I bought some fresian bullocks last autumn, they had frx on the card, usually I wouldn’t buy them if they had this but they looked a good type of a bullock, but anyway when I got the cards I knew the man that bred them, they were out of mountbillard cows and crossed with fresian, hence the x, they are great cattle I’d definitely buy them again, you should try and sell those Calfs at home and explain the situation and maybe show the cows, you should have no problems selling them
Just for the fun of it rank the margin of the milk off various feeds from biggest to smallest
Grazed owned land
Grazed leased land
Good pit silage off owned land
Maize/ off owned land
Ration in the parlour
Zero grazing off rented ground
High qaulity bales off owned ground
Silage/maize/beet off rented land
High quality bales off rented ground
Feel free to add or contradict
3 2010s here,one calved 2 days ago and she pulled through as she was shook enough coming up to it but all 3 will go this year
To tell ye the truth I don’t know about her daughters. We don’t do any AI but back then we used buy all our bulls off a cousin of mine who’d of had the very best of breeding. She’s in the 1730’s and the calves being born at the minute are over 4100 so she’s seen a lot of changes! The next oldest cow we have on the farm is in the 2450’s so there’s 720 of a difference between our oldest and 2nd oldest cow
I have a 07 MOX. Bombproof, but was getting stiff getting up from the cubicles so I injected her last August and she is off to the farm in the sky this week.
One of those cows you never even know you have. Until you see the blue card and figure out how old she is.
I have daughters and granddaughters off her.
We had a 14 year old calved down this year unfortunately she got peritonitis and we lost her. She had 3 daughters, 2 have been culled as poor milkers. Had another cow the same year that we culled last year I have several daughters and granddaughters but none as good as the original either
Ours is 2010 as well. Over a thousand differences between her tag number and that her calf got this year. In a herd of 80 odd cows that's not bad going. Has five daughters that look like lasting a long time too. She's the last of the cows from the last fr stock bull we had on the farm. Been totally AI since. A Croagh bull from Frawleys in Limerick, a great bull he was for us.
What about her daughters ,more often then not a let down .Local Fr breeder here best ever cow came off the back of a jobbers lorry ,he just loved the look of the animal as a calf and he rarely if ever bought an animal as he ran a closed herd !!
I meant to ask. What’s the oldest cow any of ye have in the herd? Ours is 14, I reckon she’s produced not far off 100,000 litres of milk. Never been lame or had mastitis. Obviously an exceptional animal all round
When you're in the box selling do you not say to the auctioneer, no je breeeding?
I'm the same with the x from the montbelliarde. All my dams are frx even though they are crossed back to Friesian several times. So there are some only 1/8 Monti blood but its still frx. Do you ever get back to Fr?
Thats a risk alright (though not for me;)) - 2013 was a good summer after that desperate spring, 2006 would be another example, I will never forget the heat from that one here in North Mayo all threw May, June and July. Belmullet broke its all time high on the 19 July that year😎
PS: 2018 would be another example after that epic snow in March - the drought though was severe threw that summer and probably the worst the country saw since 95'
Theres alot to be said for mart.Farmers arent stupid and will only pay less than mart price theres always hassle getting paid but the main problem is time wasted these buyers to sfa all day and have loads of time on there hands
Well I suppose that's the key, I'm lucky the person is very straight man. I drop them down to him when they are ready. Fair enough he wants them as old as possible and I want them gone as near to 2 weeks as possible. We compromise and he gives me a good price for them.It works both ways. I have a friesan bull here I won't give him because I'm not happy with his thrive.
I had one before when I was breeding Belgian Blues but they were getting too cheeky nearly. They were going loading up calves when I or we never talked before if they were getting the calf or not. It was getting too familiar. Then I had a dealer who when purchased would leave the calves on farm for quite a spell before collecting. it's about getting the right person who won't mess you either way.
If you have good cows smn people local will know...surely somebody you know locally is buying calves..I bet they would be delighted to be getting yours. We only started selling the calves about 5 years ago. I rang a man locally that rears calves and asked would he be interested in ours. He was delighted and has worked out really well. I have never been to the mart with a calf.
How much are the Kerry coop shares making these days on the grey market
Would that "good summer" include a drought section?
Yeah - approaching Spring 2013 levels of misery out there. Only good thing is there is a general trend of good summers following wet/cool springs
I'm getting caught that way with FRx on the boards and the x is from Montbeliarde back breeding. It's seriously depressing.
I changed marts last week and I marginally improved prices. I'm easily loosing 50 euro just because people think my FRX is jersey back breeding. I may change strategy for next year and try and sell at home because it's not on either that when you are going to the trouble of breeding good calves and paying good money for bull sires that I'm being lumped as jersey breeding when there's not an ounce of it here.
I pride myself on my calves as I don't have the land to rear them so make sure to have the best I can so that no matter what the market that they will always be very saleable and hopefully give me a good income as size wise it's a small herd here. Change in the mart brought me 290 for a Lim calf.
This year everyone is watching the board in the mart, when the Jex or Frx ram calf enters the ring the price drops even if they are BB or Lim. The AAx or HEx out Fr cows went up this week, a lot of buyers have got caught the last two years with calves that got very little colostrum being given or batch fed colostrum, one lad that buys 120 calves every year watch’s tag numbers and avoids the calves from the big herds for this reason after getting stung with poor thrive calves.
Might miss them 1 day a month from August to October when Arrawbawn had all the fertiliser deductions taken from the cheques. Cash flow on a beef farm with my system tends to be a bit tight that time of year.
That nursing home situation is not everything. Think of the long life before the nursing home reflections.
There can be immense satisfactions got from satisfying days of long work and goals targeted and achieved.
I often remember with pleasure many such.
Not in derogation. Have too much land for stock so I put 10 acres a year in wheat. Crimp the grain and feed it in the winter and bale the straw for myself. If things get tough re fodder because of draught ill just whole crop the lot and buy in wheat and straw. I can tell u it costs a bit but you have some peace of mind.
Rushy land will pay its way yet!
I presume your talking about like for like breeding and geography?
I was only responding to your comment, I don't mean to be knocking your calves or system at all, it sounds top drawer. But they'd only drink an extra 2 to 3 ad lib, they'd still be eating hay and crunch. Thats only 50l of milk each, how much more would they make?
Weight and condition is worth money in calves, its slow and hard to get it back on if they get a setback.
Surely their can be a arrangement where the dairy man takes the ground/map acres , and buys the fert/inputs and the tillage man contract grows the crop, doing the above here with a local tillage man the past 5 years and its working great only 2-3km of a draw with slurry from my yard, the mentality of the system needs to change theirs great scope for partnering up between tillage/dairy farms
Must be true so ….nearly believe it around here …lot of tillage ground gone to hungry dairy farmers …..who are now going to tillage farmers looking for straw and to contract Maize or beet or whole crop ….as one of them told me where do they expect me to sow it for them …the lawn
I heard on ifj that farmers are pre booking straw at 50 euro a bale.....
I know ya. Smaller numbers here so wouldn't bother going to the mart with a handful. The oldest were 5 weeks. Got 10 euro for them. The youngest were 5 euro. I kept 8 fr bulls at home to run with the fr heifers for the year. I just can't stomach dumping them all.
I have yearlings to take to the mart next week now, we'll see what they make.
