Price of suckler cows!

marko3

With the depressed market at the moment, i am just wondering how much would now be realised for a top quality continental (around 3/4 bred lim/ch/sim/bb) with a good frame spring calving suckler cow would now make! Its just that there seems to be very little demand for them!

reilig

Give us her weight, age and number of calves.

marko3 wrote: »

With the depressed market at the moment, i am just wondering how much would now be realised for a top quality continental (around 3/4 bred lim/ch/sim/bb) with a good frame spring calving suckler cow would now make! Its just that there seems to be very little demand for them!

marko3

well i am not selling, im actually looking to buy at the moment, probably the ideal would be a 2nd to 3rd calver next feb therefore a 04/05 cow probably weighing at least 600kgs.

thetangler

Hi
Dont know about cows but there is a sale 26th October (bank holiday monday) in ballymote mart there is 70 Simmental x in calf heifers on offer.
This sale usually has top quality cattle.

wiggy123

farmers looks to have plenty of suckler cows for sale,calving now+ springtime!
so plenty about...

Say first clavers-gd contentinals, incalf to top bulls--be making from €1200-1500 easily!
maybe older cows from €600-€1200

havn't been to a sale in recently,but i think theres alot of sucklers for sale out there!

adne

thetangler wrote: »

Hi
Dont know about cows but there is a sale 26th October (bank holiday monday) in ballymote mart there is 70 Simmental x in calf heifers on offer.
This sale usually has top quality cattle.

Is it just Simmential X at this sale????

thetangler

Hi
Yes all Simmental x Heifers.
Rang Tom Jordan (Mart manager) to get the numbers.

IN CALF HEIFERS 65 (All in calf to simmental bulls)
MAIDEN 96
Weanlings 77

Sale starts at 11pm sharp.

All cattle are from Simmental breeders in the western counties.

pakalasa

I've seen sales reports and photos of this sale before in the Simmental society brochure. The quality does look to be very good.

What are peoples views on paying big money for nice looking in-calf heifers?

From my experience, it often the plainer cows that produce the best weanlings. I bought plain in calf heifers for cheap money (around 600 Euro) 3 years ago. These have turned out to be my best cows. You can't judge milk and fertility by appearance.;)

reilig

pakalasa wrote: »

I've seen sales reports and photos of this sale before in the Simmental society brochure. The quality does look to be very good.

What are peoples views on paying big money for nice looking in-calf heifers?

From my experience, it often the plainer cows that produce the best weanlings. I bought plain in calf heifers for cheap money (around 600 Euro) 3 years ago. These have turned out to be my best cows. You can't judge milk and fertility by appearance.;)

I disagree. If you want your weinlings in the top 80% of prices (€1000 weinling), then you have to pay in the top 80% of prices for the heifer and breed with a good bull. This is the general rule, there are some exceptions to it, but not many. Plain cows will have plain calves. Cows with lots of milk will feed their calves well, but the calves will have lighter bone structures and be harder finished when they come off the cow. Most buyers will spot a calf that has come off a cow with a lot of milk as opposed to a calf that is broad because of his breeding. The best compromise is to try to breed a milk line into your continental herd - this can take several years.

Rujib1

pakalasa wrote: »

I've seen sales reports and photos of this sale before in the Simmental society brochure. The quality does look to be very good.

What are peoples views on paying big money for nice looking in-calf heifers?

From my experience, it often the plainer cows that produce the best weanlings. I bought plain in calf heifers for cheap money (around 600 Euro) 3 years ago. These have turned out to be my best cows. You can't judge milk and fertility by appearance.;)

Yes. This is my experience also. 3 years ago bought 4 in calf heifers. 2 powerfull animals at €1450. 1 fairly good looking but small bit light boned at €1200 and 1 small handy black limmy, but fell at €900.
The €900 cow has 3 years in a row been my best weanling and the other one at €1200 jus behind her.
I have one old charolais cow, which looks a bag of bones and always has since she was a first calfer. Gives me a topping calf every year.
Have decided never, ever again to buy in a springer or a cow. It's a lottery.

Have 6 of my own heifers in calf this year, kept from 6 best breeding cows. It so happens I had almost all heifer calf 2 years ago.
This year I am culling the 4 poorest breeding cows. Do this year on year for a good few years should leave a fella with good breeding stock, regardless of individual appearance.

R

pakalasa

I went to an open day a few years back to a guy in Tuam who was hitting 1400 euro for BB weanlings. The quality was amazing.
This guy was buying heifer calves and hand rearing them. He was continously culling the poorer cows which meant that he ended up with big frames of cows with loads of milk. There was nothing special about these in terms of muscle (plain r's). Most were limousin, some BB crosses out of British Friesan types. When you saw what he was producing with only a few c-sections....I don't think anyone could do better.

reilig

pakalasa wrote: »

I went to an open day a few years back to a guy in Tuam who was hitting 1400 euro for BB weanlings. The quality was amazing.
This guy was buying heifer calves and hand rearing them. He was continously culling the poorer cows which meant that he ended up with big frames of cows with loads of milk. There was nothing special about these in terms of muscle (plain r's). Most were limousin, some BB crosses out of British Friesan types. When you saw what he was producing with only a few c-sections....I don't think anyone could do better.

That's a little bit of a contradiction

The fact that he culled the poorer cows and replaced them meant that he was replacing the plain cows that had plain calves with better cows that would have better calves.

pakalasa

reilig wrote: »

That's a little bit of a contradiction

The fact that he culled the poorer cows and replaced them meant that he was replacing the plain cows that had plain calves with better cows that would have better calves.

The point I was making was that after years of culling the cows that he had weren't much to look at, no fancy muscle. Nice square frames though.

reilig

pakalasa wrote: »

The point I was making was that after years of culling the cows that he had weren't much to look at, no fancy muscle. Nice square frames though.

I agree totally with you. The point I was trying to make was that best cows are those with square frames. Fat cows have poor calves. They put the feeding on their back. I don't consider a fat/Muscley cow to be a fancy cow.

leg wax

i was at carnew sale last night you all might have seen the heifers advertised on the journal and indo, the worst heifer a shorthorn made 1050e up to 1580e for a big fat sim, there were blonde cows with calves at foot and back in calf to bb they made 1200e to 1520e

adne

leg wax wrote: »

i was at carnew sale last night you all might have seen the heifers advertised on the journal and indo, the worst heifer a shorthorn made 1050e up to 1580e for a big fat sim, there were blonde cows with calves at foot and back in calf to bb they made 1200e to 1520e

Nothing depressed about those prices ......

adne

How did the simmential X sale go in Ballymote??

thetangler

adne wrote: »

How did the simmential X sale go in Ballymote??

Hi
Was there for a while Springers made from €1000 to €1860 while I was there the general run being around €1200.
Saw a maiden making €1410 around 500 kgs but in general good maidens could be bought €900 to €1000.
Good Weanlings avg around 300-350 with weight for the few I saw.
Some great cattle on offer.

mossfort

these special suckler sales tend to bring out all the lunatics looking to spend their single farm payment cheque.
if you look around the marts you will happen upon good 3rd 4th calvers for under 1000 thousand euro.
i would try and go for nice black or red limousins with a nice tidy bag.
i found that simmentals can be a bit soft on the feet.

hoochio

Bought two SIM X springers and a BB X two weeks ago.Nice blocks of heifers, 1st time calvers, all in calf to different AI LIM bulls and calving in dec/jan for between 900-950 apiece. Top price of the day was 1150 out of 25 quality springers

leg wax

the problem is one mans quality is a other mans rubbish

pakalasa

Anyone got experience or opinions on the 'simmental cross limousin' suckler cow. I'm going that way with by breeding, trying to get simmental replacements from red limousin cows.