Calf to beef thread

Fair play for posting photos, this could become the most realistic Boards thread on beef with that type of honesty.

Can I ask have you silage tested? Just a constructive observation, it looks a bit stemmy for growing stock. Leafier stuff could give you 20 to 25kg extra gain over winter for no cost. Compensatory growth wouldn't make up for it.

Good luck with the batch of runners.

What I meant was define a calf system that you think there’s no money in, I was in a lot of marts last Autumn and any Angus or Hereford 500kgs were freely making €1200 to €1300 with the odd lot making more even 450 kgs were making over €1100

@Bass Reeves "If you can manage to keep your wintering costs sub a euro a day and gain 500+ grams a day( most of these sort of cattle will have a bit of it)"

What do you feed them in their first and second winter? Thank you for all the information, great to learn from each other.

I never said there was no money in any calf system. What i was saying they are busy fools whom I and others make money from. I don't fancy running around with milk powder, scour, vet bills and extra mussels. I don't need to feed cattle at some un godly hour in the morning before work. Add up that.I was out in the marts last Autum too and there was many sellers losing money selling bucket reared stores.

You mentioned figures above. Those prices are good but are only so if their age was appropriate for their age. If not those were poor prices. If they were age appropriate why were those farmers selling them? If they were such good farmers why did they not finish them? It would only take Hereford and Angus cattle about 8 to 10 weeks at those weights.

You need to factor in that this years back end was good for store cattle. In another year those prices might not be achievable.

Oh I should have mentioned mortality.

My neighbour that milks120 British freisian cows sold his store cattle last autumn end of August early September, a shrewd operator

all bullocks, averaged

Angus 440kgs €1220

Herefords 440kgs €1200

limousine 405kgs 1160

Your right it’s hard to beat the early calf, I’m planning on buying maybe February Calfs this year, did you replace those fresians yet?

If you have time to spend around a mart you will pick up value every day at it. There is always a few in every ring that for various reason don't make their true value. Colour, age for weight, test, movements, little bit wild looking, or a few lads just not concentrating. If you aren't fussy (which I am not & anyone doing calf to beef usually isn't) then you can make a nice turn on these type of cattle.

I run 20 suckler cows, I rear another 20 lads on buckets and I then spend a few winter nights & bank holiday Mondays at the Mart trying to pick up 15 -25 of these value cattle to match in size wise with what I have.

That way I have 55 - 65 beef cattle to sell every year. Anything R+ and ok movement wise usually goes to the Mart (most of the sucklers) as the Northern buyers give a premium for them. The rest go to the factory. Meal is fed for about 6 weeks prior to sale.

As a part time farmer with a young family it what works for me & thankfully it is paying. I am lucky in that the Mart is only over the road so I can tip over or watch on the laptop & if I only buy 1 animal it's no big deal getting it home.

The most profit is from the 350 -400 kg dairy cross cattle I buy. But it would take me to long to pick up 60 odd of these a year.

The next most profitable is the 20 suckler cows, but again been part time any more that 20 cows calving, AI'ing ect would be difficult.

The 20 bucket reared are work, it's like being a dairy farmer from March until June as you have feed them twice a day which takes the best part of an hour morning & evening, no matter how you are set up, between feeding, bedding and attending to the lads with scours. But what I find these are great for is getting the kids interested in the farm & i get to spend farming time with the kids. Can't have the kids around cows calving. Plus the reared calves are very quite & easy to manage and I find they keep the suckled reared cattle quite too.

But if I was a full time farmer & could spend days on end at marts or even be able to travel south a few times a year to where the dairy reared stock are more plentiful I wouldn't rear any calves on a bucket.

I did with more expensive ones the same weight but that was the market this autumn.

They were great prices but were the top of the market last year. Neighbour a single man that rears excellent cattle sold 610kg HE for 1300 euro and the same mart has light weights. If he had his Board Bia and slaughtered they have made 1530 at least when he sold in November.

I saw a good lot of 400-450 kg He&AA sold 950-1050 some sold even less. I taught it was enough for them

It not all about weight and age. There is a lot if cattle going through the mart unsqueezed and with horns. Why lads will not use the lamb rings on calves at less than 2weeks( well that is the official maximum age so we will use that ) or squeezed them in the autumn I do not know

Any lad rearing calves to 6-8 months and reselling is never going to make money and that goes for selling light yearlings or suckler bred stock less than 300kgs

The 3 soft calves I bought all went in as singles. They were badly marketed. First off two should definitely gone in togeather and if it had been me the light calf as well. He had another calf with half a tail he announced he had lost part of it but never announced when. If it had happened a month+ before I would have chanced him he was 240 kgs sold for 130 (I think) I should have chanced him anyway on hindsight. The amount of lads not willing to bunch cattle because there is 1-2 small ones is crazy.

The same with plain suclker stock. BIL is always putting cattle in singles or two's.

The lads around the ring share out a lot of them. It the same with cull dairy cows or Fr heifers that have not gone in calf lads insist on selling as single animals. The dealers around the ring share them out and I nip in for the odd heifer or one gone through the cow ring with no calf registered.

The 150 kg Friesians I bought should have been sold last September/October they probably have been no lighter( maybe even heavier) and would have made the same if not another 30-50 euro.

Look at @Siamsa Sessions after using the mart and finishing a few which will he do from now on.

Any lad rearing calf has to get weight on them the day is gone of rearing them and putting them in a haggard or Orchard until the after grass arrives in August. Actually most lads do the calf until 10-12 weeks ok it from that on the problem start to rear there head where they stop growing as lads have not got a paddocking system for them and do not dose them often enough

@Finty Lemon I have them in pens of 5 and feed them 5 at a time. Two pens been fed at the 1 time. I buy them mostly from my BIL at about 3 weeks old. So that why the aren't all coming in together. I have an electric undersink water heater in the shed so that works out fine.

If I was to invest it would be into an automatic feeder. But as I see calves as the least profitable venture on this farm the jury is out on weather or not its worth investing any much more money in it. I feel I would need to be rearing 60 plus calves a year to justify an automatic feeder.

100% no need for auto feeder. Are you feeding in buckets or a batch teat feeder?

2x10 in 2 batch teat feeders would have them done in 10mins plus bedding after

While I don't disagree with what you are saying re. the time it takes to get ready to the when you get back in (it's something not considered by some) I'm not sure many are going to that level of washing, bedding etc in the morning anyway. We are a suckler system but I've covered bucket feeding for two neighbours and a relation when they would be away for a few days (though 2/3 are gone to auto feeders now).

Initially helped them a few times before doing it alone and morning feed in particular was a very lean operation. Mix the milk, feed it in 10 teat buckets, give a fairly quick hose down with cold water and squeeze to each teat. Top up nuts if needed and gone. No bedding or anything like that was done in the morning, in fact I know now with the auto feeders one visit a day is all they get sometimes talking to my cousin (occasionally if away for a day no visit). They all used to move to OAD feeding too as soon as possible.

Good planning makes a bit difference in my opinion, in any system.

The workload will reduce from 2025 on when dairy farmers have to keep them to a minimum of four weeks.

Big difference between feeding 4 week old and two week old calves. I be reluctant to get an auto feeder for 20 because of that

Yes that's what I mean, when I am feeding calves the alarm goes off at 6 every morning where as if there was no calves it would be 7.

I tried feeding shine once a day a few years ago & I just wasn't happy with the results. I also like to split the meal into 2 feeds when the calves are young. 1 reason is they go eating the meal after drinking & that stops them sucking one another & the other is I like them to clear up all the meal as that stops the crows coming into the shed eating it.

Good post as usual with a lot of detail