Calf price chitchat

cute geoge wrote: »

Calf prices well back today in Listowel .The hereford are taking a bit of hammering especially the heifers ,Nice reared whitehead heifers 8/10 weeks old easy bought for E240 ,the aa doing a small bit better .What cost would the milk be to bring them to this stage at 35cent/litre

160 euro, prob a but with it on milk alone, meal straw etc extra

trg wrote: »

Plenty of rain coming but soft enough temperature-wise I think.

Haven't gotten calves out yet but it's time now, would it be madness to let them out in rain? Bringing them back in at night would be no major hassle

Growth still very poor. Because ground temperature is still below 12C and daytime temp are low as well I cannot see any great burst of growth in next 5-7days

4ever wrote: »

Some awful scenes in a Munster mart in recent days. Don't want to mention the mart but they should have turned them away. Unbelievably poor Fr and Jex calves up on 3 months old went through the ring. 2 of them couldn't stand. Heard later that two died before they got to the ring. About 24 in total. If the wrong people saw this it would create a very bad vibe.

What county was the seller from.

HillFarmer wrote: »

If the wrong people saw it?

That should called out by everyone, we all have responsibility to our animals to make sure they are treated right.

IF they were that bad, department should be called and he or she should be reported ASAP

They wont though ,mart manager has alot to answer for too

trg wrote: »

Plenty of rain coming but soft enough temperature-wise I think.

Haven't gotten calves out yet but it's time now, would it be madness to let them out in rain? Bringing them back in at night would be no major hassle

I’d say you should be on to let them out, it’s surprising how hardy the are once they get used to it after a day or two.

One thing I do when letting them out first, which probably goes against all the expert advice but I find works for me, I’d always let them onto a bit of stronger stemmy grass for the first week or so. I think it gives them a chance to get used to a grass diet without having lush green grass being blown back out through them.

Re the calf story unless its a different calf story .the lad who bought the calf forgot it. The lads working in the mart were fooling around for the week with it. The following week the local dept man went ballistic when he saw the calf. Yer man who bought the calf was from a different counry.

Now what business had yer man buying the calf, why could the mart not make a better effort to feed him or find another home,its not as if he was the only calf they were stuck with that day.

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Really?
If it was bought on-line, it's not like the mart didn't know who the buyer was.
He/she would have had to register to bid, and they would have the herd number, name, address, mobile, email, everything needed to contact them.

There seems to be parts missing to the story. It just makes f all sense. If that particular depth vet went mad it must have been bad.

whelan2 wrote: »

Surely no one working in the mart goes home and leaves an animal in the mart without knowing there's someone coming to collect it. Bad enough for it to be left a day bit a week is crazy

Not good enough at all.

straight wrote: »

Some fair numb skulls working in marts to be fair.

Ah Jesus, what about poor old Albert

DukeCaboom wrote: »

Ah Jesus, what about poor old Albert

I'm sure he could confirm. Bet he could tell a tale or two.

whelan2 wrote: »

Surely no one working in the mart goes home and leaves an animal in the mart without knowing there's someone coming to collect it. Bad enough for it to be left a day bit a week is crazy

You would think that but it’s a regular occurrence in the mart across from here. The worst was cattle still there on a Thursday after a Monday sale. That was an exception but it’s not uncommon for cattle to be collected on a Wednesday morning after the Monday sale. That happens once or twice a month.

I wrote about it here a few weeks back and it took a few phone calls to the manager on the Tuesday to get the cattle out of there before Wednesday. They would have water but no food.

DBK1 wrote: »

I’d say you should be on to let them out, it’s surprising how hardy the are once they get used to it after a day or two.

One thing I do when letting them out first, which probably goes against all the expert advice but I find works for me, I’d always let them onto a bit of stronger stemmy grass for the first week or so. I think it gives them a chance to get used to a grass diet without having lush green grass being blown back out through them.

You're spot on about the "strong" grass, the trick's not to make them eat it down.

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Anyone buying calf nuts in bulk at the moment?

I checked an 18% nut with two different sellers today. One was €365 (collected from their yard in my own bin) and the other was €385 (delivered to my yard in small bags). The ingredients are approx the same in both with the €385 being slightly better. I'm in the south-east of the country.

Are they roughly the ball-park figures others are being quoted too?

At that price I would not be feeding nuts to calves. If you have grass I would alot them blocks of grass to graze in 2-3 days. If I had to supplement I would feed a standard beef but 14%P.. as long as calves are 12*14 weeks they would be ok.

Castlekeeper wrote: »

You're spot on about the "strong" grass, the trick's not to make them eat it down.

Why not let them eat it down

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Thanks for that. I’m glad it’s not just me that thinks that price is very high.

I think I’ll keep them on 1kg of the 18% nut until they’re all 14 weeks and then cut back to 0.5kg.

I cut nuts out completely for around 6 weeks last year and the youngest ones didn’t really thrive as well as the older ones. I only noticed when I weighed them, and the damage was done.

The stronger animal whether a calf or bullock will goobbe more nuts than the weaker one. You should nearly be separating them as they hit 14-16 weeks and feed the lighter and younger calf for another 3-4 weeks

I see a lads that I pass who has calves in a narrow field earlier in the year when he was bringing them in every night he had the younger calves ahead of the older calves and a second fence ahead of them

Calves up to 5 to 6 months need suitable fibre to develop rumen function.

We began giving access to straw at this stage a few years ago and it has almost completely eliminated sss.

Also important to feed a nut or ration with suitable levels vit b1 to prevent ccn.

lab man wrote: »

Why not let them eat it down

Just leave them on it for a few days to get them used to eating grass without having fresh leafy grass running out through them. Once they get used to the grass then you can let them onto the fresher stuff. You're basically weaning them onto the grass. They won't thrive on the stemmy grass so making them eat it down will stunt their growth. It's just to get them used to it.

DukeCaboom wrote: »

Calves a good trade all day yesterday in bandon. Any fr sort of yoke that ticks all the boxes for shipping 120 or 130.
A neighbour sold fr heifers calves 4 weeks old without a dicky bird of paper following them 345.

4 week old aa 180ish.
Odd bunch of Jan fr calves 240.

What changed since the last few years when they could barely give 20 euro?

DukeCaboom wrote: »

Supply and demand

Ya, so what increased the demand was my question like. Maybe people realised calves are the cheapest way into stock after all.

Base price wrote: »

Supply has decreased. The glut of shipping calves has gone by and from now on FR bull calves will make more than then previously, the same for suitable FRx bull calves.

Calves were a respectable price all spring and the supply was up on last year. My first year of the last 3 getting decent money for beef calves.