My toys would come out of pram very quickly and I'd not be back for while without getting a multiple of the clipping charge on next cattle.
The red carpet is been rolled out at most plants now for Farmer with 2and3 cattle.
Normally once you get cover on any of that sort of lesser stock it doesn't pay to feed on.
But cows worth 7+/kg now so rules changed.
The rise last week alone was worth more than was made on feeding cattle for full winter many years.
Yeah hard to know without seeing them. It’s unlikely a cow would put on that type of weight. I think with cows it’s a matter of getting a cover of fat on them and getting rid of as soon as they are fit. Yeah I’d give 5kg morning and night.
they have starting to get fleshy in the last few weeks in fairness. Would you think 10kg for 6weeks would put them close to being finished. I know it is hard to tell for you 🤣🤣 but they are starting to get good flesh on the pin bones ribs are very well covered. Back is lifting on them. I would have normally sold them as store cows but wanted to go back finishing cattle so this is my first go at in my time. You would give 5kg morning and evening? Also with that kind of doing they would be gaining 1.5kg a day weight gain would I be about right.
At the moment I would not be afraid to throw plenty of meal to cattle. I’d be giving them 10kg a day until they are finished.
Are many experiencing clipping charges of late. Had one out of the blue.
Me thinks its a ploy to increase margin
@Aly Daly I can totally understand your situation. You are heading to a mart today to buy store cattle at a few hundred more than you got for finished cattle last back end. With a fear that come this back end prices will be where they were last October. Which is possible, but I would say very unlikely.
At the minute no one (even the factories) know what level prices are going to reach, when will we hit the height or what they will level off at. But the 1 thing I would say is prices are in the region of where they need to be to allow beef farmers stay farming. Store prices are a bit strong for where beef is currently and would want to stabilise at this level to allow a profit for the finishers like yourself.
The System is break even at best which I am fine with as I prefer to have my own stock on the place rather than let it out which I have had bad experiences with in the past or let it out for 2 cuts of silage(which would be profitable).The six has fantastic daily gains & kill out,can look a bit gangly & narrow as a tall store so therefore marginally cheaper than fancy cattle,that was then but now I imagine them very expensive relatively maybe I am wrong,I am a so called hobby farmer as they say but without the likes of me there would be no spring rush.If I experience substantial losses this year I will not be getting into cattle until prices return to value.
Why are you considering giving up this system? Why did the six do so well? Very hard to get them now
As perhaps a dying breed of summer grazers I will be attempting to buy bullocks circa 500kg tomorrow in the mart in order to graze the place up to mid October & there is fantastic covers ahead of them,I will be trying to side with the friesans if I can having had fair results with them previously,my highest net profit in the past years has come from a spattering of reasonably scarce to source simmental x however I fear I will be priced out of that market as 2k is the absolute ceiling.Nothing clever about summer grazing forward stores I know & this may be the last year,I have no interest in younger stock what with the tb implications.
Aren’t Bord Bia great with predictions all the same??? 😂
So I should keep them going at 8kg and then ramp them up 2 weeks before selling them?
Pppol
You have to let them 'cook', slow and steady wins the race with a sprint to the finish line.
I checked them cows today they are not finished yet some of the better ones could probably take another 6 weeks feeding to finish them. But there are getting fleshy on the pins bones good cover on the ribs - some are dairy crosses and but I weighted them last week and 2 of the cows are 670kg a black white and a si and have smaller cows back at 550kg bb cows with no size and then some ch in between that so don't have major cows but they are what they are. I think I will feed them on for a extra few weeks and fully finish them. They are getting 8kg a day split feeding and 72% dmd silage dry silage should I up the feed rate on them?
There Is no point in a group of thick people ( farm organisations) try to explain to thick people ( someone that cannot see where resturants charge a supplement for steak that is more than the price of a steak) about what another group of thick people ( resturants owners) are doing. I keep the farm organisations well away from this.
Factories issues Is they are stuck with contract supply issues. Nord Bia got there 2025 supply figures wrong in the middle of last year by 100k+ I think.
Where are we at now. The last projection by BB around Christmas gave a supply figure of 60-80k less than last year. At present slaughter figures of prime cattle are running 20k ahead of last year. That give up on 80-100k cattle less to kill between now and November before next tranche of cattle supply comes along.
Add to that with milk prices strong cows will be scarce in the autumn. Heard a story where one factory killed sub 500kg two year old FR bullocks which were in reality not even forward stores.
It a Rhinoceros it's a matter of staying on board. Try to buy as you sell if not before. The man with cattle and the ability to buy before selling should be fairly OK.
As well finish you cattle as much as possible. 12kgs extra carcasse weight is now 100+ euro. Time to consider feeding 3kgs to finishing cattle on grass for as long as possible during the summer.
A concerted effort by the farm orgs to highlight this and call the restauranteur out is needed. This would be great as people are talking about beef and may move more off the shelves
In the office with work today and at the lunch table people were talking about how the restaurants were talking about pulling steak cos it was so expensive. They couldn't get their head around that fact the price charged by supermarkets/restaurants is multiples that of what the factories are paying for the raw material. The bottom line was it was farmers fault the price of beef was going up and restaurants just have to pivot. I showed this link - https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/en-IE/shop/fresh-food/fresh-meat-and-poultry/fresh-beef/beef-steaks?srsltid=AfmBOor7D5FirwFyV96baggq8_YDtoZ_UinrgcjopPhHJ4Z48FH9CuJZ - and tried explaining that what the farmer gets is ~€8/kg. And if a restaurant who would get maybe 4 steaks out of 1kg of meat can't make a profit selling each one in the region of €30 per portion, then it sure as hell isn't the farmer that's the problem.
It's all supply of cattle and quiet simply the lack of cattle that are out there. It's a worldwide problem with supply. To overcome the blip in the supply that was starting to show the UK killed a large number off forward cattle that would have earmarked for the hook in Q1 and Q2. Then we like many other countries have started this. The only real way this can come to a halt is by the following means.
1 more cattle. Quite simply it nearly 3 years before more heifers and cows calve down have stock on the hook.
2 run away prices on the shelf for Tue consumer driving them away from beef. Still a good bit of time away from this
3 geopolitical events, who knows whats around the corner.
These are strange times and trying to predict the time of the peak is like picking lotto numbers. You need to think different to what most folks are doing. There are still a good number of shed cattle to come out, maybe not the same number as other years. Some lads have decided to feed on cattle that would have been grassed early in June and July. The 7 month men and some of the folks will try the slaughter stock before housing this coming back end.
It’s the factories we are dealing with so anything is possible. I’d say even they don’t know at this stage.
Yea, makes sense, I'll call around a few and see what's on offer.
Just ring the factory procurement lads directly I would not be a fan of ever dealing with agents as most are only cattle dealers or haulage lads and they are only ringing the procurement lads anyway but must get a cut out of your cattle from the factory which in reality your paying for also I know plenty times so called agents have promised prices that farmers never get because the factory were never paying this great price, so be wary of who you deal with
And when they reach their peak will they hold at that do you think?
And if they drop how fast will the drop be?
15 Hereford and angus bullocks just comming fit here at the moment all under 30 months and QA .First offer of €9 flat from an agent and I'll let them off
If anyone has a number for an agent in North Kilkenny can they PM me.
Can hurt to shop around.
Traditionally the end of June would bring a price drop, but this year icould be the exception
Don’t think anyone could predict when the peak will be and there is no point thinking anyone will know. I was talking to a man last week that kills a lot of good continental cattle. He got €7.50 for 20 cattle. Had he waited till this week he’d have got €8. He is roughly €4500 worse off for the sake of a week. I’m in the same boat only for a larger amount of cattle. Will I wait now for €8.50, €9 or more. Or will I wait too long for them to drop.
When would be an optimal time to keep them too, when are prices expected to peek? hold them until early may just before the silage season starts?
Everything is starting at €8, I was talking to an agent that was told bid €8 flat for fresisans and whatever you do don’t leave them behind, and all sort of deals are been done he said
Always pays to feed stock when price is going up.
