Beef price tracker 2

Farmer Dan

Siamsa,

Firstly, must commend your honestly here & in your videos. Big help to people learning all about finishing beef cattle etc. Im still learning myself & i think we all will be for as long as we are at this. The only way you learn is by trying. As KK man said above, if you had been feeding them earlier it could possibly have helped your grade along some bit along with the weight. The only thing is them HE/AA heifers could go fat very quick.

893bet

Can someone link to SS YouTube about? Like to watch someone local.

beef price has strengthened a bit today which is good news! I have 5-6 to factory before Xmas and it’s sickening feeding them into a dropping price. Will be the last cattle fattened on farm for the next 5 organic years

smallbeef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119845932#Comment_119845932

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOo7WMg9WMI

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119845962#Comment_119845962

Ha. I was on an Organic farm walk with him last week in Mallow. Small country.

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119845988#Comment_119845988

You have me scratching my head now! I knew one lad from Twitter alright but thought that was it. In fairness, it was easy to spot me - I was the only eeijit who forgot his wellingtons!

I'm not converting to organic by the way, but I was interested in seeing what would be said on the course. And it helped me tease out if conversion would be a good fit for me (it wouldn't at the moment)

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119845631#Comment_119845631

Weather was diabolical since, they could've even lost weight. meal would've been necessary this year even for them to hold their own

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119846408#Comment_119846408

I finished a load of 20 month diary cross bullocks AVG weight 275kgs O- 3= in last couple of weeks with record drought in July/Aug and record rain in sept/Oct.

wrangler

Do you know their weight gain for sept october.

there's cattle next door to me here and they certainly don't look to be thriving.

Probably depends on the stocking rate

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119846989#Comment_119846989

I honestly didn't know their weight gain. I don't have a scales. But these were young cattle on which were paddock grazed. Started off with 2kgs of meal ending up with 4kgs for last 3 weeks. These were young cattle. If the weather had been agreeable I'd have expected 300kgs DW like I've got other years. 25 kgs would have been worth another 50e to me.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119847026#Comment_119847026

Sorry, I thought you were pleased with their thrive. that you were refuting my post saying that the weather was destroying them.

I was very pleased that I had all the lambs gone before the bad weather anyway, it was a tough autumn

Good loser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119846945#Comment_119846945

That was a super result. My 20 mth Frs would hardly average 450 kgs l wt.

If they pay €100 per head for under 24 mth slaughter wts it would be a big win/win situation.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119847026#Comment_119847026

I think people forget about the influence of dry matter on weight gain especially on cattle you intend to fatten. Grass quality was never better any autumn. You could say quantity was more an issue and even ground conditions were excellent. Neither was it a cold autumn. I ever saw cattle huddled in a corner this autumn.

Thrive on fattening cattle disappeared after mid September outside. Even though quality was excellent it was DM, not the internal DM of the grass. The amount of water on the leaf destroyed the advantage of the quality IMO. All this water steals energy from the animal

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119851737#Comment_119851737

Thanks. They were square diary cross but they got treated like dairy cows in small paddocks (3 days max) from august. I am still disappointed with their weights as I had similar cattle reach 300 kgs dw in the past, I recon it was more the drought than the rain which knocked them back.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119852383#Comment_119852383

Ya drought was a disaster this year. There was very poor weight gain during July and August.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119852517#Comment_119852517

During that intense drought weather you would be better off putting in the heavy cattle and giving them a bit of silage in my opinion as they struggle outside in the heat and with the scorched grass.

Wouldnt cost the earth either when you consider they would do better and could be fed a handy amount of meal.

Good loser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119852226#Comment_119852226

Yet the dairy people are advised to keep grass in the diet as much and as late in the year as possible. It is significant apparently for milk solids

What's sauce for the goose ??

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119855541#Comment_119855541

Most dairy farmers keep it towards a lower level. They also find it easier to balance, cows are in the yard twice a day.

In beef you are feeding once a day probably. Dairy can get silage or straw into the diet easier. They can split the meal feeding.

In beef if you introduce silage it in a round feeder out in the field. Heavier cattle struggle most of us know that.

On sauce for the goose, we have seen where the straight transfer of some dairy practice's has been a failure in the beef game

White Clover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119855541#Comment_119855541

The dairy lads want the high protein in the grass this time of year. They use it as a cheap source of protein to balance the cows diet. Finishing cattle just require energy this time of year of which there is practically none from grass in a wet autumn.

Good loser

There could be something in that. There could also be a physiological element - nutrients allocated to milk production/solids might not correspond exactly with allocations for beef production?

Would be interesting to know if the DM of the grass is inferior in quality in Oct/Nov. Would be surprised if it was.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119860110#Comment_119860110

Well it is and that is before you take water on the grass into account.

Grass DM peaks in March on grass grown over the winter( unless drought conditions in summer). The brown tips on leaves( hated by dairy men but excellent for overwintered stores. It can be as high in DM as 25-30%( the brown tips lads get upset about are 70%+DM). During a normal summer DM is anything from 15-20% ( that is for leafy grass 1500-2200kgs/ HA). However in the autumn it drops to 10-12DM and below. However the real problem is the moisture on the grass. Cate on wet grass will drink no water if on grass alone.

Thrive crumbles it's the water that robs energy from cattle grazing grass alone. A bovine stomach digests at 40%DM. If the DM is very low it must dispose of excess water. This will be entering the body at sub 20degrees C and will exit at 40C. The lower the temperature of water the harder it is to heat it

Good loser

That's referring to the % DM in the grass. I was wondering about the quality of the DM in the grass - does it vary over the year?

Grass is at 20 C on average and recently around 14 C so difference is not that significant presently.

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119863602#Comment_119863602

And 17 degrees today!

The moisture temperature doesn’t actually make that big a difference. If cattle aren’t getting the water from the grass they’ll drink it from troughs. Unless you have heated troughs then they’re taking in roughly the same amount of cold water in a day anyway. If anything the water on the grass will be warmer than the water in troughs if it’s coming from underground pipes.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119863602#Comment_119863602

Its DMD as in quality of the DM I taught you were referring to DM. Autumn grass is low in sugars may e this is because of the moisture content but it is often hard to preserve as silage. I will explain in reply to DBK quote why temp difference is more pronounced

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119863747#Comment_119863747

Not entirely true. If grass is only 10% DM a 700kg bullock need to consume 14kgd DM/day that is 140kgs fresh matter. That is a massive intake. His stomach will only hold so much. Say you are giving 5kgs(4.2 kgs DM) ration he is still needs 100 kgs of intake of which 90kgs( litres) is water. Even in the hottest of weather would an animal that big during 20 gallons of water a day. During summer with gras at 16-18% the same animal would take in 60kgs Assuming 3kg ration)DM but more of that would be use to balance the lack of moisture in the ration). As well there is no negative losses of heat because of wet ground when lying down and the animal will be trying to reduce body heat anyway( they will have a higher water intake)

Now with grass that wet they may or may not need to take in water to clear the digestive tract( mouth and throat) after consuming that amount of ration but generally they do.

You have another anomaly, as there liver cannot cope with all this liquid a lot of it is expelled through there faeces this is why there dung is so loose along with the added risk of picking up larger quantities of parasites.

But all that liquid is heated to nearly 40C before it leaves the body. You could add straw hay or dry silage to the diet but when you are getting to that stage they are probably better off inside.

Tomjim

I started feeding 2 AA blks this week, I have a lot of grass in a garden, they are currently on about 7 kgs of nuts a day, I would prefer to leave them out as there would be less muck, would they thrive as well out taking into account the weather, there is shelter in the garden

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119866319#Comment_119866319

You started feeding them this week and they are already on 7kg? Careful not to sicken them.

Anto_Meath

The last few of this years cattle to go the factory, odds and ends of things, 1 lad the got a toe off from the slats last spring another that hurt his shoulder and a few other stranglers, they have been in a paddock this last while on on hay and meal and have done well. I was showing them to my agent back in August when the last load went, so he knows what they are like. Rang him there now to see about getting them into the factory, he told me he can collect them in the morning, so they must want stock. Doesn't suit me to send them until after the weekend, he said fine he ll collect them on Monday, at least €4.60 he told me.

Cavanjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119876636#Comment_119876636

Yeah was talking to a lad this evening. Agent rang him last night to kill a few today. This lad would only be killing 4 at a time. O grade stock. He got €4.60 base for bullocks.

mf240

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119306601#Comment_119306601

Cant look these up anymore, coincidence surely

Cavanjack

Any quotes?

893bet

Seems upward 5-10 cent across boards from Agriland