Dairy Calves 2024

green daries

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831645#Comment_121831645

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831670#Comment_121831670

Ya I nearly always worked out slightly above the average with heifer calves usually about 55% but my god it was unreal to see the last couple of years with lovely fr bulls coming out and nobody really looking for them there was shocking fertility problems last year weather played hell in certain places I wasn't too bad later turn out was the main issue. When cows are in and out they need to be getting very stable, balanced feed to make up the diet shortfall. A lot of yards aren't doing that. Also the power wasn't in grass as normal last spring

raindodger

Fed up looking at fr bull calves you lift the leg and say oh no not another one.Thinking of packing in trying to breed and just buying replacements.Its soul destroying looking at calves bucking around and playing and wondering how to get rid of them

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121832429#Comment_121832429

Rear them to 8-10 weeks and I will take them no problem.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121832442#Comment_121832442

And I presume you’ll pay the cost of what it cost to rear them to that stage

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121832523#Comment_121832523

Maybe, maybe not. Until tge abolition of milk quotas dairy farmers controlled the supply nd price of calves, through rearing some and selling the remsinder. Because of this profits in beef production were artificially kept low.

The business model has now changed where because of more supply than demand the price of calves has fallen and collapsed in the casevof Friesians and especially smaller Frx'es. This is standard in any business model where there is an oversupply of product.

Beef farners will maximise there profit. Its not just calves that are effected. We saw the cull cows last autumn. My young lad was watching Gortalea last night a bunch of poorly done friesians bulls 12 months old 180kgs made 220 euro, Fr heifers 15 months 220 kgs 260 euro. When a product is outside market specification the market will punish it especially if it is in oversupply

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121832429#Comment_121832429

Spent all the years hoping for heifers and getting bulls .now when we have too many cows we are getting too many heifer calfs.its just the way life always is

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121832820#Comment_121832820

I beg to differ.it wasn't dairy farmers keeping price of beef low it was and still is the processors

Pinsnbushings

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831339#Comment_121831339

Ye frustrating, but you get over quick enough once everything is healthy. It was a small sample but I was delighted with the sexed semen. I was getting very good money for my calves the last few years, but my buyer was up and he is humming and hawing over the friesans and talking do down the price of the Angus.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121832942#Comment_121832942

Dairy farmers had nothing to do with beef prices from processors but they controlled the number of calves produced.

Back in 2006 I paid 100+ euro for 2-4 week old friesian calves, beef price was 2.5-3/ kg. Now because there is more calves and less dairy farmers with calf to beef operations, I could buy those sort of calves for 20-60 euro. Good quality HE and AA calves are no dearer in prices than then if anything they are cheaper.

On the suckler side in 2008 I could buy decent quality 300kg LM and Ch bulls 300 kgs for 550 euro now the same bulls are 900-1000+

The biggest factor is back pre quotas most dairy farmers had a beef operation now there total land area is dedicated to milk production. The reality is there is less calf rearers but more calves.

weatherbyfoxer

Some great beef/milk breeds out there like montbeliard and fleckvieh..no problem selling bull calves from either,decent cull value and the modern genetics of either seem to be able to break 6000 liters no problem.

Mooooo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121834254#Comment_121834254

Carrying time, difficult calvings and higher feed costs for the same kgs of milk a black and white can do can negate the calf price/ cull value fast enough. Not saying there is nothing positive about them but no matter what you go there are compromises and minding cows after a hard calving is one of the things most try to avoid.

Also have sold big bull calves of fleck crosses, down as SIX on cards in Ireland, and if they are black and white makes little difference to price down south in peak season the last few years

Finty Lemon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121834254#Comment_121834254

Can't agree. Fleckvieh are a bad animal to finish as bullocks. I wouldn't be buying calves from that type of herd

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121834285#Comment_121834285

There is crux of the issue the difference in what dairy farmers want and beef farmers want. To have a more sustainable system there has to be give on both sides to find some middle ground. If and when exports of calves goes its going to be a cluster f*ck of a situation.

Accepting that small and subtle changes need to happen is key. Small increase in the carcass weight of bull. Look to review the DBI by penalising bulls with a negative or very low carcass weight a lot harder on the index. These would be very straightforward changes to help for everyone

patsy_mccabe

I think Genomic Testing will have a big impact long-term. I've noticed there the last few weeks, 2 year old animals sold with star ratings and genomically tested, you could see a direct relation ship between animal quality/price and ratings.

JustJoe7240

Buying calves under 6 weeks old, Do these calves need to be tested once they come into the herd?

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121834574#Comment_121834574

Calves only need to be TB tested over 42 days old for off farm movement into another herd or exported. If you buy a calf at less than that they can move into your herd and then you don't need to retest them again until your own round herd TB test. If you decide to sell them on before your round test is due then you will have to TB test them, iykwim

JustJoe7240

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121834667#Comment_121834667

Thank you, Thought this to be the case but glad to have confirmed

older by the day

Are the front bulls being exported these weeks. I was watching skibb today, 10 - 15 euros is about the run of it for 50 plus kgs. Are they being exported?

Castlekeeper

Hard to get a good "Goldilocks" Hereford AI bull for selling calves, they're usually either too big or too narrow. Best one I've used, but sadly he's gone was HE2043. Funny enough he didn't have a great DBI.

Anyway since he's gone, for the last 2 year I used 3-4 different AI HE bulls in that if I found a Goldilocks, I'd buy a rake of straws off him. The best calves last year were off HE 7548, but they were a bit big and took a bit much out if the cow, best this year seem to be HE6364 but similar issues. The others are just throwing downright average calves.

The main observation I'm making though, is that the quality of the calf seems to have an inverse relationship to the sires beef value. I haven't noticed it as much in other breeds.

Maybe it pans out as the calf matures but that doesn't wash when they're sold at a month old.

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838783#Comment_121838783

Exporters have calves on hand since not allowed to board on Thursday. Gonna be a few days backlog now over that. Exporters not in Kanturk on tuesday. Hit and miss now the way the weather is.

alps

Had to move a few 1 month calves today even though no chance of exporters in the market, so going to be given away. Month old, fed powder on an automatic feeder and needed the space now for heifers.

They are going to be shy of the 50kg I'd say. Very poor weight gain for the age. Great health...

ginger22

Had some calves in Abbeyfeale mart today, Holstein bulls 3 to 4 weeks old made 120 and 135, Brown Swiss the same age 75. They were on ad lib milk with the Power feeder.

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841380#Comment_121841380

What weight did the Ho bulls go in at?

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841380#Comment_121841380

How many litres of milk do you think they were drinking?

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841406#Comment_121841406

No weights displayed

alps

Got a wide range of prices for the bull calves...All 50 to 53kg...

Some made over 4 times what others made...

They ranged from €2 to €9..

The x bred lads are after pivoting very fast indeed. Some amount of BB a d HE out of JEX there today, making smart enough money. Didn't see many if any real JEX bulls, wherever they have dissappeared to....pretty lively change of direction on the sexed semen likely..

Have to hand it to them...

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841619#Comment_121841619

Didn't keep a record but it was mostly waste milk and I think that on normal feeding they would probably have drank more to get them to that size and weight because it would take at least another 3 weeks.

And the there was no work in them, The "Gentleman" trolley ferried the milk and they helped themselves.

Also you couldn't imagine how relaxed they were.

It is our first year with the "Power" feeder but I would highly reccomend it.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841674#Comment_121841674

Alps what were your mainly first crosses. 50+kgs woykd be decent enough weight for them @ 3ish weeks.

Farm365

Why would a beef farmer pay what it costs to get a calf to 8-10wks? The cost is irrelevant it’s whatever the market rate is based on supply and demand. Do the milk processors pay Dairy farmers a price based on the cost of production or the market rate? Dairy farmers want it every way and up to now have had it their own way but the realisation is starting to dawn that they need beef farmers more than ever or else they will have to rear their own calves and cut cow numbers to allow for this.

Lime Tree Farm

Very interesting watching FarmerPhil and Viv getting the calf shed ready and the arrival of their new JEX bull calves. The automation of the calf feeder readings based on the EID tags is fascinating- how times have changed.