Bull beef 2019

johnnyw20 · 19-03-2019 3:07pm #1

What are lads views on bull beef for this year. Have 10 bulls. 5 Hex 3 simx 1 limx and 1 CHX

All 11 month old bulls and just weighted them at 413kg average. Would I be mad to throw them out for a month and get compensating growth and then back in the shed for 120 days ad lib or will I go ahead and castrate

Never done bull beef before so cautious about it and getting them into the factory next August

Muckit · 19-03-2019 3:34pm

Isn't it a lot of extra work? Keep it simple. Once they are squeezed and go to grass they'll put on the weight themselves.

Are u having a problem getting a lad to squeeze or why u thinking of bull beef?

Bass Reeves · 19-03-2019 3:53pm

I imagine that the OP looks at it if he leaves as Bulls they will be finished.in 5 months about mid August before prices fall for the Autumn. If be castarate it will be next Spring before they are finished.
OP if you kill in August will they.be just.over 16 months. Over 16 months can be dodgy to move with processors reducing the prices of such bulls at times. At that stage will they kill 380 kgs as bulls. However they will eat 2 ton of ration costing maybe 550 euro and straw as well.

Next spring will they kill much the same weight as Bullocks getting QA and maybe a good grid price but being around 6-7 months longer.

Panch18 · 19-03-2019 5:22pm

Well if you squeeze them and with any kind of a do during the summer these should average 600 kg by the end of the year.

there should be a savage go for that type of animal then. That's assuming you haven't pumped them with meal during the winter.

Keep your costs down I say

charolais0153 · 19-03-2019 7:45pm

Bit old for sueezing. Should have been done six months ago by right

ZETOR_IS_BETTER · 19-03-2019 7:51pm

Bass Reeves wrote: »

. However they will eat 2 ton of ration costing maybe 550 euro and straw as well.

Over 5 mths or lifetime?

Bass Reeves · 19-03-2019 8:23pm

ZETOR_IS_BETTER wrote: »

Over 5 mths or lifetime?

Over the 120 day finishing period. Maybe not 2 ton but they will eat a lot of it. 120 days averaging 15kgs/day is 1.8ton. You will definately feed about 1.5 ton to a finishing bull

davidk1394 · 19-03-2019 8:28pm

Used finish bulls here. I’m thinking of doing it again since everyone else is getting out. They’ll eat about 1.6 tones or so of feed. Myself personally I prefer bulls over bullocks as you’ve a quicker turn around

Who2 · 19-03-2019 9:03pm

It would be fairly accepted around here that any continental bull that’s on a finishing diet shouldn’t be able to eat any more than 13 kg per day, if he is then you should be looking at the contents of the feed. I m not too well versed in finishing any sort of big number of bulls so can’t really say, but I’ve a few this year at 12 months and they are currently getting around 7kg per day and are spending their time snoring.

leoch · 19-03-2019 9:44pm

Yea i feed a few bulls and would never give them anymore than 10 kgs a day with straw or silage

ZETOR_IS_BETTER · 19-03-2019 10:01pm

leoch wrote: »

Yea i feed a few bulls and would never give them anymore than 10 kgs a day with straw or silage

In the same boat here.

Cavanjack · 19-03-2019 10:13pm

johnnyw20 wrote: »

What are lads views on bull beef for this year. Have 10 bulls. 5 Hex 3 simx 1 limx and 1 CHX

All 11 month old bulls and just weighted them at 413kg average. Would I be mad to throw them out for a month and get compensating growth and then back in the shed for 120 days ad lib or will I go ahead and castrate

Never done bull beef before so cautious about it and getting them into the factory next August

Putting them out for a month won't do much for them. They'll only be getting going after a month. I'd leave them out 3 months then back in to finish. They should be at 550kg when re housing.

grassroot1 · 19-03-2019 11:11pm

Have you a factory willing to take these bulls when you have them fat?
A good few finishers are having trouble getting bulls killed around here.

Muckit · 20-03-2019 7:52am

My point is anytime you have to be going feeding meal it's time. Feeding cattle in a shed is more time. More slurry. More money to feed merchant and contractors.

And btw lads in case you didn't get the memo, beef is f**ked in this country for the next few years. It baffles me why lads like taking the hard rather than the easy road.

Muckit · 20-03-2019 7:53am

grassroot1 wrote: »

Have you a factory willing to take these bulls when you have them fat?
A good few finishers are having trouble getting bulls killed around here.

Sure why the hell would that matter?

_Brian · 20-03-2019 8:03am

Got an impression from earlier posts that lads are playing the odds.

Hoping that if enough stop bull beef that there will be an opening for their finished bulls.

It’s a gamble, “he who dares wins” as Del Boy says. Or they go broke, that’s another very real option.

johnnyw20 · 20-03-2019 10:22am

Sorry only getting around to reply now. Some very good responses there thanks lads

They got 2kg of meal up to the first week in January and only good silage since. I suppose the main reason I’m looking at bull beef is because of the time they will spend on my farm and not having to carry them into the autumn

I bought extra calves this year so need the grazing at the back end. I suppose like everyone else I’m hoping that the trade picks up by the time they face the hook and that brexit and all that will be clearer by then

I’m going to ring a couple of factory’s today that are near enough to me and see what the chances are of them taking bulls in August and will they be willing to take overage bulls if it comes to that

As for the extra work, I don’t mind throwing the feed into them a few times a day and ive a very good feed mill down the road so can load up the trailer with nuts and keep costs down that way. Plus the extra slurry will be good at building the soil indexes

SuperTortoise · 20-03-2019 9:28pm

You'd want to be ringing around at least 4-5 weeks before they are fit, know of a lad around here that had cattle ready for going end of January, he got them going just in time to make u16 months but he was waiting over a month to get them going.

I've hedged my bets a little this year, sold off the lightest third of them 2 weeks ago at mart, will finish the rest at 14-16 months they are too strong to squeeze now, that is if i can get someone to take them which looks like it could be a serious problem, time will tell.

amacca · 21-03-2019 10:22pm

The IFJ farm in tullamore are at bull beef....what deal do they have with a factory or are they part of a producer group or something?

Bass Reeves · 21-03-2019 11:02pm

amacca wrote: »

The IFJ farm in tullamore are at bull beef....what deal do they have with a factory or are they part of a producer group or something?

They are slaughtering U16 months. Nearly all the project farms that kill bulls do the U16 months bulls. They go on the grid and get the QA.

wrangler · 22-03-2019 7:46am

amacca wrote: »

The IFJ farm in tullamore are at bull beef....what deal do they have with a factory or are they part of a producer group or something?

They're in our lamb group for the sheep so I wouldn't imagine they're getting anything different than ordinary farmers for their cattle

freedominacup · 22-03-2019 9:49am

johnnyw20 wrote: »

Sorry only getting around to reply now. Some very good responses there thanks lads

They got 2kg of meal up to the first week in January and only good silage since. I suppose the main reason I’m looking at bull beef is because of the time they will spend on my farm and not having to carry them into the autumn

I bought extra calves this year so need the grazing at the back end. I suppose like everyone else I’m hoping that the trade picks up by the time they face the hook and that brexit and all that will be clearer by then

I’m going to ring a couple of factory’s today that are near enough to me and see what the chances are of them taking bulls in August and will they be willing to take overage bulls if it comes to that

As for the extra work, I don’t mind throwing the feed into them a few times a day and ive a very good feed mill down the road so can load up the trailer with nuts and keep costs down that way. Plus the extra slurry will be good at building the soil indexes

Dawn grannagh always took bulls from us. The trick is always having them ready when standard systems aren't really sending big numbers.

johnnyw20 · 22-03-2019 11:22am

freedominacup wrote: »

Dawn grannagh always took bulls from us. The trick is always having them ready when standard systems aren't really sending big numbers.

Grannagh is my local factory. It’s only 20 mins away

johnnyw20 · 24-04-2019 8:51am

Just an update on this. Housed the 5 heaviest bulls and have them building up to adlib. The heaviest are 450kg plus. Aiming for a Liveweight slaughter of around 600kg and hope for the best. Have assurance from the factory that they will take them

johnnyw20 · 24-04-2019 8:53am

Here is a photo of them last night

patsy_mccabe · 24-04-2019 10:00am

Have you agreed a price?

Bass Reeves · 24-04-2019 10:58am

If they are only 450kgs LW now you are at nothing finishing them as bulls. more than likely that is fresh weight rather than mart weigh. you will have to feed them for 100-120 days.is the fella at the back a friesian. IMO they will go stale in you before they finish. They look like bucket fed cattle. The nearest looks like a montbelierd. I think you would be crazy to feed them on as bulls. At 600kgs LW they will only kill 300ish DW and you'll not get them to that weight.

johnnyw20 · 24-04-2019 11:29am

Bass Reeves wrote: »

If they are only 450kgs LW now you are at nothing finishing them as bulls. more than likely that is fresh weight rather than mart weigh. you will have to feed them for 100-120 days.is the fella at the back a friesian. IMO they will go stale in you before they finish. They look like bucket fed cattle. The nearest looks like a montbelierd. I think you would be crazy to feed them on as bulls. At 600kgs LW they will only kill 300ish DW and you'll not get them to that weight.

2 are whiteheads, 2 are simmentals and 1 charolais. They are all bucketfed. I bought them this day last year as calves. I was under the impression that factory’s want a 300-320kg carcass nowadays and I’m trying to move on dairybred stock quickly instead of carrying them on for another winter. Maybe I’m completely wrong but I’m going to experiment with it. I normally sell bottle reared stock in August/September at 17/18 months as bullocks at over 500kg but because of the drought last year I ended up selling them cheaply so this year I want to try something new

Bass Reeves · 24-04-2019 12:04pm

johnnyw20 wrote: »

2 are whiteheads, 2 are simmentals and 1 charolais. They are all bucketfed. I bought them this day last year as calves. I was under the impression that factory’s want a 300-320kg carcass nowadays and I’m trying to move on dairybred stock quickly instead of carrying them on for another winter. Maybe I’m completely wrong but I’m going to experiment with it. I normally sell bottle reared stock in August/September at 17/18 months as bullocks at over 500kg but because of the drought last year I ended up selling them cheaply so this year I want to try something new

Fat cover will be you issue as well as timing. By the time these cattle are fit they will be over 16 months. The WH may get tge FC on them the SI and CH will net to go to 65O kgs before they hit FS 2+. These will not be coming fit until late July you may be lucky and there may be a shortage of beef but if there is an ample supply of beef around you will struggle to get them killed.

Processors have a habit of reconfiguring tge grading machine after June to score harder on fat it makes bull like these very hard to get into a suitable FS..

On maths alone killing 300kgs at a price of 3.5/kg (at present they are 20-30c/kg less) the will make 1050 euro/ head. Its up to you but the odds are against what you are doing. It will cost 350-400/ head to get them to 600kgs LW.

blue5000 · 24-04-2019 12:07pm

Bulls should KO closer to 60% than 50%, so 600kg LW will give you a 360 kg CW. But the two sims will need 15kg a day, don't forget there is approx 15% moisture in meal, so if you're giving them 10kg fresh weight of meal they might only be getting 8.5 kg DM.

Are you using straw or silage as roughage?

johnnyw20 · 24-04-2019 12:20pm

They have straw available for roughage and I am offering them a small bit of haylege at the moment just until they are fully up to adlib and then I’ll take the haylege away and leave them on straw only

Bull beef 2019

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