CAlf prices are usually out of line with what moderate yearlings make a calf that's well done usually looks his best and.may not turn out so good after. The 235 kg yearlings may have been narrow hence the price
Just watching gortatlea weanling sale of heifers
Spots of value there, 12mnth old Hex out of Fr, 235kg 470e
There is 6 week old calves making that
as a ball park figure, good young cows with nice calf will make circa €2,500 back to €16/1700 for the lesser quality.
Strongly recommend advertising as clearance in a mart as I’d always be sceptical of the singular cow/calf being sold. Nothing like a clearance scale to get the interest going. If you sell in ones and twos, you could be left with the worst ones and taking a bad price for them.
Say €2k as an average (this bad weather is now possibly extending to May so that will have an impact on buyers and price).
If you keep cow till weaning of calf, say aug/sept you’d probably be looking at say €1000 for weanling and then fatten cow. Cow at 430kgs x €4.80 will hit around the €2k mark. A suckler cow after a decent summer on the grass will be fleshy and will be around 4-5 weeks off finishing - cost of around €50 a head.
All the above comes with a lot of variables and doesn’t cover any land/fert costs as obviously I don’t know all the details of your current stock/farm situ.
Best of luck with whatever way you go. And just make sure to keep the bull away 😑😑
I watched about 10 calves sell yesterday online at Ennis Mart. All had Jersey breeding in the cow. The best of them made €30.
The CBV is worthless unless there is a genomic test to back it up. All the dairy guy has to do is register the calf to a high CBV bull and the calf will be likewise on paper.
The CBV was brought in to help these lads to sell the bad calf, a lot of them won’t test because they know that they will have a minus figure and that’s why this clown in the the rag podcast wants it removed, most men buying calves and rearing them are no fools ( the Jex man thinks they are) and can pick what suits their system, and you will only catch these out once, the Aubrac was used to cover the black tail to lads realised this and they are now suffering in price.
The dairy man in the ifj seems to think that the jex cow is the correct cow to have and has fooled a lot of dairy men into destroying their herds and has no respect for the lads that end up with the rubbish offspring he just keeps on with his own 1 sided agenda, I often wonder will a lot of dairy lads that have listened to this jex agenda go belly up as they have no calf sales, low cull cow value and are now only reliant on 6 milk cheques to keep the show going for the year and low milk volume I am looking at some of them and am questioning the figures as they seem to be in trouble all the time yet the journalist gets a big salary for telling lads complete rubbish
I’m delighted that he is being rewarded for producing good stock. On the other hand then we have some thick lad on the farmers Journal podcast thinking he’ll cod people into buying his JeX, Irish and NZ friesians by telling them that the CBV is 100% reliable.
I used to do the same system as you for the last few years, calve mid March onwards and out straight away. I build an extension to the slated shed for a creep area (20ft x20ft) last year for use this year and its already paid itself off. Cost 10k roughly to do and all done myself (with father). I've heavy land and the place would be destroyed by now otherwise. As I was doing it myself the cost was spread out over 8mths and just did bit by bit in the evening after work and at the weekend.
They be scarce but that is no indication that they will average decent prices, older cows especially.some may hit or go over 2K but there will be units there that will only 12-1400 euro.
Unless he is planning to give up farming completely he should maje up his mind on tge new system before he goes further.
You should not need to ring the accountant, you shoukd be able to look at your 2022 account and see end of year stock values. They will not have changed substantially.
Having said that unless he retires from farming completely he will have to replace them, unless he repla es them with cheap young animals his tax liability not be substantial
Suckkers on decent land are a break even operation for most farmers and have been for years. There is no point half biting the bullet, the pain remain much the same and tge figures are disapproving all the time.
Going to calf to beef operation if time is tight to pick up cattle is a good option. Presuming OP has approx 50 acres he could run a 30-50 calf to beef operation depending on the system he chooses. Calves are and will be easy buying for a while as are young cattle up to about 15 months if you choose the right buying time and focus on profit not what cattle look like
€5/kg is a fair price for weanlings.
Maybe sell half the cows, keep the youngest ones, as is mentioned here time and again its very time consuming going to marts buying stock. With regards putting up a shed, ull have it for ever, i dont think anyone ever regretted putting one up or saying a smaller one would have done.
You might want to give a quick ring to the accountant first. You sell 20 cows and calves and you are working as well say 40000. It will be a great day, for sickly Simon when you are paying your tax.
Good cow and calf units are scarce in the marts at present, best thing talk to the mart owner/ manager describe what type of stock for sale and most will advertise a sale now on Facebook and tik tok etc, if you’re fed up of cows best to sell with calf at foot and no messing weaning and trying to finish cows, have a neighbour looking for 10 incalf cows or heifers for the last 6 weeks and has only picked up two so far due to his bull being lame and empty cows which he sold in January at good money,
Plus1…remember the hard work is done now.
Decide what you intend doing instead as @50HX posted. If you take to the mart be prepared to bring them home. In a way you have the hard part done the calves are born. Let's the cows do the work rear the calves. If the dealer's buy them.they will split them and finish or slaughter the cows.
If you wean the calves in late June you will.finish those cows by year end.
This has been a woeful 10 months (since Mid June) which hopefully we’ll not experience for another decade (2012 & spring 2013 was tough too). Or maybe next year will be as bad, we don’t know. Try your best
@Stationmaster I would say after this winter a lot of farmers would be assessing their current position to see if there is an easier way. Livestock farmers feeding animals in a shed for 6 months isn't appealing. Tillage farmers not being able to plant crops is a serious problem for them.
I like what I do, I make a few euro out of it as a supplement to my full work. But I have but in more work this year on my farm just to stand still than I have over the previous 5 years since I took over the farm. I normally calf my cows end of March start of April in a wee padock that gets well ploughed. This padock is a disaster this year. Its like a duck pond, so I have moved to a dryer field. It's working but it's a bit further from the yard for check them or if something goes wrong. So now do I calf my cows later in 2025 (not ideal as weanling would be small for the shed in November) or do I build a shed to hold 20 freshly calved cows. That's a big investment that would be hard to justify. Will probably just try to do as normal over the next 12 months and see what happens.
2k plus for anything reasonable and 3k if you’ve something fancy with power. Good sucklers aren’t there at the moment and it’s not too promising looking going forward.
Don't jump without a plan.
What age are the calves
Will you have to replace with alternative stock if so may not make much sense selling the lot.
After weaning I fattened the cows & factory
I now have their off spring to finish off of grass nxt year
How many cows are you selling? Good quality Sucklers with calves at foot for sale are scarce. If you sell them in ones and twos they’ll be bought by the miserable cow dealers who won’t give too much for them. Selling them all the same day might be better and advertising them on done deal also might get get more farmer interest. I’d be thinking €2K plus.
Getting out of cows - had a horrendous winter and I'm done. What would nice chx cows with new calves at foot out of a pure bred ch be expected to make at the moment? Thinkng of selling them in ones and twos over the next few weeks if price was decent.
I had two and that was three too many. They get pushed too far in the marts. Having said that I saw a few BH calves off Fleckveigh cows last week ( along with HE and AA) all AI sired and I ve happy with them, however the AA were the pick of them, the BH were a bit too fleshy as calves.
The farmer however pointed out the BG were the quickest calf to get up and suck.
The Belted Galloway are lovely looking cattle. I walk through them up around the Burren.
Ear to the ground is probably reading this now with their ears pricked.
If the wagyus were advertised a bit more than the two days previous on fb. I'd say there would have been more interest from private buyers to finish for their own tables.
Ya I see a few blow ins at the mart in skibb. I think they probably tried a bit of livestock farming. They had an imported Galloway bull. The buyers around the ring would not be long teaching, the economics of beef farming.
Noticed an add for Wagyu cows and heifers for sale in Carnew today after the event.
Had a look at the catalogue. WAX 2 year old heifers selling for less than a FR equivalent factory heifer. Feb 22 heifer 410 kgs, 920 euro.
There's no price premium at the mart sales for eating quality.
The seller hadn't a local name either. I'd say he got some shock in the economics of mart selling.
Not too many singles going threw that mart……
Just a sample of USA stores mart prices.😎
From Can It Get Any Higher?? - YouTube
Approx 12 mins in, poorish Angus males.
834 pounds $2560 = 3.1 $/pound
378kgs and €2,340 = 6.19€/Kg
Are my calculations right?
Yes sell then now off the cows. If they are good quality the likes of them could make anything up to €4 / kg as they are a flying trade. They aren't going to make anyone in 6 weeks. Maybe check to see if you need to weight them & the cows before you sell them for any of the suckler schemes.
I wouldn’t be letting them out for six weeks, just sell them in a week or two off the cows, don’t think you’ll gain anything by keeping them any longer, calves like them are flying in the marts at the moment are they not.
