Dairy Calves 2024

kevthegaff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122372067#Comment_122372067

Very good article, we're the aubracs performing a lot better than the Angus?

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122371040#Comment_122371040

They are not allowing for farm setup Investment. The setup cost of 900k+ is not included. Yards and roads take up 7HA. They cleared 423/HA not acre. I do not see a breakdown for the labour cost that worth another 550-600/ HA I am not sure. Evenincluding that you are looking at 400 ish per acre.

I think the calves are purchased at28 days

kevthegaff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122373015#Comment_122373015

Depreciation is included?

mf240

Is the place in limerick still doing the oven ready calves or is that banned now.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122373065#Comment_122373065

It 40k of deprecation that is equivlent to about 320k in investment. For the amount of money spend depreciation should be in the 120k/year mark.

Transposing this down to a 40-50 acre farm where the lad is working part time is hard. Stocking at 220kgs/HA is tough going. I know that part of the reason of this is to justify the labour input but once again we have a demo farm in beef that is not related to where beef farms operate. This is the third farm so setup. If your farm is wet haiw applicable is this.

The Carcase projection is 275kgs at 4.7/kgaverage. That a fairly decent average weight for the calf type they say they are dealing with. Will this unit end up with 10-20c/kg higher than thr average farm. Because the animals they buy are genotyped they are suitable for the ABP advantage scheme. However trying to source such calves normally is very hard.

The reality with beef is are you justified hitting those stocking rates. The investment is crazy, it literally the price of another 60-70 acre farm. Now admittedly they did not have access to TAMS. But transposing there investment down to a 40-60 acre unit is 140-200k+. Admittedly the farm would probably have infrastructure already in place and access to TAMS which should reduce the investment back to sub 100k

The real issue is how you manage a disease outbreak. The farm will have back up from Teagasc in such a scenario which could defray costs.

kevthegaff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122374367#Comment_122374367

How would it go for a farmer retiring from Dairying or child taking over part time. The level of investment would be practically zero.

Sheep breeder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122369911#Comment_122369911

Agree what your saying and when you see them heifers you wonder where is the room for the calf to come out behind instead of a zip job, these heifers have to be costing fair money coming in and all expenses to come, lots of lads got into that game now.

whelan2

WAs in the mart selling something, had a look at the calves. About 10 shocking looking fr bull calves. Looked the sale up on mart eye one really bad one made 5 euro and 50 each for the rest. Good lim calf 260 euro

visatorro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122601186#Comment_122601186

How old were the calves? The last few calves here took a turn on me. I had them in an old garden and the only thing I can think of is they eat something poisonous. All still alive and eating but if they make it ill be looking at them for a long time. Wouldn't dream of bringing them out to a sale.

whelan2

Id Say 2 weeks to 4 weeks . Sold 7 out of yard here today. 150 whiteheads and 100 angus. Repeat customer. Probably could have asked more but he'll be back next week

tractorporn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122612807#Comment_122612807

Mine have done the opposite, I had them on a bit of rough ground round an old house and the are shining coming out of it. Could yours have licked some paint or something off an old gate?

visatorro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122613259#Comment_122613259

Possibly, it's a strange one the way they went