later to Irish farmer for finishing in his farm .good calves will still have a home ...at a price the big problem will be for 5/6 weeks in February March .our main body who shoved expansion and jex on us ad lib without a thought of beef/suckler man or resulting calves have done very little if anything to provide a viable solution ,either way it’s too late

Say my name

mahoney_j wrote: »

I ain’t a charity and in August I refused an offer from an exporter to buy fr/aa bull weanlings for Libya,sold few weeks later to Irish farmer for finishing in his farm .good calves will still have a home ...at a price the big problem will be for 5/6 weeks in February March .our main body who shoved expansion and jex on us ad lib without a thought of beef/suckler man or resulting calves have done very little if anything to provide a viable solution ,either way it’s too late

If you sell in a Mart your calves or yearlings could end up anywhere.
If you sell to an Irishman/Muckit they're looking for €100 and the beast for free.
Everyone paddles their own canoe.

whelan2

As long as the boats keep sailing the calves will keep moving

mf240

If some lads only pissed crooked theyed blame teagasc

Gawddawggonnit

mf240 wrote: »

If some lads only pissed crooked theyed blame teagasc

They do have to share some of the responsibility.
Encouraging farmers to plunge into xbreds without ever signaling the inevitable consequences demonstrates that. It isn’t like they didn’t know...

Gawddawggonnit

whelan2 wrote: »

As long as the boats keep sailing the calves will keep moving

The boats keep sailing because Irish/UK calves are used to keep downward pressure on calf prices throughout the EU. Is that sustainable?

I’ve posted before about a young lady that produces 1k calves to veal per year. She took a lot (250) of ‘cheap’ Irish calves last year...she won’t be doing that again.
It’s always too easy to give a dog a bad name.

Gawddawggonnit

K.G. wrote: »

Good calves will still move,the trick is to have them good.the days of lamping the calf off at 10 days maybe disappearing.some of the steam for work is going out of lads a d you might see more hd/aa calves.rather than fr jex as fellas come near their potential herd size

Isn’t it illegal to sell/move a calf at under 15days?
It is here.

davidk1394

There should be a shift away from jerseys and cross bred herds simply because of the bull calf. If dairy farming goes down the route of shooting (putting it bluntly) perfectly healthy male
calves simply because of their breed. Ireland could loose our green image and be put in the same class as New Zealand.
Like a previous poster said, set up a veal finishing programme in Ireland. It is probably more humane than shipping young calves across to Europe.

whelan2

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Isn’t it illegal to sell/move a calf at under 15days?
It is here.

10 days farm to farm or mart. 14 days for export

Gawddawggonnit

whelan2 wrote: »

10 days farm to farm or mart. 14 days for export

It’s going to 21days next year, or the year after, and rightly so because the buyer will be more sure of their purchases. Buying a 10 day old calf at the mart is a recipe for hardship.

longgonesilver

I don't think anyone is allowing mart sales at 10 days. 10days is more for direct farm to farm sales. General welfare rule also apply if the calf in the mart is deemed not fit for sale.
Selling very young calves is no good to buyer or seller and is a disaster for the calf.

Muckit

https://youtu.be/8gvPPA0Qwpk

Say my name

I wonder how many beef plan members went in on this?

https://www.thatsfarming.com/news/jack-jan-2019

Will I still be getting my €130 head for freisian bulls?