cute geoge wrote: » Not been smart ,but suckling is dying slowly .The future for beefi n this country is raising dairy x beef bred .AA comand the premium price in the factory that is what lidl/aldi want anyway.Would not be better off chancing a few beefxdairy bred suck calves .At the moment you could pick them up handy and they are easier handle then sucklers and it would suprise me if they would not leave you with more profit
Count Mondego wrote: » I can't wait for the day that Irish dairy farms aren't producing pure dirt beef cattle.
trixi2011 wrote: » What would you class as pure dirt beef cattle ?
_Brian wrote: » Wintering costs for sucklers herds must vary dramatically across the country. Lads with cows in for 20week winters are spending massively as a result. I would know plenty of lads making 6 months feeding every year. Given current overheads and beef prices this couldn’t work. The high numbers of empty cows being carried over is another massive drain on the system.
trg wrote: » We're in that zone. 6 month winters, keeping empties often to give another chance. Low quality silage, little or no weight gain from weaning to yearling, lots of cows only calving in April. We're authors of our own misfortune anyway!
Bass Reeves wrote: » The economics of suckler's fa on output. The output off a unit is on average a sub 350 kg weanling/ year. You will keep two finishing, three stores or 4 calf to store units in the same area. The other factor is the inefficiency of the system no matter what way you run it you have multiple different groups that have to be kept separate. Now sometimes lads do not help themselves in number of bunches but I have often seen 5-8 groups of cattle on a Suckler farm. I normally manage with 2-3 bunches. Then you do not have the economy of scale when buy inputs especially ration. I buying barley/ maize/ hulls at 270/ ton. There is no doubt that Inputs have out paced outputs substantially in beef and output has become mone complicated with it being s struggle at times to market heavy Suckler cattle and bulls at times. Demand for beef had migrated to lighter cattle and traditional breeds. Most lads that change from suckling are happy enough at it. If your land is of decent quality then it's a no brainer.
farawaygrass wrote: » One of my big issues is all the groups Of cattle with suckling, and for me I couldn’t put one group in a few fields because they’d be too close to another group. It’s very difficult to manage grass at all. I know there are people who do it brilliantly and I tip my hat to them.
Grueller wrote: » I have sucklers knocking about still and between all of the groups they take nearly as much time as milking a small herd twice a day.
Dunedin wrote: » 21 cows here and it’s Cows/calves one group, yearlings in second group and 2 year olds in third. Where do all the groups come from? I have all mine in paddocks and/or ditches cut very low so just need to ensure that there is always a spare field/paddock in between two groups especially with the bull. But with electric fence, there’s very rarely an issue. Bigger groups clean out the paddocks quicker too.
Bass Reeves wrote: » Ya for some of the year you can run as a bunch it Priya tad easier if you are squeezing or banding the bulls. But earlier I. The year you may have them split. There is always a cow or two that had a hard calving. They bull has to be kept separate from everything else until maybe May if you are compact calving. Then there the bunch that may have young calves, they cow that failed to get up after calving is in a corner somewhere. The co Alf who's mother had not enough or no milk. Then there is a couple of culls getting a bit of ration to finish off
tanko wrote: » No cow had a hard calving here, no bull on the farm, all cows calved in 8 weeks, no cow in a corner somewhere that failed to get up after calving, all the calves seem to be getting enough milk, no culls getting ration to finish off. I must be doing something wrong.
Grueller wrote: » Nope. You are doing a lot right. I am not trying to be a pedant or a pr1ck here, but, is there money in it even at that? I have a load of rosettes here from show and sales. Very, very few sections, very rare a cow down (1 in 10 years from calving), averaged just €1000 a weanling in my best years. Still made next to no money.
Geuze wrote: » I am not a farmer. I have farmer friends, and I know a small bit about it. I buy the FJ maybe twice a year, good newspaper. I have read articles about the difficulties in suckler beef. It wasn't always obvious to me than even within beef farming, there are various different business models. Can I ask a few questions about sucker farmers: mainly based in west / northwest, is that correct? they own X number of cows, and hope to have X calves each year they don't use the cows for milk, instead the income is from selling the calf each year I'm not clear on what time of year the calf is born? I note the points about carrying the cow over the winter unlike dairy, it seems to be that income arrives just once a year, when the weanling calves are sold? at what age are weanling calves sold? who are the buyers of the calves? why don't the suckers farmers keep the calves, and finish them?
