Mart Price Tracker

I’ve no cows, all my stock are bought in. I wouldn’t be in any way proud and certainly not “posh” either. I have O- grade hex eating at the same barrier as U+ limousines, there’s no favourites in this yard!

DBK1 not suggesting you are the above. I'm just saying I cant make a margin out of fancy stock as the ringside prices are mad. If cattle had to remain at 4.80 would you have made a margin to justify such stock? This year is unusual the winter finisher will get rewarded as the is a price rise of 50c between now and last November.

At todays ringside prices it’s hard to see how money will be made, factory prices can’t keep rising forever. But that is equally the case for any grade of stock at present. Store friesian’s are making over €2 per kg, hex and AAx are anything from €2.50-€2.80, someone has to get burnt eventually. The excellent profits that are currently being made from stock bought 12 plus months ago may need to be retained to cover the loss that could be made whenever factory prices drop and the current expensive stores and weanlings are being killed at a loss.

I never get too hung up on profit per head, obviously you want that figure as high as possible, but one man could be making €200 per head and his enterprise could be more profitable than the lad that’s making €800 per head. If the €200 man is turning over cattle in 90 days and the €800 man is keeping them for 18 months to get that then the €200 man is far more profitable. Profit needs to be measured against more than one factor, say profit per head per year, or profit per head per acre per year to have a true value. To go further then I’d even say an average over a few years should be looked at as there are so many peaks and troughs in beef prices that if you were to change your system every time your profits change you’d be on a different system every few months.

If you are only making 200/ head gross in any turnover unless you are going direct to the factory with cattle you are at nothing.

Mary and slaughter fees now exceed 20/ head. Transport costs for a lad in the Marts two days a week is probably hitting 20 per head. Bigger jeep bigger trailer.

Sold my 8X5 box 15 years old and bought a 10X8 late last year. Difference was 3700 euro. Only put a few tyres on the old box. RAV dose 39 mpg without the trailer and 26 with it on. Have it four years next summer cost me 7k and only put front shocks, rear droplinks, a wiper motor other than general servicing.

Those lads that are turning cattle ever 3 months live in Mart's, it's there full time job. Where they make most of there money is buying factory fit cattle and slaughtering them. They cleaned up on cows last year's.

Have 12 nice heifers, 8 limousine with 3 charollais and 1 angus, average 345 kilos and average 17 months old. What would they make now in the mart or at home, thinking of off loading if prices are strong. Are would i be better waiting until the 7 month men are buying in march/april.?

My grass bullocks last back end left a margin of over €1050. They were on the farm less than a year, had one winter and ate €100 of meal before finishing.

I killed suckler bred bulls at Christmas that left a margin of €1350. They were on the farm 9 months and ate a little over a tonne of meal.

No friesian that I could buy around here would do that.

i was referring to profit as in what you have left after cost’s. Mart and slaughter fees, jeep and trailer etc. would all be classed as expenses so would be accounted for before you get your profit figure.

You may be confusing gross and net profit.

Yep I’d agree with all of that too, different systems suit different farms.

For anyone not trying to paying the mortgage or rear the family off the farm that gives the freedom to be able to have your money tied up for 12-18 months in an animal which also has the added bonus of less work. If the mortgage or household bills have to be paid from the farm then the short keep cattle could suit better as there’s a better cash flow.

Different strokes for different folks, there’d be no-one making money if we all done the same thing!

Finishing your own stock for a suckler man is the only game in town.

I don't do enough of it myself, slowly trying to get the setup right to be able to carry my own stock to finish.

some gibberish of an answer there!!!

from a point of dairy stock out performing suckler sock………

There was a study done somewhere, showing the effect of loss in daily weight gain, of every move the beast makes thru a mart. It was taking on average 30 days to get back to the start weight pre move. Stress of haulage, hanging around a mart, and the biggest factor was when the got back to the new farm was re-establishment of social order.

Finishing sucklers is nearly a must unless the are the bees knees. You have the hard work and cost put into them getting them to yearlings stage, only for someone else to cream the only available margin off the beasts back

@SuperTortoise start small and maybe consider doing the heifers first. Have a good look at the cows and cull the bottom 10% ( underperformers and problems)

I was thinking about this over the day of the large number of average and underperforming weanlings that at sold. I feel the major crux of the issue, is breeding. Most farmers have a bull, let him off at the start of breeding and then pull him out 4 months later. Every cow in the herd has different strengths and weakness. No one bull will be able of fix this. Being more selective in the breeding of replacements, is probably the factor that will have the greatest impact. It's slow and will require the use of ai. But the benefits are huge

I wonder about that too, I breed all my cows to AI Belgium blue bulls, I don't have many cows but I am increasing numbers slowly. This year I sold 9 bulls out of the yard to an exporter they were between 350kgs and 400kgs at 7-8 months old, 7 E grade bulls and 2 were U plus maybe they will feed into E grade bulls in time. I got €1,500 a head. They ate roughly €100 worth of meal and they ground they were ran on got very little fertilizer last Spring. One of those cows had a Charolais Bull the year before that I kept myself and is near fit to go now, He is a super bull and is going to kill out very close to 500kgs leaving his value at €2,700, he is after being kept for two winters and is after eating a good bit of meal as he is on adlib the last 90days. There is a lot of time, labour and investment gone in to get the extra €1,200 out of him. I think its easy see which is the most profitable system.

Frightening for buyers

I sold yearlings at €3/kg last spring, they were reared on silage/ grass/ meal that was substantially cheaper that the last 12 months.

I won't be selling this spring for 3 euro/kg or anywhere near it.