Beef price tracker 2

With the changing of the “banding” for N for dairy surely it’s less and less likely dairy lads will finish them?

Alot depends on the stock too,like storing 500kg aa/he steers or heifers from November till spring can be pointless,especially if you are stocked at an sort of level and going on recent springs an early march turn out is near impossible in alot of cases,

take an store animal eating a bale of silage per month from November till mid possible late April at current silage costing around 30 per bale,..in that scenario a 3 month winter finishing period would surly make sense?,..Another thing is if you end up a month later on turn out you end up a month later on finish so instead of June finish date your heading towards a July date with a falling beef price and drought setting in on some farms

We kill all our bucket reared heifers and steers from september-November at 18-20 months at 250-320kg carcass no problem once your on your game,usually buy 400-500kg stores to shed in November and fatten the heavier ones and store the lighter ones...probly better systems but I like the fact of having cash flow from factory cheques in febuary-march,june-july and september-november

How long did the beet stay good for once chopped.

This is 30years ago so things have moved on, i think we got 10 days out of it, I remember we used to dump it on silage slab and cover it with straw and plastic, now that I recall it was pure slavery

Tub feeder will chop it, but you'll wreck the feeder if doing any amount got that t shirt here

BIL got 5.30 all in for a load of heifers this week.

A lesson learned so. We all have learned the expensive way.

I fed it long go too, make sure you have good head feed space if you have cows. They would kill each other getting at it. I used to pike it in to the chopper to keep it clean and stone free. I think there are other options to help your shortage of silage. At mart prices at the moment, I'd start there. Some thing like 2kg of maize meal with silage/straw.

I find that the risk of just turning money for the sake of it can happen with winter finishing. Now you are rearing and it is applicable to consider slaughtering fit 1020 month cattle off grass.

However lads overestimate the cost of overwintering cattle. I have ever been only had a large amount of cattle I side by April. Normally average turnout is 20th March. I target grazing out silage ground first. Now stores limit my ability to WF. However I used to do it before when I bought calves and weanlings. However over time I found a few issues with it, it was putting me in derogation territory, you were often trying to replace cattle at an expensive to e to buy them springtime and the cost of WF was getting too expensive for the return involved.

This year costs have jumped to about 1.2/day on silage only. But 6kgs of ration is costing 2.5+/day.

Even running into July/August is usually not an issue the difference in carcass weight between an animal in mid August compared to Mid June is significant.

I never worry about cash flow it profitability. No point in cashflow for the sake of it

If you are using baled silage it's fairly easy to calculate. I have 58 stores using 12.5 bales a week. I have silage coated at 37/ bale. I am using a bag of minerals every 6-7 days costing 18/ bag that is leaving me 1-2c/ day below 1.2/ day.

When you add in ration it starts getting expensive. Using straights add a lot to the workload. If you are feeding a lot of cattle things like direct feeders have to be factored in. But a straigh silage system is easy enough to calculate if you are using bales

I am on a similar boat Bass. 55 heifers (dairy white heads, Angus and limousines) getting approx 4kgs of beef finisher each per day. All in all they are getting about 9 bale's of may cut silage a week. Meal is costing me currently €430/ton blown in. Hope to be getting some off later in the month or early February. At €37/bale 9 bale's is costing me €333 per week or 86cent per day per animal. Meal is costing me €1.72 on top of it so over all feed cost is @€2.58 per head per day. My first year at this, am I mad??? I am on week 5 on the meal.

Those heifers are heading for €6 a kg. You should do alright out of them if they were bought anyway right. Have someone keep an eye on them if you are not experienced as they can go over fat easy.

I'm with you. Finishing 52 wh and AAX heifers at moment. Got 12 off early Dec at flat rate of €5. Like you looking at costs... ADG live weight is c.1kg so 0.5 kg dead wt per day. At 5.20 is only €2.60 a day... Like you was feeding 9 bales week to them.but since ive increased barley i noticed the bale usage dropped. At 3kg head day at moment and agent wants me to double it.. (works out at €1.14 per head per day @ Barley €380/T) silage i value at €35 so another €1.12 a day. So costing €2.30 day to keep as is..... no diesel, time ,esb etc included.

Don't think it will pay . even at €5.30/kg. Got caught with WH before going over fat.

They averaging 530kg now so hope to kill remaining 40 in early Feb.

Only advice I can give with AAX and W/H is get a flat price. And forget the grid, as good few will grade O-, O= so will incur -24 on the grid. Even with Angus bonus and Bord bia they struggle to make it up to base

Rarely get any off before winter but got 6 this year in Sep,but were feb born. Unless dairy breeds are Jan or early Feb born not a chance they be finished before 2nd winter

Least organic payments helps. Without that I wouldn't bother.

We all have different views. My thinking is cattle prices will peak before May. Alot of cattle will start coming fit off the Grass from May on and that may let the factories do what they always do when they have a good supply. That inturn will put a good demand on buying back in young replacement stock.