Beef price tracker 2

Bass you know absolutely nothing of the cost of milk production.......doubly do seen as your still trying to claim your right. Nobody was capable of producing milk at those figures at that time. ........stick to what you know 😏 😉

Sorry Woozie but that may be true for SOME dairy farmers. I have a 72 cow herd here and sold 57 calves last year. They amounted to near €15000, so I certainly care about calves and the type that they are. Most dairy farmers around me are the same as at the scale I'm at that is not an insignificant amount of money on my farm.

I have 2 Limousin stock bulls. One is a ewdenvale ivor son from a queenshead altea dam. The other is an eby son from an altea dam. Both dams are twin sisters.

I have a small few sucklers left and have four pedigree limo cows among them so I breed my own stock bulls. I do concentrate on ease of calving and gestation length, but not at the complete detriment of quality.

It's not rocket science exactly to see where some dairy farmers costs went North. Interest on 200k borrowed on a 120 cow herd milking 4.5kL average is 2.2c/L. 200k on capital spending above average depreciated over 8 years is over 4.5c/L. 30 acres rented at 350/ acre is nearly 2c/ L well 1.95c/L near enough. Labour costs of 10k/ year is 2c/L. Cull cows at 500/ head and seel.calves at sub a 100/ head average subtracts from the average as well. And there is a sh!tload of others I could add as well

A substantial numbers expanded too fast and too far and left themselves open to continuous capital investment with uncovered cubicles, no calf rearing facilities, as well as the requirement to upgrade milking parlour from a 10-12 unit to a 20+ unit to reduce workload. After that you have heifer rearing costs, culling rates, too large empty rates. Trying to correct work life balance with a 120 cow herd course be 3-5c/ litre higher than an 80 cow herd.

Then work the tax side where as milk price rises the profit can increase substantially because costs are so high causing a serious tax issue. However the profit was 12+ months before the tax is due and cash flow may be used for other purposes. A poor milk price year before the tax is due can cause issues.

As you well know from sucklers, beef in general is a low tight margin game. Quality is immaterial to an extent, it's all about the price they come it at and at what price they exit at and what happens in between

Bought 5 Frx heifers 220kg in/ mid/late September @220 euro no fees. They have EBI's of 200+. Weighted them over Christmas they are exactly 280 average now, 264kgs, 274, 279, 290 and 294 kgs. They got about half a kg at grass as I was feeling generous and are on silage and 3/4 of a kg. Admittedly they got the best autumn in 10+years.

At the suckler end of need though quality is far from immaterial. In that game the cow producing a poor one eats as much a s the one producing a cracker.

Kepak killed on Monday and Tuesday and killing tomorrow and Friday and are getting enough cattle to work away.

Factories always killed over Christmas, well the local ones anyway. Usually they only stopped the three bank holidays and Christmas eve. Because of the three non killing days they usually forced fairly easy for the week after Christmas.

Only time I think that ever happened was for a couple of Saturdays after the last strike.

Do the NSAI not calibrate and test the grading machines? If not, why not?

They normal don’t kill on New Year’s Eve but did this week, and have the supply of cattle.

Kepak athleague killed the last 6 Saturday's

100%. The target of any suckler farmer should be to produce the highest quality possible - that’s what pays for the upkeep of the cow and ultimately makes sucklers sustainable.

My target (albeit very ambitious) is to get every animal to u grade 500kg DW without excessive meal. Would average around 460-470 with a 60/40 split of R/U grades

my meal cost is circa less than €100 per head (1 kg per day over 4 month first winter and 3kg a day in 6 week finishing period on grass. Cow gets 1kg a day in 3 week period before going back to the bull each year. Calving is condensed to 7 weeks each year. Admittedly only have 20 sucklers so easier to manage smaller numbers and I’m on good grazing land and my farm is in one full block.

@Dunedin that's what I am aiming for too. Bring everything to finish at the best weights and grades possible. With synchronising the cows now for AI , I am able to calf all in about 6 weeks, end of March to beginning of May. Good LM bulls used usually (Odd AA on heifers). It is working & I am see the results. You need weight to get paid, an extra 50kgs dw is near €300, then the grades are the cream that gives the extra little bonus.

yep, weight is key and once you don’t drop pass R grade, everything else is the bonus.

For as long as lads keep giving cattle on the grid you are always providing the factories with their cheapest meat they can up your base price 5 cent and just provide you with not favourable grades