Mart Price Tracker

Have you 2 accounts, Duke??

It was to somewhat disappointed I asked about his bullocks. At present store price lads will need a stronger bade than this year to make money. AA/HE heifers never make heavy weights having said that a lad I am very friendly with bought 350-400 kg LW heifers this time last year. He carries them right to the 30 months age. He hung an AA and 4 HE heifers late last week. 2 out of 4 heifers grade R as he carries them to the limit. The AA heifer beat everything graded R-4+ at 340 kgs. She made over 1450 euro. The HE heifers averaged 1320. He was feeding 2 kgs/ day since mid July

Assuming QA he’d get 6c on that grade, 20 c in spec bonus so as a minimum it’s a €4 base Not factoring in AA 20 c bonus.

She was a tad short of 340, 337.7kgs, she was hung last Thursday and booked in since the previous Monday base price was 4.15/ kg. As she was FS 4+ she lost 8c on the QA. That gives a total price of 4.37@ giving a total amount of 1475, deductions were 16.50 leaving a gross amount of 1458.50 for the heifer.

There is crap going on locally lads that haul in cattle themselves in smaller boxes are struggling to get some of the higher prices locally. They are being quoted 5c/ kg less. However he carries cattle to within 10-15 days of there birthday.

If he opts to travel with cattle transport will set him back at least 18 euro and cattle will be loaded 6-8pm the evening before. He dropped these up himself between 7 and 10 am. He is about 6 miles from local factory

No he got the AA 10c bonus on her, so it was only an 8c/ kg loss. As he only kills 12-15 AA/ year he will never get the 20c however he got the 10c/ kg on his Herefords The base was 4.1 two weeks ago as well. However 2-3 weeks ago she might not have graded R which would have knocked 12c/ kg off her. He finds this system works for him

I say about 90% come out sub 400kgs usually any over are still bulls.

At summer grazing you would want a LW gain of 200kgs+ to be in with any chance of a decent margin especially with FR's. Thick would be to buy sub 300 kgs and get them to 500 kgs or a bit with it. You would want to be buying in early/ mid March. Then start selling as they hit that 500 kgs mark from September on. Start closing for the following year from mid October on

The problem with feeding anything out of a shed is the processors will not give you enough to cover costs. This is especially true of Friesians. Ya there may be a good price this year but feeding costs are savage. You will feed bullocks like a ton of ration and they will eat a decent amount of silage. Even Teagasc have stopped advising winter finishing them. Traditionally lads that were doing it fed them to finish at 330 -340 kgs in late April/ early May. However processor's have stopped giving decent prices rises for finishing during this period.

There is lads hanging the better ones that will have cover on them at 27-290 DW in November/ December but grading can be brutal on some of them. This year there will be a decent base price but store and feed prices will catch lads.

At a base of 4/kg

O=3 will make 4.02/kg

O-3 will make 3.88/kg

P+3 will make 3.7/kg

If they grade 1/3 each you that will be about it unless you really pick through your bullocks. Friesians will continue to grow strongly until over three years of age usually.

Paddocking should actually achieve higher than that. 2.5 acres paddocks would be ideal, 8 of them moving cattle twice a week. Two water troughs in central positions on the field. Two posts on diagonal corners a d paddock with pigtails and reels.

Paddocks need not be a whole load extra work. Last year I never topped, this year I had to. I do not really have a huge fertlizer bill about 10ton on 24HA going into BPS covers silage and grazing. 20-25 unit's in late Feb/early March, similar in early/mid April, that usually carried me to June, at that stage I spread a bit to get me through to extra paddocks coming into the rotation, After second cut in late July I be spread again at 20-25 on grazing platform once to keep grass growing. Cattle are in paddocks for up to a week at present. Covers getting heavy in places. Finishing cattle get to graze the best with a bunch of stores clearing out after them