cost of beef nuts

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Look at the price of straights in this weeks journal

Barley 200/ton
Maize 220/ton
Rapeseed meal 275/ton
Sunflower meal 230/ton

When I talk about a good basic ration I am talking about a ration with made of a high percentage barley, soya hulls, Maize, rapeseed meal, corn gluten, distillers grain. etc


It should be possible to buy a ration in bags at 270/ton. I know a lad collecting a ration at 260/ton in 20 bag lots from a mill. He goes once ever 3-4 weeks for the winter. I know another farmer that is pricing a pallet delivered (70 bags) for around 270/ton.

And a lot of farmers are idiots where buying ration's and fertilizer is concerned along with other farm inputs.

To store cattle I would have no issue feeding a Barley, soya hulls and sunflower meal if it was coming in at less than 250/ton in bags if I bought a baged ration. I would have a huge issue with paying over 300/ton for Barley beetpulp and rapeseed meal.

Those prices are off the ship.

Do you honestly expect to have straights transported from the port, mixed, rolled etc, bagged, palleted and delivered out for free. The miller has to get his cut too.

Show me a quality ration made from of a high percentage barley, soya hulls, Maize, rapeseed meal, corn gluten, distillers grain. etc
for 7 euro a bag and me and thousands of other farmers will jump at it. You can buy cheap feed with small amounts of these ingredients, but a good quality one - not in this area anyway!

I don't know too many idiot farmers - they've been in this game a long time and if they were idiots they would have gone out of busiiness a long time ago.

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

I bought bagged rations for a good few years, I was able to buy in 2 ton lots 20-30 euro/ton cheaper than the local co-op delivered. I knew a lad that could collect at around the same price in half ton lots. It was a better ration than the local co-op nut.

The biggest issue with farmers is going down to local co-op once a week with the ?50 euro/note in the hand during the winter. If you think this is not happening you are deluding yourself.

I stored ration for years in an old cow box( and I mean old) I had to source it in plastic bags yet I still got a good ration. Farming is always about cost. The average farmer feeding 1/4 ton to weanling/stores over the winter often fails to look at cost. He thinks that it is only a 10/head using a pour-on rather than injecting maybe 5/head. Buying fertilizer by the half ton 5/head. Getting other bit and pieces from local co-op 5-10/head.

At the end of this he could be saving 25+/head on 20 weanlings this is 500 euro. A farmers most important friend is his pocket.

I agree with all of the above. However, buying the lowest price ration available does not usually end up with more money in the farmers pocket in the long term. There are huge variances in animal performance when you compare animals Fed on a cheap ration in comparison to animals Fed on more expensive ones.

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Can see no reason why good quality bag rations cannot be bought for 260/ton

What ingredients would you expect in them for this price? Protein levels fats etc? Would it be for finishing or for weinlings?

Brown Podzol wrote: »

It never ceases to amaze me that a $ a ton on feed in a big feedlot say feeding 100,000 cattle a year in America would lead to a small fortune and maybe the difference between a loss or a profit whereas here farmers are willing to pay top dollar for inferior feed in overpriced 25 kg bags to fatten a few bullocks. No criticism intended to posters here it is just a observation on human nature and the nature of business.

How much would you classify top dollar?
What type of feed would you classify as inferior?

Don't finish cattle here, but feed a good bit of ration - mostly above 16% protein.

mf240 wrote: »

A lot of wisdom in this thread. Economy of scale is what your getting at podzol.

The one thought that crossed my mind was if pudsey and rellig are ever in the que in front of me at the co op I'll be in for a long wait.

I don't buy from the co-op. 3 ton minimum delivery from me direct from the miller. Should save you the wait

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Maybe I didn't word my post properly to get my message across. In theory a euro is more important to the small guy, it's a bigger part of his income. A euro in the small guy's operation I suppose may only amount to a couple of hundred euro at the end of the year and therefore not worth the bother of chasing it, whereas in the big guy's operation a euro could be worth hundreds of thousands of euro and therefore worth chasing, it's a bit like comparing Tesco to a corner shop. A feed lot would have the expertise, facilities and buying power to test and formulate feed to get the cheapest gain whereas the smaller operator has to take what is in the bag, his operation can't afford feed bins, diet feeders etc.

I understand.

However I believe that buying the cheapest of the cheap isn't always the best option (lada, belarus, etc). They will achieve what you want, but may not get you what you could have achieved if you had invested a small bit more.

You'll convince yourself that by buying ration for your cattle, you are doing the best that you can do for them, but you may not be.

Sometimes it pays to pay a few extra euro/dollar per ton to get a feed which will give your animals better growth returns and ultimately greater profits. When feeding weinlings, I calculate that on average every 1 euro of meal that I feed will add at least 2 euro to the sales price. So if I feed 50 euro of meal to a weinling, I would expect to get 100 euro for him than if he had got no meal at all. Similar figures would follow through to finishing cattle. Choosing the cheapest ration to get the highest weight gain is the most important thing. This is why millers have sale for all price ranges of feed and why not every farmer will go for the cheapest option available.

So while careful spending is important, it's important not to penny pinch so much that performance suffers.

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Unlikely to be behind me in the que either. Do not feed as much as Bob however get it delivered in 4-8 ton lots depwnding on time of year.




Protein is important cattle need it to digest contents of rumen. Young Bulls need it even more. Generally feed about a 13.5P ration to finishing cattle unless at grass where barley and soyahulls are sufficient.

Talking to a sheep farmer about 8-10 years ago. He was feeding whole oats to sheep. He said it was ideal in a field as in wet weather you could actually drop it on top of water as it floated and sheep would pick it out. Ask him was he afraid that they would pass a lot of it in the dung

His answer was a nut was 160/ton at the time this was arriving in at 100/ton they could not sh#t that much of it.

It is ver easy to get traped into the conclusion that 2-3 euro/head do not matter but at the end of the year it can add up to thousands even in smallish operations.

For growing animals % protein is important, but the finishing period my question was more aimed at, how low could you drop the % protein and how high of % energy could you included in the diet without causing problems.