Dairy Calves 2024

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271271#Comment_120271271

Don't blame the market for paying €5 for your inferior bull calves. If you want good prices then breed better quality calves, simples.

amacca

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120269096#Comment_120269096

Probably close to the thousand tbh....unless you are well set up you'll have them for two winters....milk replacer, silage, bedding, meal, vet, transport, never mind your labour etc e5c

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271623#Comment_120271623

Trouble is with some people they read these top prices in the journal or whatever and expect to get them. Reality is very different. Sold 6 calves at home this evening, very happy. No travelling or time wasting, cash in my wallet

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271623#Comment_120271623

The poor man is using top drawer bulls but again its suits arsehole beef farmers to pull down prices across the board to preach bull **** and then come on here and declaring 900 -1000 margin for keeping dairy hred stock for just one year

Sheep breeder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271623#Comment_120271623

Nail on the head 100%, time some of these lads wake up. A neighbouring dairy farmer was complaining about the bad prices he got last year for his black rats and jex in the local mart and this year is travelling to a mart in the next county and still getting bad prices

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271730#Comment_120271730

Sure his time doesn't cost anything. Fuel is free....some lads need to wake up, if there was profit in it everyone would be at it

Gillespy

Guaranteed these same inferior calves will be making decent money come April May, like what happens every year.

Between March and July last year a €60 reared calf turned into a €350 animal. Talked about it here at the time. Money for old rope is what I called it.

More examples? Often sold 16 month old teaser bulls for €750 plus. Covered in chin ball paint and wrecked from following cows. Weird innit? It’s almost like these annual threads are just an excuse to vent about your dairy farmer neighbour and play the victim.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271753#Comment_120271753

Supply and demand ….marts are awash with calves for next 6 weeks or so and ball firmly in purchasers court as to what they pay and what calves they want ….fe bulls in particular will rise in price again from early April when nos start to drop

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271567#Comment_120271567

No bid I said. Jeez like

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271620#Comment_120271620

Nitrates are just making a fool of dairy farmers. I refuse to allow it make a fool of me.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271200#Comment_120271200

You're way off there. My heifers are getting 2 - 3 kg of nuts while they're inside with pit silage.

As you have the calculator out tell me what does it cost to keep a dairy cow for the year because nobody seems to acknowledge that cost.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271623#Comment_120271623

All I said was I'm going to keep them and let lads fight over them at 12 to 18 months old. Can't get more simple to understand than that.

Jb1989

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272084#Comment_120272084

+1

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271687#Comment_120271687

Last year my brother was buying a few calves in the mart. Asshole bum beside him gave out that he was making them too expensive. "The dairy farmer doesn't care what the calf makes - he has enough money out of the cow" he said. What a dishonest way to be carrying on like.

I took great pleasure in seeing the dealers fight over my cull cows there recently. There was no hugging and feeling each other up that day. 🤣🤣

DukeCaboom

Grass growing in Cork.

White Clover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272291#Comment_120272291

I was watching for 10 or 15 minutes today and I saw 336kg AA bullocks around 12 months old make 1010. I thought that it'd be price of the day but not so by the looks of things!

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272291#Comment_120272291

That man bought those Angus for 20 euro 12 months ago. Made no money 🤣🤣🤣

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271271#Comment_120271271

I never made any claim about dairying being great, unlike your naive and petty comment about easy money, so I don’t know where that last sentence comes from “boy”.

If you look back over my very scarce comment history regarding anything to do with dairy farmers I think you’ll find I’ve never once said it was handy and I have previously defended dairy farmers and both the work and investment involved in it.

It does seem to be a trait in your posting that if someone doesn’t agree with you or questions anything you say you seem to get snappy and narky so maybe it’s more fool me for asking a question of you. It just makes no sense to me that someone would go through the hard graft and expense of dairy farming if the money is so easily made off a few calves instead.

mf240

Try it sometime

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272084#Comment_120272084

What you said was that you sold "for" calves for €5/hd last year and you were concerned about where they ended up. I still challenge the quality of your calves if they only got a bit of €5. You also stated you had to bring one home cause it go no bid - in fairness you took it home rather than leaving it at the mart to be "rehomed" or collected for slaughter. So again I suggest you either breed a better quality calf or else don't whinge about price.

As aside, over the decades I've bought and reared more FR and dairy beef cross bull/heifer calves than most dairy farmers reading this thread will ever breed.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272419#Comment_120272419

You're the only one getting "narky" here. No need to be so sensitive.

I'm a mixed farmer now. What's wrong with that

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272754#Comment_120272754

Nothing wrong with my calves. I see fools around the ring paying big money for calves with false dates of birth and fattened up from adlib milk. People should know better than that. I'm willing to rear my own calves and that should prove that I believe in their quality.

I sold for bull calves out of the yard a few years ago for 80 euro. Man that bought them was delighted because they did way better than other calves he bought. He wanted more calves the following year but wouldn't pay the same price because he said he could get cheaper calves. Good luck to you so I said.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272827#Comment_120272827

Fair play your doing what u believe in …we all do to an extent but there has to be a margin in it for you after all expenses including your own time ….with respect I don’t think your fully on top of your true costs ….sentitement seems to come into it …I love rearing calves and loved keeping cattle when I did alongside my cows but the rewards just aren’t there ….I rear my calves as good as anyone and make no bones about selling them at 2/3 weeks …the losses stop for me then and full concentration on my cows and replacements …makes no odds to me wether I get a euro for a fr bull or 50….hope the next man gets a twist out of them

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272896#Comment_120272896

I could expand the dairy herd this year as I've bought land. I'll milk an extra half row this year and keep the calves that I can't get a fair price for. I'll see how it goes. I might expand the cows a bit more next year. I usually sell my surplus replacements at about 8 weeks for 4 or 5 hundred euro so I just keep the minimum of them.

I like the idea of having a few dry cattle about the place but sure we'll see how it goes. I'm after giving a fr bull calf to each of my children and they can have the money out of them when they sell them. Figured I might as well gift them to my children as gifting them to a stranger.

We always kept the calves growing up and my father made good money out of them he swears.

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272788#Comment_120272788

There’s nothing narky in what I said and I certainly never referenced anything wrong with any type of farming you’re doing. You seem to add on some made up grievance at the end of every comment. First it was about dairying being handy which I never claimed, and now that there’s something wrong with mixed farming, which again I’ve never made reference too.

Maybe your judgement of people is on a par with your judgement of calves.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120272940#Comment_120272940

Or maybe you are just paranoid 🤔.

It's an amazing reaction to just saying that I was keeping my fr bull calves this year instead of giving them away.

mr.stonewall

What are the shippers giving for calves at the moment?

I have spent the past hour flicking thru the marts apps from today's sales across a few marts

Any calves such as FR bull and Aa ( under 25days or under 50kg are back a lot on last year. The only stand outs seem to be calves over a month, serious weight north of 60kg or a coloured continental. If it's at this stage already, it's has a feeling of serious carnage in the next month

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120271211#Comment_120271211

@straight That was my reaction to what you said, a very simple and straight forward question.

Nothing paranoid, no reference to dairy farming being handy, no reference to any issue with mixed farming.

You seem to make a hobby out of starting arguments over nothing here so I’m out at this stage, I don’t have the patience for child’s play like that.

If we’re to take you at your word and your calves are as good as you say, and can make as much easy money as you say yet still end up being sold for €5 or not even getting a bid then just maybe the attitude is the problem? Lads buying calves in the marts all the time get to know the sellers so once the name comes up on the board it could be the issue.

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120273166#Comment_120273166

And you accuse me of trying to start arguments. Relax lad. 🤣🤣

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120273153#Comment_120273153

I looked at a few FR/FR bull calves online on Saturday from Carrigallen and they norm was from €40 to €60 for 20 to 25 day old calves. There were exceptions with some making €100+. I didn't see Carnaross yesterday.