Beef price tracker 2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697852#Comment_119697852

Say they weigh 270. 1269 isn’t too bad if they only cost say 600 last year as yearlings . Would leave around 200.

Say 100 for meal, 30 for testing minerals vaccines etc, 120 for silage (3 bales), 50 grazing and 100 for other costs.

kk.man

Wow some drop..they are doing their best to drop the price... Supermarkets dictating to.

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697976#Comment_119697976

Supermarkets dictate everything. They are gatekeepers between food and consumers

kk.man

There is no-one going to feed cattle or lambs at the price offered and pay the mills for meal at the prices set at present. Me thinks there is going to be a gap in the supply chain if the standoff continues. Todays Indo reports 30 to 40 e to finish a lamb.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698793#Comment_119698793

Like with sheep, a certain amount of targetted feeding has to be done, grass growth won't be long about ceasing now and stock on the farm won't be thriving so you'd be better off without them now even if you have to feed them

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697907#Comment_119697907

You be at nothing if you are feeding 100 euro worth of ration. My variable costs are 450+/head this year

Projected feed costs 120 day winter 160 euro ( last year 120). Meal ( 2YO bullocks) 70/ head. Dosing and vet 20, mortality 15, grazing costs 100 euro, other costs 50 euro.

Costs next year will exceed 500+/ head. Dropping numbers by 8-10 next year. Carrying 4 bullocks over from.this year as they are too light to feed for to weigh decent before Christmas.

If they were 20 month old heifers that can be replaced for 450/ head there is a small margin as costs would be away lower than mine but if they are 28-30 month old heifers you are losing money.

Cattle weighting brutal off dry land this year. 20-40 kg DW lighter depending on the animal and have eaten more ration.

If the store price drops much more the lads doing calf to store will not be buying many calves next year. You be better off going below 130 kgsN/HA and drawing the extensive grazing and getting the right flowers in you fields to draw as much Acres payment as possible.

A Kepack procurement manager at a beef finishing seminar a months ago was preaching about finishing ( feedlots) having to stay close to the market and reducing to 60 days finishing period. That means that someone else must feed the store to within 75 kgs of finish maybe even 60-65. You would be as well off slaughtering yourself at that stage.

Have been offloading as they came 3/4 fit. Cost of ration too high to consider feeding to get to a decent finish. Have a few to go next Monday. 12 are housed on silage and 5-6 kgs maize. Not sure if I should have pulled the ration and left them until next year

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119699646#Comment_119699646

Plus 1 was doing the sums myself.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119699646#Comment_119699646

100 euro buys 200 kg of meal should be enough for Angus heifers

Cavanjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119699646#Comment_119699646

Are you feeding maize in its own to them?

smallbeef

Livestock farming is at a strange crossroads. On one hand the beef man had an ok year but outlook looks bleak and rising input costs have most cutting back the heads substantially. On the other hand, the dairy lads have had a bumper year and the outlook looks very bright, so they are driving it on for next year. What it means is the beef man won't be buying nearly as many calves next year, while there will be just as many if not more dairy beef calves for sale in the Spring. The calf export changes won't come into affect for a few years but I'd say the calf market this Spring will be a wash of unwanted calves. Was heading that way anyway but the input costs rises are accelerating it. Lads will have to be paid well to take calves from dairy farms or there will be a lot more mass calf slaughtering scandal's in the news over the next few years. If dairy lads don't see how that is bad for business either the money is gone to their heads or they're just thick.

Good year for a fellow with cull cows. The current price for them makes a mockery of your prime 25 month old bullock or 23 month old heifer

I wouldn’t be to critical of the dairy lads. The non female replacement calves are byproducts for them.

Your Angus or Hereford out of dairy cow can be finished sub 24 months. Angus bull calves are pricey at the mart. Probably too dear to make a profit on them if the price keeps dropping at the factory.

Hard to finish freisian bullocks at that age. If they find it hard to shift the scrub calves then they will have to change their bulls to more saleable calves.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119700372#Comment_119700372

Yes they are 28-32 month old bullocks . They just need to put flesh on. Silage is dry ( 40%DM) leafy ( second cut third week in July) so protein should be enough in it to balance the diet. I will add minerals.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119700871#Comment_119700871

Problem.os cost of milk replacer. Was it 60/ bag this year. ?? what will next year's price be. Add in other costs increasing and the store man probably not getting much better prices for stores that are on the lighter side 4-500 kgs and lads are not making any money. Weanling much the same

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119702036#Comment_119702036

Ya processors are punishing prime beef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119702641#Comment_119702641

Problem with the sub 24 month is that these systems will cause a bigger glut in the Autumn and a glut in the high cost winter market. It will exacerbate the April to July shortage and push it into August( earlier calves wil be easier to finish U24 months.)

Friesian bullocks are grand going to grass problem is the slower growing AA and HE bullocks that will only put on 500 grams/ day no matter how hard you push them

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119703125#Comment_119703125

Wouldn’t the Angus / Hereford off dairy be born around February or March meaning they would be two years old around that time of the year.

I suppose a goodish beef cow was making 1500 over the summer with a good bullock making 1900 to 2k. Maybe the heifer wasn’t looking great at around 1500 but sure heifers are very reasonable to winter and finish.

I don’t see how it would pay to keep a bullock a third winter. I’d put them through the mart.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119703368#Comment_119703368

Taking late January as the start point of calving the first six weeks is targeted for dairy replacement's. Yes there will be some AA/HE calves but the vast majority are born from early March on. Most of these will be from stock bulls. Most Dairy farmers throw in the cheapest easy calving bull they can find.

Add in smaller and smaller cows 550 kgs and you will have a lot of poorer quality calves.

The earlier February calf is ore likely to be off AI as farmers use AI during late April and May to breed replacements and use AI on cows to breed replacements and may AI any cow not targeted to breed a replacement with an AI beef bull.

However some larger farmers run two herds and can let a bull run with one or some farmers who do not do AI themselves will put cows that is bulling in a separate paddock with the beef bull.

Even on the suckler side you will see some very poor quality AA bred stock.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119703577#Comment_119703577

That’s true. Huge variety in Angus bulls. Some have very good scores for carcass weight but they are rare enough.

Id take an Angus bullock out of a dairy cow any day over a freisian bullock. I think they eat less and finish quicker.

Robson99

Anyone know what price things are going to settle at..... seem to be dropping every week now

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119704059#Comment_119704059

If lads are similar to me they will be killing the last of the grass cattle at present. After next week nothing off grass as it's running out fast. Rest in the shed and they can stay there a while.

Price has been 4.7/ kg for a while locally, it has dropped to 4.65 for the last load. While it may drop more it will only mop up grass cattle. Lads feeding cattle in a shed will carry them until a significant price rise or Christmas at least

memorystick

I'm just wondering if many lads finish cattle on straw and meal only. I know a lad who feeds a lot of straw and meal and very little silage. He maintains that silage is too expensive for fattening and that all they need is roughage. If cattle are on 5 kgs of meal, they'd need very little else. That's his mantra.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119709053#Comment_119709053

What dead weight does he get his cattle to and what age are they?

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119709053#Comment_119709053

If fattening continental cattle on straw and meal you’d be feeding closer to 15kgs than 5 or you’d be at nothing. Definitely above 10kgs anyway.

memorystick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119709381#Comment_119709381

He buys in a mix of everything and feeds indoors. 12-14 week turnaround.

Robson99

5kgs a waste of time. Need 10kgs + if Continental cattle with Straw and ideally Ad Lib meal

Bass Reeves

I had a a few Friesian bulls once eat over 20 kgs/ day adlib.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119704059#Comment_119704059

If they are ready then it makes sense to send them off. If they are on silage and meal and not gaining weight then they would do well to cover the cost of what they put on each week.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119709406#Comment_119709406

Straw and more meal and no silage sounds like a non runner to me. Silage isn’t that dear and if they are on meal they won’t need as much

memorystick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119709404#Comment_119709404

I see exactly where you’re coming from but the country is full of cheap straw compared to silage. Meal mightn’t be as dear as you think when it’s all added up.

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119710938#Comment_119710938

Yea I don’t disagree, I was just making the point in case there was anyone thinking of trying it out that there’s no point basing your calculations on 5kgs of meal.

I’d be allowing on average 15kgs per head per day for that system and probably for 50-70 days depending on the stock. You’d be talking roughly 1 ton per head if it’s continentals and it wouldn’t be unusual to hit 1.5 ton per head on that system either.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119710938#Comment_119710938

Straw is not cheap and it has no energy value. Maize the highest energy feed is probably 350-380/ ton in bulk tipped in a yard.

Cattle in general eat 2% of there body weight. In theory ad-lib is/was the most efficient way to finish cattle. But you are pushing cattles digestive system to it's limit and there is always problem s with ad-lib.

Some finishers have changed to total mixed rations using a feed wagon. Most of these use a balanced TMR. However this means buying a lot of feed stuffs in advance.

Therefore most smaller finishers opt for 5-8kgs of ration or ad-lib depending on type of animal you are finishing as well as silage.

Rations are costing 400+/ton so a continental animal eating 7kgs with silage is costing 3.5-4/day. A 100 day finishing period is 350-400euro. 70 days ad lib maybe 10-12kgs/day is 4.5-5.3/day or 320-360.

The big question is will processors pick up the cost. Take a HE or AA heifer coming in at 450kgs costing 1k in the shed add 350 finishing costs, 50fixed costs 80 misc variable costs, 120 euro margin.

That is 1600 euro. At 280kgs DW she would need a price of 5.7/kg

Cavanjack

Fed bulls on 12kg of meal and straw only, a few years ago. I’d say they done just ok. It done the job as we had no silage but think you are Better off with a bit of good silage and less meal. €25 for a bale of roughage is a lot. At least there is a bit of feeding in a good bale of silage.

They’d go back on only 5kg of meal and straw I’d say.