Taking over farm - anything worth trying

irishguy19772

Hi,

My father is retiring and I am taking over the family farm in the next year or 2. We have around 10 cows and bull for calving and keep a few heifers in case any go down with tb.
We have around 40 acres, half of it marginal enough but okay facilities, have a fine slatted she'd.

I have a separate job and just want to keep the farm going to graze the place and a hobby.

I am not too experienced and am happy to try a few things out to make a few Bob. I know the farm might not be profitable but I would like to see it not make a loss.

Just a few thoughts

We have a nice commemara mare. Might breed her every year and make around 600 profit once all bills are paid.

Might cut the stock down to 6/7 cows. Our summer feeding farm is getting too compressed and overrun with to rushes.

I was going to join the beep scheme be this year. Seems like we could make 700/800

Can I enter the glas scheme or do i need to wait for it to reopen

I was going to buy a few stock young and sell them off after 9 months. Is it worth buying a few calves and selling them the following spring or too much hardship

To be honest if I can get the place tidied up a little and improved I just want to reduce stock and bring some more money in a creative way into the place


Thanks be for any advice offered

Millionaire only not

Dry cattle are easiest , no more than stocks and shares be ready to buy when there down and sell when there up . Buy good to middle of road stock don’t buy rubbish .
Don’t sell because u have to , sell when the market is right .
Keep your system simple and ull enjoy it , obviously your not going to overstock so u shouldn’t have too much problems.

mr.stonewall

Keep the system simple and make sure to enjoy your farming especially when it's part time. Sucklers are work at calving and the cows can be hungry and expensive to feed. If you are some marginal land the key is light cattle. Will mean you can get out early and keep them out longer. Will eat less over the winter. An option could be calf to store. Only grass demand in the spring is yearlings and you can get out earlier with them. The option of rearing 20-30 calves and bringing them to 1 1/2yr, winter some of the poorer ones, could be a simple system. Good fencing and set up some simple paddocks will help a bit with rushes as you can move through grass quickly. Also makes machine access easier with wet ground. Pigtails and tape give you flexibility and easy access . Best of luck with it and make sure to give the transfer plenty of time.

893bet

I basically the exact same.

My conclusions:

1) Is the old fella actually retiring or will be still be tipping away? If he is then the sucklers can stay as he is around to keep an eye at calving time, bulling etc. Suckers can’t work when part time unless you have your own bull (which I assume you don’t). You will keep missing them for heat. What ever system you have it has to work for you timewise.

2) Dont change too much, too fast.

3) Concentrate on tidying up is a good idea.

4) Fencing. This is the single most important task I need to tackle in the next year. We had a calf broke out yesterday. I was working from home so it was grand but the old lad doesn’t get it. I am working full time and can’t get a phone call during the day to say the cattle are out on the road. Some day he won’t be there to take the phone call. If he was dead and gone I would drop the 5k that it needs in a heartbeat. Why not do it now and we can both enjoy the well fenced land. Not worth the argument. He prefer to spend a day cutting posts from the forest. They be rotten in 12 months.

3 strands, plenty of strainers and bring it out of the ditch. Fences stuck in the middle of the ditch, covered in broads pulling at the wire and you can’t get at a post to replace it.....i ranting now!!

amacca

893bet wrote: »

4) Fencing. This is the single most important task I need to tackle in the next year. We had a calf broke out yesterday. I was working from home so it was grand but the old lad doesn’t get it. I am working full time and can’t get a phone call during the day to say the cattle are out on the road. Some day he won’t be there to take the phone call. If he was dead and gone I would drop the 5k that it needs in a heartbeat. Why not do it now and we can both enjoy the well fenced land. Not worth the argument. He prefer to spend a day cutting posts from the forest. They be rotten in 12 months.

3 strands, plenty of strainers and bring it out of the ditch. Fences stuck in the middle of the ditch, covered in broads pulling at the wire and you can’t get at a post to replace it.....i ranting now!!

I could have written the bit about the fencing...the hands and face torn off you trying to stick a bush in thorny hedge......my dads philosophy was the only way to make money on it was to spend f all, he would have the place a rabbit wouldnt get out of it with the way he did it but it was unbelievably work intensive (and a recurring yearly job cutting bushes and stuffing them in gaps - mad labour intensive ........but he was 100% right for his time and his situation and i still occasionally do it his way but by jesus theres nothing like the comfort of good fencing you can maintain and knowing that when you put stock somewhere they stay there and its just a yearly check and light maintenance on a fence

on one outfarm I have some chancers bordering me.....one of them doesnt fence properly...his method is to get the teleporter and bash down trees, blackthorns etc into the gaps, one year he had it all bashed out to my side of the gap......makes trying to fence or repair the fence afterwards some job...............another lad likes to try keep is sheep in with a single strand of barb wire 4ft off the ground or no fencing in places and consequently graze everyone elses place as well as his own......one year he had a herd of goats (presumably so he could be hail fella well met with bothar) .....They crossed the road in front of me about 8 km from his place a couple of years back.....some cowboy.

Bass Reeves

If you.look at the economics of sucklers on a small scale it crazy. A bull alone is costing 50/calf produced in feed and maintenance costs not to mind housing costs. Will he cost a thousand over the price existing bull will get to replace every 5years.

You say 50% is marginal. I presume rest is fairly ok and you have a good shed that give you options. Keep away from winter finishing unless you plan to have them go e before Christmas.

You can go calf to store, weanling to store or finishing heifers or light AA bullocks. What you decide also depends on what part of the country you are in. If there is good finishing land near you spring two year old store production is an option.

Calves are getting cheaper to get into but are a bit of work and if you want to make money the day of letting them off into a field at 8-10weeks and looking at them again in October is gone. A lot depends on what cattle are available locally. However profitability depends on buying price.

If you are into Conamara ponies then breeding may be an option demand is always there. A calf to early store system may be a real option. IMO too many store producers hold cattle untill too late in the year. Selling in August leaves plenty of grass as demand from calves grows if running that system. Bucket fed weanlings really thrive in late summer and autumn if plenty of grass available on a kg of ration. Early turnout means early turnout.

Draw max payment you can stay away from shiny toys and keep costs low

Gman1987

If you are going yo be working off farm then leave things as easy as you can for yourself. Sucklers will be difficult to manage around calving if you are stuck in work, rearing calves takes a good bit of work also before and after work. I'd be more inclined to buy in weanlings and kept them until stores. You will probably keep circa. 3 weanlings for every cow and weanling.
Correct on the fencing piece, important to have that right and its all a capital allowance also. Just one thing I noticed on my place, I have cattle but part of the place is fenced with sheep wire, barb wire and electric on top, fenced slightly out from the ditch to allow a hedgecutter travel at the back of it. Every year I have to go along it with the sprayer during the summer to burn back briers to keep power in the fence. I have another part of the farm where I have three strands of barb wire only and its fenced tight into the ditch and its amazing how clean it keeps when cattle are able to graze in as far as the ditch.

richie123

irishguy19772 wrote: »

Hi,

My father is retiring and I am taking over the family farm in the next year or 2. We have around 10 cows and bull for calving and keep a few heifers in case any go down with tb.
We have around 40 acres, half of it marginal enough but okay facilities, have a fine slatted she'd.

I have a separate job and just want to keep the farm going to graze the place and a hobby.

I am not too experienced and am happy to try a few things out to make a few Bob. I know the farm might not be profitable but I would like to see it not make a loss.

Just a few thoughts

We have a nice commemara mare. Might breed her every year and make around 600 profit once all bills are paid.

Might cut the stock down to 6/7 cows. Our summer feeding farm is getting too compressed and overrun with to rushes.

I was going to join the beep scheme be this year. Seems like we could make 700/800

Can I enter the glas scheme or do i need to wait for it to reopen

I was going to buy a few stock young and sell them off after 9 months. Is it worth buying a few calves and selling them the following spring or too much hardship

To be honest if I can get the place tidied up a little and improved I just want to reduce stock and bring some more money in a creative way into the place


Thanks be for any advice offered

I have a piece of rough ground destroyed in rushes.(sac)
I started mowing twice a year 2 years ago (from July on) made a massive difference..it's rough ground I had a heap of stones to pick first just went in with a 10 foot non conditioner mower go real slow worked grand now.rushes still grow but there well thinned out.a lot more grass to graze.
My advice is stay cutting them rushes.

Kevhog1988

make it as easy as possible on yourself. you dont want to spend your evenings drawing water or pushing bits of sticks into hedges. Plus if youve no gra for getting up in the middle of the night just get dry stock.