Suckler farmers anonymous

Mac Taylor

Hi all, I feel the time is right to set up a help group for suckler farmers. This thread could become a source of support for some of us in a our ongoing addiction to suckler cows.

I’ll start.

I’m a part time suckler farmer with a mix of LM and LMx cows bred to a mix of ai and stock bull. I’ve tried numerous times to cut down on the numbers but I can’t.
I just don’t get the same buzz from looking at dairy cross breeds....any help or advice appreciated.

Dunedin

Mac Taylor wrote: »

Hi all, I feel the time is right to set up a help group for suckler farmers. This thread could become a source of support for some of us in a our ongoing addiction to suckler cows.

I’ll start.

I’m a part time suckler farmer with a mix of LM and LMx cows bred to a mix of ai and stock bull. I’ve tried numerous times to cut down on the numbers but I can’t.
I just don’t get the same buzz from looking at dairy cross breeds....any help or advice appreciated.

Hello everyone. My name is Dunedin and I’m a sucklerholic.

893bet

It’s two weeks since I last calved. Hard to get away from calving all year round.

emaherx

Mac Taylor wrote: »

Hi all, I feel the time is right to set up a help group for suckler farmers. This thread could become a source of support for some of us in a our ongoing addiction to suckler cows.

I’ll start.

I’m a part time suckler farmer with a mix of LM and LMx cows bred to a mix of ai and stock bull. I’ve tried numerous times to cut down on the numbers but I can’t.
I just don’t get the same buzz from looking at dairy cross breeds....any help or advice appreciated.

I'm Emaherx and I have a problem, AA/HEX are my vice.

curiousinvestor

Hi I'm P.
I calve all year round. If I go more than a few weeks without a calving I go into withdrawal.
Every single heifer is diagnosed at extreme length as to the prospect to keep for a cow. Usually involves discussion about their grandmother being a great cow with a tough of blue. I've only had 5 blues ever and only 1 survived calving.
The amount of time spent reviewing the AI book is crazy,
I've to stop now , I've to check to see if there's anything bulling

blue5000

My name is blue and I'm a sucklerolic. Just got a quote of 3.50 for O grade cows. I'm only selling a few culls to buy a bull.:cool:

MIKEKC

Mac Taylor wrote: »

Hi all, I feel the time is right to set up a help group for suckler farmers. This thread could become a source of support for some of us in a our ongoing addiction to suckler cows.


I’ll start.

I’m a part time suckler farmer with a mix of LM and LMx cows bred to a mix of ai and stock bull. I’ve tried numerous times to cut down on the numbers but I can’t.
I just don’t get the same buzz from looking at dairy cross breeds....any help or advice appreciated.

Glad you are enjoying your sucklers, but I hope you are not expecting others to get a cut in their entitlements to give you another coupled payment like Derek Deane. He is getting e55,000 according to DAFM and wants others to suffer so he gets more

Anto_Meath

My name is Anto & I am a sucklerhollic too. I was going ok calving wise this year until I was looking at the local mart on my phone as herself watched Fair City, seen a nice SMx incalf heifer only making €1050, so I say she is surely worth €20 more, finished up with her @ €1110 and now watching her to calf before the 1st July so I get €80 back from Charlie McConalogue....

893bet

Anto_Meath wrote: »

My name is Anto & I am a sucklerhollic too. I was going ok calving wise this year until I was looking at the local mart on my phone as herself watched Fair City, seen a nice SMx incalf heifer only making €1050, so I say she is surely worth €20 more, finished up with her @ €1110 and now watching her to calf before the 1st July so I get €80 back from Charlie McConalogue....

A side question but is that all an in calf smx was making? Sounds like value.

Anto_Meath

893bet wrote: »

A side question but is that all an in calf smx was making? Sounds like value.

Ye it was, the week before there was about 30 in the mart & they made from €1400 - €2000. ( They were well advertised on Done Deal before hand) All nice animals in fairness. Then the following week there was only about 5 and a few cows with calves at foot. The 5 heifers all made in around the €1100 mark. After the first two were sold I said I would try the third 1. She is a nice heifer & I am very happy with her.

ABlur

Can I join? I've a weakness for buying suckler bred stock for summer grazing. They cost more than dairy bred but I like looking at them! Particularly red limos and the occasional grey Charlaois!

valtra2

My name is valtra and I have a problem. I have a full time job and I have 60 sucklers calfing down every year. Every year about the middle of February I hate the sight of the fu**era, but the the summer comes and I just can't let them go. Ppl tell me to go milking but I would rather lose my manhood that have to milk cows 7 days a week.

patsy_mccabe

Hi, I'm Patsy. I thought I had a problem until I hit the hard stuff - pedigree breeding. It started with one pedigree heifer and escalated from there. I wasn't even drunk at the time and no peer pressure whatsoever.

I was up and out at 5am this morning to check a cow calving. It's a new low for me, as she's not even my cow. I sold her to a young relative of mine and he's living away, so I said I'd check her. She calved first in November about 5 years ago and now in June. That's the purest form. No Columbian hut in the forest could match that.

I know I have to stop, but just can't make the first move. I tried looking at FR crosses but got the shakes.

valtra2

valtra2 wrote: »

My name is valtra and I have a problem. I have a full time job and I have 60 sucklers calfing down every year. Every year about the middle of February I hate the sight of the fu**era, but the the summer comes and I just can't let them go. Ppl tell me to go milking but I would rather lose my manhood that have to milk cows 7 days a week.

Hard to explain it to people that we spend half (sometimes more) our free time from work farming.

Then I see fellows getting excited about golf / rattling on about holidays in Spain where "you cant give money away" and I nearly feel justified having cattle.

Dozer1

Fellow sufferer here,
my symptoms started with weanling heifers "she's lovely marking" or "she's off a great line"

calving over 30 now in total this year autumn and spring calving, still one to go, I've tried to stop especially when I saw the cost of last shed etc but the I couldn't stop myself.

Base price

I thought I was cured having quit sucklers about 15 years ago. I turned to the dark side and started rearing dairy bred stock but I couldn't stop looking and admiring other farmers suckler cattle.

Three years ago I bit the bullet and bought myself two pbr shorhorn heifers. I now have eighteen cows of various breeds and a stock bull. Herding is so much more enjoyable now looking at nice stock.

Grueller

My name is Grueller.

I am proof that you can beat this addiction. Unlike valtra, I went milking. It was tough. Selling the nice weanling heifers that would have made cows was the first step.
I reached my lowest point of my addiction in 2019 when I brought 13 weanling heifers to the mart and had to bring 7 home. I started to tackle the addiction after that. Selling those heifers was the hardest part. I halved the suckler herd from 80 to 42 then to make way for milking cows.
I swore I would keep on the 42 on an out farm, just for an interest like. I still have them, but they will calve this autumn and be sold in the spring. I stumbled on a miraculous cure for the addiction. I didn't even have to go to Lourdes, it came in the post with a glanbia logo on the envelope. It was a milk cheque. This support in beating my addiction has been continuous since April 2020, this milk cheque arrives every month and after all bills are paid I even have a little bit of it left.

I no longer struggle with this addiction.

ABlur

Anyone with this affliction would do well to avoid Co. Clare for their staycation! Field across the road from the Poulnabrone renowned dolmen full of golden lovelies with their white offspring lying out in the sun today. Hard to spend quality time with your family with this type of temptation!

893bet

Can we add a poll?

Do people prefer to have a breeding season:

12 months long
Or
52 weeks long

K.G.

If yer happy at it,what about it.if yer not happy,life is too short to be b#ll#xing around with them

Mac Taylor

First off.............for all of ye that have replied.........remember admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery.

Base Price...........you have my utmost sympathies for relapsing after such a long time..........as you have proven the addiction runs deep.

Patsy.............you really are in the deep end of addiction......you have all of our sympathies as not only are you calving your cows but also someone elses.

To Grueller...........for some of us you have shown us there is a different path...one paved with gold sorry milk.

Ablur........you are on a dangerous path..........for many this is how they have become addicted........you need to revaluate your options NOW before it it too late. You have been warned! (see Dozer's comments)

For everyone else..........there is help coming........take every day as it comes.

Remember we are here for each other. Mac. (I have to go now to see if there is anything bulling this evening. God bless All)

Jb1989

K.G. wrote: »

If yer happy at it,what about it.if yer not happy,life is too short to be b#ll#xing around with them

Agreed,

I took over the sucklers, as a teenager, and I'm Slowly but surely looseing interest in them this last few years.

The toil with them is getting monotonous at this stage due to not haveing a second person, to call on in times of trouble.

I haven't replaced in ages and soon will be happy with a handful of young dry stock to claim the payments.

Enjoy the help of a second person if you have them, even occasionally, because you'll miss them if they are gone.

josephsoap

Jb1989 wrote: »

Agreed,

I took over the sucklers, as a teenager, and I'm Slowly but surely looseing interest in them this last few years.

The toil with them is getting monotonous at this stage due to not haveing a second person, to call on in times of trouble.

I haven't replaced in ages and soon will be happy with a handful of young dry stock to claim the payments.

Enjoy the help of a second person if you have them, even occasionally, because you'll miss them if they are gone.

Are you full time at them?

Jb1989

josephsoap wrote: »

Are you full time at them?

Nearly. Small sideline job that can leave me away, up to one day a week to 3 or 4 days, depending on the luck of the day.
Have to stay near home to keep eye on family.

jimini0

Ex suckler farmer here. Went from 30 cows down to 5 in the last 15 years. Fell out of love with them. Working full time so hard to get to see them in heat. Sold the final 2 cows last October to a neighbour. Scanned in calf to a blue bull. Every day I pass them and see the nicest coloured calves we ever produced. One blue with speckled white on her underside. The other heifer orange with speckled white on underside. I'm seriously thinking of buying the calves off him. The addiction is real

So many contributions, no wonder, I hear there's a dealer in most towns and villages now.

SuperTortoise

Suckler numbers for last 4 years, 27, 25, 22, 19

Oh and i have 7 heifers kept this year...

SuperTortoise

893bet wrote: »

Can we add a poll?

Do people prefer to have a breeding season:

12 months long
Or
52 weeks long

I have mine at 365 days a year.
Works out great, i get a day off every 4th year!

Mac Taylor

Deleted User wrote: »

So many contributions, no wonder, I hear there's a dealer in most towns and villages now.

Don’t forget the meth sorry meat factories aswell. The drug sorry meat barons are making so much out of all our collected misery.

Personally the road to recovery for me has passed but I am warning anyone that will listen of the dangers of this addiction.

I can’t add anymore to this and will leave it with ‘Let’s be careful out there’

50HX

Always around the 30 mark here

Changed in last 2 years

Down now to 13 with 3 replacements calving down Sept

Kept the weanlings till circumstances 16 months, easier life as working full time but more importantly keeping them to that age leaves a better margin at end if year v calving 30 odd and selling weanlings

There are worse vices in life and sometimes it's not all about money

Plenty of people do d 3 foreign hols, piss it up against a wall or hoover it up the nose

Hard to let go if you a long bloodline in the herd I think

mallethead2

Hi my name is mallethead
i have an affliction ,its suckler cows the bigger the better
the more colors the better
I don't care if i don't make money i just have to have cows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i don't want help because no-one understands me like the cows

Limestone Cowboy

I thought sucklers were addictive until I started buying sheep. Seem to add a few more to the flock every week.

emaherx

50HX wrote: »

Always around the 30 mark here

Changed in last 2 years

Down now to 13 with 3 replacements calving down Sept

Kept the weanlings till circumstances 16 months, easier life as working full time but more importantly keeping them to that age leaves a better margin at end if year v calving 30 odd and selling weanlings

There are worse vices in life and sometimes it's not all about money

Plenty of people do d 3 foreign hols, piss it up against a wall or hoover it up the nose

Hard to let go if you a long bloodline in the herd I think

Fairly similar here, but I've been looking at picking heifers here the last few days to put out with the bull, you know just one or 2 and maybe that one oh and the one over there......

Definitely don't have a problem here

emaherx

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

I thought sucklers were addictive until I started buying sheep. Seem to add a few more to the flock every week.

Wouldn't be into that hardcore stuff myself, I honestly think you may need proper help.

Limestone Cowboy

emaherx wrote: »

Wouldn't be into that hardcore stuff myself, I honestly think you may need proper help.

Will probably need a stint in a rehab facility to see the error of my ways alright.

Albert Johnson

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

I thought sucklers were addictive until I started buying sheep. Seem to add a few more to the flock every week.

They're no better tbh and if anything it's easier to get into number's of the wooly hoors. The other half is mad about sheep where as I've always had mixed feelings for the white vermin. The fact that I'm in charge of fencing duties doesn't help although her preference is for Texels and similar docile lowland sheep which aren't the worst as regards escape artists. I've been known to buy things with grey wool and horns that jump sheep wire for sport which doesn't help my blood pressure or love for all thing's sheep. It was her birthday lately and I ended up driving nearly 100 miles round trip to collect 3 Dorset ewe lambs, God help me I'm now an addict and an enabler.

Albert Johnson

Albert Johnson wrote: »

They're no better tbh and if anything it's easier to get into number's of the wooly hoors. The other half is mad about sheep where as I've always had mixed feelings for the white vermin. The fact that I'm in charge of fencing duties doesn't help although her preference is for Texels and similar docile lowland sheep which aren't the worst as regards escape artists. I've been known to buy things with grey wool and horns that jump sheep wire for sport which doesn't help my blood pressure or love for all thing's sheep. It was her birthday lately and I ended up driving nearly 100 miles round trip to collect 3 Dorset ewe lambs, God help me I'm now an addict and an enabler.

Wait until you start lambing multiple batches.....late feb,mid april and few after xmas to pass the holidays,while your off


Sure who needs sleep

minerleague

Been hearing of suckling demise nearly since i started, only still going as thought rest of ye would quit and leave me with all the high prices when the nice ones grew scarce. Ah well worse things we could be at

Albert Johnson

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Wait until you start lambing multiple batches.....late feb,mid april and few after xmas to pass the holidays,while your off


Sure who needs sleep

She'd lamb them all at Xmas given the chance where as I've been advocating waiting until the 1st of April but she usually starts the beginning of March. I've (temporarily and of course did it the one good price year) exited the sheep business as I'd really need to do a belt of fencing and other bits and pieces to leave life easier before getting back into them. I've a good mind to leave lambing my own in future until the beginning of May but the better half would probably left the ram off with everything in October when I'd be at busy at work.

AntrimGlens

Hi my name is AG and I’m an addict. You see my father was an addict before me. It’s a disease which runs in our family, my brother has it worse than me now. My father stopped using for a few years when he went to the black & white side. But he relapsed and started using those Belgian blue pills when I was a lad.
I liked the look of those blue pills, so he enabled my addiction by buying me one. I was even given red rosettes in October when the users of the Charolais white pills would be given blue rosettes. I found myself seeking out more colours of pills and then I found a Limousin red pill that I really liked the look of. I was still young and impressionable, but the older men encouraged my habit by getting me to buy it. I couldn’t afford it, so I pimped myself out to a dairy farmer for a year to be able to afford the French red pill. I promised myself I’d only have the one and that I could stop at any time I wanted. I realise now that I’ve put always those red pills before my family and some have been hurt in the process (mostly kicks in the groin). I’ve also been known to take money from non farm accounts to fund this habit, promising I’ll replace it when I sell that show topper. It’s never happened. I’ve also been keeping a secret from my wife, I hide Ai catalogues in the bathroom and read them when on the throne.
I want to get this monkey off my back, but I know deep down I’ll just turn to more of the white fluffy pills. My therapist is the Ai man, I don’t think he has my true interest at heart. I don’t know where to turn.

Base price

Jjameson wrote: »

Well the first step is admitting you all have a peculiar mental fixation addiction/ fetish for these hoors.
The addiction of the dramatics from risking life and limb keeping these feral beasts overriding family time and finances can be kicked.
Once you commit.

1. Now that you have acknowledged you have a problem try and visualise a life with 365 uninterrupted nights with no cows calving. No feral beast trying to squash the life out of you as you try to keep her offspring alive..

2. Black and white/ black friendly animals look smaller up close than those multicolour feral hoors that you can’t get within 50 yards of.
But they may be a lot better than you perceive..

3. It is unacceptable to ask family, friends or the hard pressed paye workers to fund your feral hoors for the benefit of your fixation.
Although whinging about a lack of profitability in an enterprise that has never been anything but is part of the club culture, you have to help yourself.

4. Withdrawal symptoms will be alleviated by uninterrupted pints. Structured time off, ****ing your calving jack into the scrap.

I have a leg either side of the fence but I keep the sucklers for my own pleasure. If I get a few quid in the post for keeping them in the future then all the better as I'll be getting back some of the money I lost from the erosion of our entitlements

Our main herd of cattle are either black & whites or dairy crossbreds.

emaherx

emaherx wrote: »

Fairly similar here, but I've been looking at picking heifers here the last few days to put out with the bull, you know just one or 2 and maybe that one oh and the one over there......

Definitely don't have a problem here

Very true about replacements, I had two in mind from memory and based on figures, then I head to the field and doubled to 4

roosky

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

I thought sucklers were addictive until I started buying sheep. Seem to add a few more to the flock every week.

I knew I hit rock bottom when i got out of sucklers altogether and went all sheep......thankfully my better half who is also struggling with the affliction has helped me turn the corner by buying back some more sucklers

PoorFarmer

Hi. I am Poorfarmer. I was once a farmer of moderate means but I got the suckler bug and you all know how that goes.
My drug of choice is "dim mad baxtards of Limousins"
I thought I was progressing when I met a dairy farmers daughter with a few acres of her own. Unfortunately now I have a limousin herd and also a dairy cross herd of sucklers because "Oh they're so quiet". Little does she know that they will just become a herd of mad birches when they calve down to the limo bull.
We also both have full time jobs to try to finance our addictions.

blue5000

Ah Sure it could be worse.

blue5000

blue5000 wrote: »

Ah Sure it could be worse.

They could run an open farm wellness retreat for ex suckler men and women where you get the chance to go in and take calves, vaccinate, separate calves from cows in pens and bed straw/feed silage.

Could even do the whole experience getting kicked in the jewels or cattle jumping when vaccinating.

Could simulate a cheque coming in from abp etc.

Could do a phone booth where you can ring:

1. A silage contractor and try and charm your way up the list before the weather breaks.

2. A vet at the weekend to help with a calving.

3. Price materials for a shed.

4. Receive a call about stock on the road.

Bullocks

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Will probably need a stint in a rehab facility to see the error of my ways alright.

Don't worry, you won't need rehab. The sheep themselves will show you the error of your ways..

Anto_Meath

A day like today is the ultimate when it comes to suckler, no real farm income since the spring and you get a text from the DAFM - PAYMENT from Dept OF Agri. Food & Marine.
You haven't checked your bank balance in weeks cause you know it is poor. You log in hope they paid you at least €1,000 for something or other and you scan all transactions until you see the entry in green - payment received - €18.48.
You close the app quickly before you see how much you are overdrawn.

390kid

I’m 390 kid, my addiction started at a early age fooling around with some red whiteheads that where always here, but that wasn’t enough i wanted bigger wilder cattle and when the humble numbers at home couldn’t settle my addiction I went to the neighbours for my fix, big red women that would ate ya and golden bull calf that I’d be more suited to Cheltenham than the grazing fields around here. I thought I turned a corner this year as they all went with Tb but as where nearly open again to buy I’m bouncing to get them, Jaysus might even chance a purebred or a extremely dear roan one. Will it wear out or should I seek more help

Grueller

390kid wrote: »

I’m 390 kid, my addiction started at a early age fooling around with some red whiteheads that where always here, but that wasn’t enough i wanted bigger wilder cattle and when the humble numbers at home couldn’t settle my addiction I went to the neighbours for my fix, big red women that would ate ya and golden bull calf that I’d be more suited to Cheltenham than the grazing fields around here. I thought I turned a corner this year as they all went with Tb but as where nearly open again to buy I’m bouncing to get them, Jaysus might even chance a purebred or a extremely dear roan one. Will it wear out or should I seek more help

Don't worry, the money will run out and that might cure the addiction

emaherx

Grueller wrote: »

Don't worry, the money will run out and that might cure the addiction

Doubt it, that's not how addictions work, he'll be selling himself on the street for Roan Heifers.