Mart Price Tracker

Bass, on one hand your knocking a poster above for not knowing anything but his own system then on the other hand knocking other systems that differ from your own when it's evident you know damn all about them either.

The figures posted by DBK above for continental cattle are typical and not the 20% rule your stating. Top quality ch x lm cattle would likely be heavier even. Go to any mart in October and you can have your pick of them - at a fair and equitable price of course.

As for the CH x FR been better performers than a suckler bred animal, you would have to find a few first to make that comparison. Not too many dairy men using charolais bulls around here. chxfr are like hens teeth in these parts. In fact the Fr is becoming a sparse commodity not alone the chxfr.

A few years ago it was quoted if you were getting over €900 for a weanling, let them go. Anything less you’d be better finishing yourself. Is this still the same today?

Here's my take on it,

If you're selling the weanling at the back end you've kept it's mother for 12 months to rear the calf with associated costs of that, the calf will have been conceived(buying bull/AI), tagged, dehorned, dosed, bvd tested, vaccinated maybe, and might have 6 weeks of ration ate, weaned, and last but not least your labour with the associated costs of all that.

In terms of workload, 80% of it is done by the suckler man, in terms of costs i'm guessing 80% of factory price is carried by the suckler man, if you're selling that animal for €900 you getting maybe 35% of finish price?

Buy selling the weanling you're adding another 2 middle men between you and the factory and they all want their cut, everyone is making a few bob off the suckler man, mart, co-op, vets, contractors, accountants, and by the time they all have their slice there's nothing left for the lad doing most of the work.

The last time i remember making a few bob out of them was when we finished our own bulls under 16 months.

To answer your question would €900 even keep a cow for 12 months? IMO probably not.

Just looking through the prices of store bullocks in Roscrea today,

Friesian’s from €2.14-€2.50 per kg,

hex and aax €2.50 - €2.90

Continentals €2.70 - €3.20

Teagasc had costings at €700 per annum several years ago, we costed her at €670 as a class exercise when I done my green cert also several years ago.

Silage making has more than doubled, fertiliser has tripled, meal has doubled, fixed costs such as electric has gone up, €900 for the year probably doesn't cover it.

Agreed. Continental cattle aren’t bad value at €3 a kg when beef is heading for €5.50.

What do you call the other 15 weeks of crap weather?

I'm being slightly tongue in cheek..

Not by much though.

Most in 15 weeks and 3 days as of today.

They won't be going out this weekend.

Average housing here is 3rd week of October and average turnout would be 1st week of May.

You'll get the odd exception to that but that would be the norm around here.

The suckler cows i keep would average 850Kg at turnout, you can't let them out until ground is right or you're chasing grass the rest of the year.

Talking to a suckler farmer a few weeks ago. He hung most his cows last year. They averaged over 2K each. I think he slaughter over 15 of them. He kept all his heifers and bulled them.

I can’t speak for them as calves but as weanlings I’d be seeing the very same thing as you are.

I could have a pen of bucket reared hex beside a pen of suckler bred continentals. The hex would be averaging 200-230 kgs and the continentals 300kgs and the same amount in each pen. Every day without fail the hex will have their silage ate and be standing at the barrier roaring for more when they see you. The continentals will have silage left in front of them and they’ll all be lying down chewing their cud and happy out.

Dairy beef stock without doubt consume far more feed than continentals.

ive been moving back to bigger framed cows after falling victim to listening to too much of the Teagasc crap.small cows are a disaster if you’re suckling. A well framed cow carrying condition going into the shed, feed her hay until a week or forthright pre calving and then onto silage and stay on that until she goes back to grass. Her body condition follows what she requires once it’s timed right and you have something of value that has the ability to produce top end animals and not always have to be worrying about calving.

the day of half dairy bred sucklers or even middle of the road types is over.750kg minimum cow weight is what I’m moving back to.

Wonder what the buffalo trade is like this year?

I base it on seeing them eat and amount of fodder consumed. I find a dry suckler cow calving in the Springtime can be quite low maintenance once they’ve been dried off before housing and have a bit of cover

Milk quantity is overrated, vastly.

The right breeding beats bags of milk in a suckler cow every day of the week and twice on Sunday's.

I see neighbours here messing with first cross dairy stock producing O grade weanlings and the only thing propping them up when they are sold is they can be bought cheap and the buyer has a nice twist out of them, that's why there is demand for that kind of stock.

If that's the route you want to go down you need to be going out 3-4 generations from the dairy cow at least.

I would say you’re way too high in your silage prediction. Unless silage is very poor quality about half that should do them and even less when getting 5kgs of meal.

I had 52 stores in one shed, a mix of continentals and hex, and earlier in the winter when they would have been averaging around 450kgs and on silage only they were eating around 10 bales a week.

They’re getting closer to finishing stage now and they’re getting about 8kgs of fodder beet, and 2kgs of a home grown barley, HiPro soya and mineral mix and they’re only eating 6 bales of silage a week now.

Valuing my silage at €30 like you are that’s costing me just €1.85 per day in total. I’ll be weighing stock again in a couple of weeks so I’ll know for sure but I’d be expecting them to be gaining around 1kg per day at that feeding which at current mart prices is worth €2.70 - €3.30 per day.

I have my silage cost calculated at €40 per bale so in my circumstances what I’m currently feeding is costing me €2 per day.

28 stores are getting two days comfortably out of a bale with no mealls being fed. most in the pen would be friesians

Can you bid online? You could do this even sitting ringside.