Calf prices 2022

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118946813#Comment_118946813

Montbeliarde bull bought for replacements. And I've an Angus for beef.

Cow shape means more to the calf than the bull.

Got on well with the montys in the past. Oldest cow in the herd 16yo is a monty cross in a spring calving herd.

Gone back to the future.

Albert Johnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118945489#Comment_118945489

BBx as stores are hard sold in this part of the world, you'd be better off with an equivalent HEX or AAx as the buyer's just don't like them. I'd imagine it's the same in other area's and I'd consider €200 to be a good price for them as sucks unless stronger than average. They always seem to look the business as calves but seldom grow into the class of animal you'd expect.

As for the Speckle parks I've never seen the attraction to them tbh, as Base said above there usually narrow and light in bone. There sort of like an AAx only worse and tbh I don't think I've ever seen one either suckler or dairy bred that I'd consider better than average quality . The markings and novelty factor are the biggest factors I'd imagine. I'd prefer an Irish moiled or a SHx tbh.

mr.stonewall

@older by the day aubrac. Easy calving and able to put on weight. If you have farmer buyers, they are an option

whelan2

Aren't aubrac just a fancy limousin? Have a couple here atm

Grueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118946971#Comment_118946971

Did you go down to Ann for a bull?

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118948993#Comment_118948993

Did.

Anto_Meath

I like Aubrac as they are a nice square little animal, that beef quick and grade well but would be very careful buying one in a calf ring as I would fear it could be hiding a lot of Je breeding.

older by the day

That is the problem with frx on the sale board. I have short horn and montbelliarde back breeding. There are probably less than four half breed Montis left but all the cows are frx. So if the buyers see frx and a fauny brown calf I can't see them paying too much. Would a saler be better,

mr.stonewall

Aubrac are very good to beef up. Serious killout % compared to other diary beef calves.

mr.stonewall

With all the fear that buyers have of calves in the ring and elsewhere, I think the day of DNA testing to verify dam and sire will be here in less than 5 year for a number of factors.

1. With the likelihood of having to hold calves on birth farm until 28 days, this makes it easier to implement.

2. We are used of the BVD test routine and would be easier to implement.

3. It would start the wide spread roll out of genomic testing and would yield very accurate result if only 30% of all calves born. This would be possible as the sire and dam would be verified for the remainder of stock.

4. It would allow long term the breed breakdown to be displayed on the blue card ( which days are numbered)

5. It takes the dark arts of hiding Jex breeding, putting it out there fairly to be seen. The FRX fears could be eliminated

This would help to restore confidence for calf buyers, would provide dairy farmers with access to genomics

Gillespy

Gortatlea Monday four week old Fr bulls €70 to €95 and whitehead bulls similar age €170. Two much better ones still only made €170 which was a bit disappointing. For the 16 that went average price came to €115 which wasn't too bad I guess.

No fruity xbred or Jersey blood in the cows surely helping. Had no luck with the small sample size of Monties we tried. Horrendously slow milkers they were. Good old Holstein is hard beat if a little consideration is given to all aspects of their breeding.

Bass Reeves

The FRX fear is over stated. Most JEx crossed back to Fr are fairly ok. The problems is when a second small breed us used, Norwegian red or Newzealand Friesian or may I say AA or small HE bulls

Second crosses back to a decent Friesian will grade O at a lower weight than a Friesian. Has a fkajer last year that graded O= at 330kgs DW. Bough him as a badly done store part of a very poorly do e group 339 kgs average around September 1st but he was way behind them ( best bunch of cattle I nearly ever bought)

On the MO as an Frx you should still see the Whitehead. Bought a single lad last year 380 kgs@ 570 euro. He has a bit of HO breeding and will be a big block but should grade at least O- before 30 months. Anyway you can always announce it at the sale.

If you look at mart prices Frx bullocks 500 kg plus sell well as two year olds

Genomic testing will probably give you a beef value rather than a complete analysis of his back breeding. Where it will really hit is the poorer AA and HE cattle who's beef value will show up as little better than a good FRx bullock

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118949875#Comment_118949875

I think the marts have a roll to play in this aswell. They should implement a minimum 50kg weight of calf, minimum 28 day age and a maximum of 5 calves per farmer on sales day. I think this is badly needed to keep prices fairly competitive

Siamsa Sessions

I work in ICT and "data" off-farm so I'm a bit of a nerd for spreadsheets. The image attached has details of the 30 calves I bought this year. I'll be tracking a few things over the next 18 months and will post here (if I remember it!)

I'm not involved with Teagasc and won't be claiming anything I do is "best practice" (far from it) but happy to share this in case it might help others.

One thing that'll be interesting is the FRX vs FR vs JEX. There's a mix in the calves I bought so we'll see if any trend emerges. Having said that, the sample size is small here (30 calves) so there's probably going to be a bit of randomness involved.

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950144#Comment_118950144

You should try the Brown Swiss. Had Montys here a few years ago , the were extreemly difficult animals to work with, stubborn bad tempered animals. The Brown Swiss are the complete opposite, beautifull temprament. In fact the Brown x Holstein are the best cows in our herd.

patsy_mccabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950282#Comment_118950282

Fair play. I see you are doing an analysis by mart too. If one mart gives better results than the other, will you be do all your shopping there next year? 😀

Just a point on Genomic Testing. I have all my herd gnomically tested here at the moment as I am in the Genomic scheme. I think there may be something in this going forward for Dairy calves. Maybe the cost of testing all dairy calves would be too expensive, but all dairy cows and dairy bulls could be tested (if they are not tested already).

When I look at my cows/heifers here on ICBF, the calving figure reliabilities go from about 30% to 70% purely on genomic testing. In time and enough data collected, this could be the case for all beef traits, be it carcass weights, conformation etc etc. This would highlight all "good beef" calves to potential buyers in the marts and eliminate the breeding (or highlight) so called "runts".

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950278#Comment_118950278

Limiting numbers for sale will be tricky as it could be seen as market manipulation.

My gripe is the declining quality of calves coming off farms , namely in the genetic weight potential. The 28 days before movement will be in action within the next 5 years, probably in the next 3.

The best move that could be made is if the ICBF looked to move cow weight up by 25kg on their maintenance figures. This will have a means of adding approx 12kg to DW and at current beef price this is approx €60. They penalise heavy cows in in this section of the EBI index but not the lighter cow, in fact she is rewarded. Maybe be need to look for them to penalise each side of the this. Bringing average cow weight from 525kg to 550kg would have serious benefits to calf quality as the cow gives 50%of the genetic data

Mooooo

Tbh putting the 42 day limit out to 120 or even 80 days would help as much I think. EU reg I think so unlikely to change but if lads didn't have to go to the bother of testing there would be more stronger calves out there imo.

3 the square

What are October and November fr bull calves worth on silage and ration grand strong hol fr types asking for a friend 200 euro ??

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950512#Comment_118950512

What type of drugs are you on ,they must be good!!!

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118945489#Comment_118945489

Yes bb s are being used on je xs to try and get some calf value.speckled Park was fashionable for the same job last couple of years too.on aubrac not really a runner for selling as calves and despite what breeders say they take time so you are loosing milk.lovely cattle and if you do want to sell as calves you need to keep them as lo g as possible and push them to show the flesh bit really you would want to keep them and rear them.any little thing is putting lads off bidding at the moment and if you don't get a good start in the bidding with your aubrac other lads will hang back in case they'll are missing something

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950448#Comment_118950448

I m not arguing with you but the only problem at the moment is milk is heading for 50 cent and calf prices are heading for zero.

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950689#Comment_118950689

Hey, don't bring up the calf thing again - didn't the great €100k leaders in Teagasc already tell ya they didn't think about the calves! And haven't they already told ya too how to produce cheap milk with JEx cows???

Get that milk into the tank and don't be worrying about the runty, worthless calf it takes to get it there!

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950512#Comment_118950512

Good question. It all depends on what you are doing with them. There are HO and HO. If you say HO are the white speckled HO, the blacked legged HO or the black with white legs.

I saw 400 kg yearling HO bullocks stopping at 650 over the last few weeks. The only time a FR SE well is as a two year old weighting 550-600 KGS.

Remember as well these have poor feed conversion for finishing put of a shed. However for some one who is willing to preserve and bring them out to grass this time two years and hang in August at 33/34 months they would be great cattle.

Unless very square 200 is about there worth.

PS another option would be to kill under 24 months autumn 12 months and draw department proposed 100 euro slaughter premium

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118951727#Comment_118951727

What proposed slaughter premium? Have the Dept announced this in the last few days?

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118952290#Comment_118952290

It went to Europe as part of the new CAP. It's to reduce the car on footprint. It's proposed to pay 100/ head for cattle slaughtered under 24 months. ABP has offered a supplement of a 20c/ kg bonus for farmers that slaughter style with an average age of under 24 months. But animals can only be moved once unless to a approved rearer between birth farm and finishing farm. As well you must have a health plan done by a vet. I am not sure if ABP will pay the bonus on qualifying animals bit allow you to have other cattle slaughtered as well.

On the FR above if they hung 300 kgs at 4/ kg with the 100 euro slaughter premium you would have a 1300 euro animal. ABP scheme might only added another 60 euro of you met there qualifying conditions

dohc turbo2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118950144#Comment_118950144

Calves making 30-60 more in castleisland for the Same animal

straight

I've 1 fr bull left now. He was born as a monster. He didn't stand right for about 6 weeks. Myself and the young lads gave him alot of attention and now he's a fine calf at 55 days old. He's just a bit bald from pissing on himself while lying down but that'll come. I think it's a great example to set for my children compared to the guys just sending them to the knackery. There's a danger now that he may have to stay on as a pet.

The whole calf sales thing was the worst yet this year and it's hard to see things getting any better. Can't blame the lads buying them. I'm glad to have them. I heard Larry Goodman bought no calves this year. It's expected that young stock prices will collapse later in the year and he'll buy them then. Will fertiliser ever revert to "normal". Challenging times to make a few bob out of farming. The milk is saving us dairy farmers at the moment but is that going to last? Who knows...

Good loser

Can't see output prices coming back much, if at all, for the next twelve months.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118957198#Comment_118957198

My understanding is that ABP gavenup.biying calves a few years ago. They went big into it about 5 years ago but had huge losses due to bad management.

Labour would be a huge issue. Calves are not like stores where you can come in hook up the diet feeder and that just keep going.

Lads at calves need to know what they are at