and no rashers with the breakfast either…..
TBH, if you really need to feel you need a rasher or a pint on one of the two Catholic religious fast days in the year, it's says more about you than you think.
At the young lads foundations and subfloor last 3-4 weeks he decided to go for a Irish breakfast with a couple of lads giving a hand tomorrow morning. I told him not for me. I could have gone for a cheese omelette or hope they served smoked salmon & eggs etc, but now and again I wish people would respect other people's beliefs/ feelings
Surely you should respect the fact that they don’t believe equally.
I will probably respect it myself today but can’t say that I always have.
Its quality looking in fairness.....Im imagining those short ribs cooked low and slow too!
it’s def one of them “premium” type butchers no doubt. And in an extremely affluent area I suspect.
But the prices are mental.
and you should respect that people are allowed have a sense of humour…….
You must be getting very slow in your old age Bass, only a few weeks ago here you were going to build a 45 metre block wall on the side of a mountain in 2 days along with digging out the foundations with a fork and barrowing up the readymix for the foundations!!
Now you’re 4 weeks doing a few bits of foundations for a house with a crew of men, we had all that done in a long weekend here a few years back 😉😂
I killed cattle last week and one was a 23 month old 740kg yard weight U grade limousine. She killed out 434kgs and made €2,421. That’s €3.27/kg liveweight based on her yard weight.
Had I brought her to the mart she could have had anything up to 8% weight loss by the time she’d stand on the scales in the mart. Even allowing for half that at 4% loss she’d have been 710kgs in the mart. Now I’d need €3.41/kg just to match the factory price.
I’m not saying the mart isn’t an option, and for anyone that’s non QA’d it’s probably the best option, but lads need to know how to calculate their figures before selling stock for €3/kg live weight and thinking they done well.
She was an u= she had a very good kill out and was obviously a good big slim heifer with no waste you did very well and made the right decision it just shows what some animals can make the other side is what some factories are paying in some marts for plain cattle which can never kill into what they are making live
Yep a U= at €5.20 base price. Her killout was exactly what I’d expect from a U= and it’s what the factory men buying in the marts would expect too. She was a good animal and if they were all like her there’d be money to be made out of cattle! She was bought in the back end of 2022 for €800.
I’d R grade limousines and O grade whiteheads on the same docket. When I get a chance later I’ll sit down and work out the live weight prices they came into as well just out of interest now.
My opinion on the factories buying fat cattle in the mart is that it’s a disaster for the farmer really. If them stock aren’t being brought to the marts then it forces the factories to rise the base price to entice them out. Whereas when they’re in the mart they’re happy to pay a little bit more for an odd one because they’ll be getting the majority at a lot less than they’d have to give in the factory so it keeps a floor on the price.
+1 on the fat cattle in the mart. Never have and never will bring a finished animal to the mart.
How would ye go about getting your eye in out of curiosity
For my own situation Im going to get a decent scales so I know what weight im dealing with but beyond that how do ye go about judging what grade they are, fat score etc
I always sold potential in the mart and done well but Im thinking I could do better and might see about finishing more than the odd one
You learn by sending cattle to the factory and looking at the kill sheet. Cows and heifers are fatter than you think, young bulls are less fat than you think, most continental cows are R’s, some make U’s. Most lm bulls/bullocks are U’s and CH’s R’s I find, It’s not that difficult grading continental cattle after you send a few anyway.
Ill do a bit of further research so..
If you send a few underfinished cattle to a factory you’ll learn fast but the grading and fat scores is not rocket science either. Managing grass and knowing what meal and how much for how long to feed them is the harder part I think, the grading and fat scores will look after themselves imo.
The best way to learn is grade the cattle before they go to the factory and then see them hang on the line it can be an eye opener how different types of cattle kill out and grade, the Lim heifer above must have being getting close to an E grade with that sort of kill out and very little gut, a very wise cow dealer one day in the factory told me a wise words, a animal that has seen hunger in its life never kills well. A true fact.
Pray tell me how come the wisest man on this tread who claims to be grossing 300/head profit/animal only ever buys hungry stores ,or is just he is good at whart he does
Big difference between hunger and hungry.
Hunger past tense has happened lasting effects will always be visible.
Hungry present tense happening no damages yet can be cured with food .
@epfff correct, there is a massive difference between hungry cattle and starved cattle. If cattle and looked after from day they will always be on the back foot. Its why starved calves in the Mart should always be left where they are they will never do..
Well buying hungry stores is different than buying cattle that have seen lots of hardship and are way behind weight for age, also a lot has to do with time on farm, weight for age etc, well everyone has different systems that suits their farm, but if this man has the best system why isn’t there a rush for everyone to go at it. Not running the man down but everyone if outstanding in their own field.
From what I see the vast majority of calves are done ok until they get to 3 months. The problems start after that, lads leaving them off in haggards or the same field year after year and then letting them there for weeks if not months and not dosing them.
If a calf is done right for the first 3 months they will generally recover from most setbacks and they often just need time. The issue I see at present is mostly genetic and that is why cattle are hanging and grading poorly.
John Shirley it was who wrote it nevers pays to breed a bad one but it often pays to buy one. For every 100 euro you pay extra for an animal they probably need to hang 15-20 kgs heavier and be a step higher on the grid for you to recover that cost.
THe reason most people do not do is is the want all there cattle to be front of house types. You are buying cattle that only have one outlet and that is the factory and you will have cattle a minimum of 12 months. You will also end up with the odd wrong one.
And your competition ring side are not the factory buyers, contracted feed lots and large scale finishers.
And that is a significant advantage.
Any prices or predictions for the week ahead?
it a four day kill week, processors will try to hold it tight. They know when prices start to rise they will struggle to control them. However they also know there is cattle there that have been fed for up on a hundred days that have to be slaughtered as they are starting to go stale
If there was 2 weeks of fine weather they would lose absolute control. It's on a knife edge numbers
factories pretty safe so re 2 weeks fine weather.
just looking at the price of good suckled breed weanlings bulls upto 4 a kg live weight how much money are the factories and supermarkets making These bulls are being shipped live the mart €10 mart buy gets a €5 haulier to shed and to boat €20 exporter say €20 ship €50 hauliers other side €5 that’s €110 all indoor meal and roughage at the other side and the meat is cheaper in Morocco Algeria or wherever they go
450 @1450
Plus €110
Plus feed for 150 days say €540 3.6 a day
That’s 2100
what will they kill 380 odd
Rant over
Often thought about it myself. No EU subs this time.
I remember seeing it somewhere, the shippers/exporters margin was 100e per head after costs.
A few years ago when we started exporting to turkey beef price over there was €8 a kg when it was probably round €4 here.
