Calf to beef thread

Got the first of the soya bean last week. Came in at 460/ton collected loose in a JFC tub

Would there be a better grade and carcass weight from the aubracs over the Angus?

@limo_100 Weigh better and move up the grid a approx 2 notches. Will take a bit longer to finish than Angus. KO% would be about 2-3% better than AA.

Lead is the way to describe them on the hook. Again you can get a bad one or 2 in the batch, but less so than AA. They are most used on cows, compared the AA on a mix of heifers and cows. A real underrated breed that ticks a lot of boxes for the person calving them and finishing them.

Best way is to dip the foot in and try a small few, you won't be disappointed

A bit of both. Just have one meal bin in action. The other one is out of the way and just adds too much work hauling different ration.

On approx 1.5kg/hd/day. The soya does help as it brings the protein for a 15% ration up over 19% without real extra cost or hassle. It helps a lot as you are growing frame, to hang beef off of. I would consider 2.5-3kg very strong feeding for weanlings. Are you going to pull it back in Jan and cut it out for Feb with a turnout at the end of Feb.

Calf to beef is a costly game and it's all about controlling and cutting costs without affecting margin. Have a target time for slaughter set for the bunch and you have a goalpost to aim for. Have a backup plan for the ones that don't do the gain due to genetics, we all get a few of those. I split the stores for some to the be finished out of the shed on the spring and the rest go to grass with slaughter dates from mid May to August for these.

Watch the bit in the middle. You control your input costs, you have no control over what Larry is giving. I feel the factories will have a plan next year especially the back end to be not caught with their pants down on supply. Filling feedlots from the the end of July

Yeah that's the plan to ease it back would be hoping to get them out in march 320-340kg they where 250kg 2weeks ago. They are on 73% dmd silage and no waste filed the shed today after 7bales put in there was barely a grape full of waste. Yeah I have a date hope to get them away by next xmas all going well but you are probably correct things may not be as rosy next year

Easier finished than a lim or ch and miles quicker than a blues. About 20-30 days longer than the traditional breeds. On stature they are lower than others but remember you are not paid for the length of leg, it's the amount of beef you can hang off that carcase. Have you tried them. Have both suckler and dairy bred one hung up for the past few years. If you can pick up suckler bred ones for reasonable money you are in for a treat

Average was about 242kg about 2 weeks ago and I would be happy to have the majority in the 280-300kg bracket in mid Feb. Meal will be pulled in early Feb and grass at the first availability opportunity, if they have to come back in so be it

Whats the minimum age to sell calves in Ireland? I used the search box and all I got was Ukraine, transgender, green agendas etc,.

Always reared calves to 12 months here but decided not to keep calves anymore.

That’s fair going, what did the bullocks average live weight gain since you last weighed them?

Ya, was about to say

@GC4 Calves must be at least 10 day old before they can be sold in a mart (there are exemptions for farm to farm) and under 6 weeks (42 day) of age or they need to be TB tested. Best age to attract buyers is around a month. Lads don't want calves that are too young.

Obviously you must have a clear BVD result for any calf before it can be sold.

i thought it went well, that guy was a minefield of info, i def picked up a few things that i didn't know yesterday. what did you make of it yourself?

I would agree with you on the red clover, lot of work involved for marginal gain, hearing that it died off in moorepark didn't bode well. The scenario with the guy with a hundred calves having to build another slatted shed and under constant pressure to sell at u24 months is typical teagasc mantra, I wanted to suggest go back to 80 calves, forget about building that shed and put the repayments in shares and don't be under pressure.

Good advice on the automatic milk feeder, I was tempted to go with one but it's only used for 3 months. They buy all their calves before March. The guy was very easy to listen to and extremely knowledgeable so well worth it imo