dairy beef

weatherbyfoxer

with the current market being so poor will people continue with dairy calf to beef enterprises?.. for example i see 1 month old aa x British fr bulls available at €150 in this area.if beef price remain at its current levels this will equal €1200 for these animals slaughtered at 24 months..what peoples toughts?

Bass Reeves

Grading 0+ and weighting 280DW at a base of 3.7/kg would leave these cattle making 1088 net. This would be a good average for AA bullocks at 22-24 months. They would need to be all R and a DW of 300kgd to net 1200st present prices.

atlantic mist

why keep to 24 months??
if they are actual british friesian (with no kiwi blood) stock you should have no bother finishing at 18 months
kept a batch two years ago, finished half at 18 and half at 22 months. made more off 18 month

Bass Reeves

atlantic mist wrote: »

why keep to 24 months??
if they are actual british friesian (with no kiwi blood) stock you should have no bother finishing at 18 months
kept a batch two years ago, finished half at 18 and half at 22 months. made more off 18 month

I am not advocating the system I am just giving the figured on the operation. Most research at present shows that winter finishing cattle that you rear from calves us the least profitable system

weatherbyfoxer

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Grading 0+ and weighting 280DW at a base of 3.7/kg would leave these cattle making 1088 net. This would be a good average for AA bullocks at 22-24 months. They would need to be all R and a DW of 300kgd to net 1200st present prices.

yet to kill an aa Bullock under 300kg this year..310 would be the average and currently quoted 365 base + 20c aa bonus get this on animal grades o= or better

_Brian

At 3.7 is anyone rearing and killing beef going to make a shilling ??

Is there much difference for the average Joe if he’s rearing 50 dairy to beef and breaking even if rearing 25 animals from a sucklers herd are making €100/hd

It’s a bit like talking about organising the deckchairs on the titanic as she slides under the water.

They are both only really surviving on the cheque in the post, talk of convergence will have much more meaningful impact on their long term income and viability.

weatherbyfoxer

_Brian wrote: »

At 3.7 is anyone rearing and killing beef going to make a shilling ??

Is there much difference for the average Joe if he’s rearing 50 dairy to beef and breaking even if rearing 25 animals from a sucklers herd are making €100/hd

It’s a bit like talking about organising the deckchairs on the titanic as she slides under the water.

They are both only really surviving on the cheque in the post, talk of convergence will have much more meaningful impact on their long term income and viability.

what base price do you think is need for beef to be viable?

_Brian

weatherbyfoxer wrote: »

what base price do you think is need for beef to be viable?

I honestly don’t know the answer.

Define viable ??

I know lads who are happy once they “aren’t loosing their shirt”, as they depend on either high BPS or off farm income.

Is viable break even ?? Or is it earning the average industrial wage ?? Or maybe equivalent income per Ha as dairy ?

weatherbyfoxer

_Brian wrote: »

I honestly don’t know the answer.

so your producing a beef and you dont know how much you need to get for it??

patsy_mccabe

The real problm is costs. How do you cost your system?
Do you include all costs or just the costs as per the bills paid for that year.
It's the whole Gross v's Net profit debate.

1373

weatherbyfoxer wrote: »

so your producing a beef and you dont know how much you need to get for it??

Easy to talk . Costs change every year . Other parts of the farm support the beef side .

kk.man

Is the dairy beef job profitable. In a word 'no'.

However at current prices for calves and if beef was to go north of 4 euro then I would say yes. IMO calve prices have to remain low even if fat prices improve but knowing some ppl that won't happen. Calf to beef is not the golden nugget Teagasc and the rag portray it to be.

_Brian

weatherbyfoxer wrote: »

so your producing a beef and you dont know how much you need to get for it??

Equally your dodging what classified as “viable”

There are many aspects to the dairy beef Vs suckler debate, but the truth Is it’s a mute conversation about which is returning the most awful income stream, because both are awful hardly a worthy conversation.

K.G.

kk.man wrote: »

Is the dairy beef job profitable. In a word 'no'.

However at current prices for calves and if beef was to go north of 4 euro then I would say yes. IMO calve prices have to remain low even if fat prices improve but knowing some ppl that won't happen. Calf to beef is not the golden nugget Teagasc and the rag portray it to be.

Met a fella the other day.turned 1200 euro average out of fr bulls at 20 months.happy out with it.

Mooooo

Land is the asset your using and kgs of beef or liveweight is what you are selling, so margin per ha or per kg should be the measure really. If you are making a profit it is viable regardless of size, but that should include a figure for your own hours also. To be sustainable thst profit should allow investment/ maintenance to be made also. Viability on a fulltime basis would depend on the scale and profit per ha/ kg being there to provide a wage you are happy with along with allowing you to maintain and invest. If you do a profit monitor put in a figure for your time and see how it pans out.
If it is purely for the enjoyment of working with stock etc fair enough but the above determines viability really

Bass Reeves

kk.man wrote: »

Is the dairy beef job profitable. In a word 'no'.

However at current prices for calves and if beef was to go north of 4 euro then I would say yes. IMO calve prices have to remain low even if fat prices improve but knowing some ppl that won't happen. Calf to beef is not the golden nugget Teagasc and the rag portray it to be.

I cannot understand present prices. In any beef system if you are constantly turning over cattle you should only be willing to pay what is left after margin and costs. No point in trying to predict prices.

K.G. wrote: »

Met a fella the other day.turned 1200 euro average out of fr bulls at 20 months.happy out with it.

He seems not to have over done them. They were late calves I say they average 335 at slaughter. did they leave him 400/head after costs

Panch18

Has anyone been to the mart recently

Sell them at 18 months in the mart and let someone else worry about the factory prices

1373

Panch18 wrote: »

Has anyone been to the mart recently

Sell them at 18 months in the mart and let someone else worry about the factory prices

Every year is different, mart prices usually poor in Jan . This year Factory prices better in feb than in dec , never happened before

Panch18

1373 wrote: »

Every year is different, mart prices usually poor in Jan . This year Factory prices better in feb than in dec , never happened before

Good cattle in the mart sell well at all times of the year

visatorro

Panch18 wrote:

Sell them at 18 months in the mart and let someone else worry about the factory prices

Selling them at 18 days would be a better plan!!

1373

Panch18 wrote: »

Good cattle in the mart sell well at all times of the year

No they don’t , last nov very few animals made over €2/kg . Friesians are now hitting €2/kg

Panch18

1373 wrote: »

No they don’t , last nov very few animals made over €2/kg . Friesians are now hitting €2/kg

Because of the beef protests

And actually in nov they were going good again, a couple of bad weeks in October, like I said because of the protests