Anyone sell calves yet?
If you get that you'll be doing well, that's going of what I saw in Kilkenny yesterday.
Thurles today was very bad, got 30 to 70 for whiteheads . Angus 3 to 4 week old good calves were only.making 70euros
Calves back a bit in Dungarvan today. Decent FR bull calves, 4-5 weeks old, making €50. Small AA heifers off FRX and JEX made less. Anything solid seemed to fair better. I bought HE heifers that ranged from €60 to €160, plus a few others for a bit of variety. Paid €170 for SIM heifers and €160 for a Speckle Park heifer. Might get into sucklers yet!
Bulls or heifers?
I sold he bulls for 60, middle of the road ones
Jayzus that's not great, at them prices it doesn't make any sense keeping a Suckler cow. I wonder is it the lack of shipping is the cause or lack of farmers buying calves?
Think it's the lack of farmers buying, normally sell more from home
Comes back to the Fertilizer, Silage and other costs issue so. I know myself that in any other year I'd have no bother buying in more calves if I was getting them that cheap but I guess a lot of others are thinking that way too.
Sold 2 to 3 week old Angus today. 80 for heifers, 120 for bulls.
Depends on age and quality. I got a few blues (2 heifers, 1 bull) in New Ross 10 days ago for €180-190, but some blues in Dungarvan last Saturday were above €250. Showing the dam's breed seems to be making a difference. Anything from FRX is selling OK, but JEX means lads are starting bidding lower and not going as far. From the few I saw selling, it seems €40-50 less for a blue calf off a JEX compared to a FR (or a FRX if the calf itself is strong)
Sold 4 blues so far all bulls averaged 270 at 4 weeks. Might be more about now tho. How are fr bulls going these days?
I was under bidder today on a pen of yearling Friesians 280 kgs 460. I saw under 400 kg ones selling for 650 large framed tallish ones. Saw other 250 ish kgs selling 350 euro.
I was on the lad I was bidding on from before 400 euro.
Ah Bass you should of kept going, no point calling them and not finishing the job.😉
Those prices wouldn’t inspire confidence to go rearing sucks
They seemed an honest bunch as well. They did not look to be weighting, and would grade O+/- next year. Did not look to be a p animal in the bunch and no runt. Would have kept going but could not collect them until tomorrow and I have a few jobs in the morning and I am tied up in the afternoon. There is at least 1k in them at a beef price of 4.5/ kg if you do them right and hang them in 25 months time.
Watching online marts over the Weekend, it seems the prices of the dairy cross stuff has fallen further. Plenty WH & Limx Bulls sub €100 now
Watched a few in New Ross on Saturday and that’s the trend alright. I suppose anything not born in Feb or early March will be heading to the shed for at least part of a 2nd winter
I think you could be right as the Angus held up much better, they can usually be finished before the second winter
Don't think the calf crop is going to leave a profit this year here. All bar the fr heifers will probably break even on the milk they are drinking at best
You will be doing better than most of us if you break even. I'd need the bones of 100 euro for every 3 week old calf to break even.
Anyone make enquiries re progressive teaming up with buitlear calf company, offering 200 euro for heifer calves and 250 euro for bulls next year if you use longhorn semen, seems to good to be true
They have been working with dairy farmers in the UK for the past number of years promoting the use of Longhorn semen. AFAIR they supply Morrisons with the beef.
https://buitelaargroup.com/longhorn-scheme
Pg sent out a text last week, think they have 3 longhorn bulls available. We're not doing the scheme this year. Think the calves have to be over 50kg
Nobody seems to want whiteheads at the moment. I got burnt again yesterday with Angus heifers. Bunch of 3 Angus heifers 17 days old for 20 euro 😡. Got 90 for 3 similar bulls. Early Xmas present for someone.
Young and/ or light doesn't seem to make much. Would have to be over 60 kg minimum on bandon to make anything
Them store producers are not passing it back. Some twist on stores tis year for any lad doing them half decent.
HE and AA bullocks whether yearling's or two year olds are making 2.3-2.5/kg. Finishers are operating on much the same margin as previous with just extra cost added in.
Just look on LSL at weight and prices. Friesians are not making any more than last year IMO. Some tremendous value in poorly done FR yearlings. Saw light FR bulls( decent ones but badly done) 180-200 kgs sold for 300-350 euro
500 euro buys you a decent 300 kg Friesian bullock.
2 aax bull calves 100
2 fr bulls 40 each
Out of yard
Sold a smashing whitehead heifer calf to a local farmer who lost a calf 150
If you weren't happy why didn't you bring them home. Was that the general run of prices on the day?
To be fair, it shouldn't have been much of a surprise to you. Nobody wants a young calf anymore. They need to be 30 days before the price starts going up. Young calves have only the shippers bidding on them, which given that the ship was out of action for the last fortnight, it's hardly surprising that they were just dividing them up. You did pretty well with the bulls, they must've been strong calves
Huge risk in a dairy farm to bring home calves. They could have picked something up in the mart and bring it back into the farm.
As well unless you have milk you are not sending to be processed it's costing you 45c/L of milk fed. A kg of calf ration is probably 40c. It's probably costing you a tenner a week to hold them aside from time spend looking after them.
They're on an auto feeder. Milk is 50 cent+.
