Rearing friesian stock bulls.

Pacoa

Just wondering what would be involved. Would they need better feeding than say bull beef? Would there be profit out of them if you had to send them to the factory at 12 or 14 months? Kept on slats or straw bed? etc.

wiggy123

uncle is doing same this year--with aprn of them...there just gone a year old..
he was told to feed them ad-li...
straw+silage...and as much concentrate feed as possible..should be well fit for killing in about 3 months...

irishh_bob

Pacoa wrote: »

Just wondering what would be involved. Would they need better feeding than say bull beef? Would there be profit out of them if you had to send them to the factory at 12 or 14 months? Kept on slats or straw bed? etc.

im confused , are you talking about bull beef or rearing bulls to sell on as herd sires , your thread title suggests the second one

reilig

Pacoa wrote: »

Just wondering what would be involved. Would they need better feeding than say bull beef? Would there be profit out of them if you had to send them to the factory at 12 or 14 months? Kept on slats or straw bed? etc.

I have a neighbour doing it. He recons that only because he can get the calves for free from his son's dairy farm, it would be loss making. I was up with him yesterday to give him a pull out of hole that he got stuck in with his tractor. He was showing me his set up. He told me that it is impossible to finish freisan bulls for the factory at under 20 months - no matter how much feed they get. He said that feeding too much concentrate under 12 months of age causes the calf to grow up rather than out and after that you would have race horses rather than beef cattle. He keep them in a cubicle house which runs onto a slatted feeding are. It has automatic scrapers.

Personally I wouldn't be a fan of this type of farming.

Pacoa

im confused , are you talking about bull beef or rearing bulls to sell on as herd sires , your thread title suggests the second one

Your correct. It is the second one im more interested in. Rearing breeding bulls.
Thing is you could always get left with some of them unsold so thats why i was asking about the beef side of things. I guess with the new grid system friesians won't pay wheather they're bulls or bullocks. The cousin tells me he's just got a better price by selling them to a dealer who takes them up north.

irishh_bob

Pacoa wrote: »

Your correct. It is the second one im more interested in. Rearing breeding bulls.
Thing is you could always get left with some of them unsold so thats why i was asking about the beef side of things. I guess with the new grid system friesians won't pay wheather they're bulls or bullocks. The cousin tells me he's just got a better price by selling them to a dealer who takes them up north.

you must have an excellent herd of cows if your thinking of rearing bulls to sell as herd sires , the vast majority of black and white bulls born on dairy farms are not fit for use as a stock bull

Pacoa

Yeah they're pretty good I think. We've been 100% Friesian AI for the last 30-40 years and full pedigree status. Just getting sick of giving away well bred bull calves for less that 100 euro nowadays. I have sold the odd one to locals for them to rear themselves and they came back for more so they can't be too bad. It's expensive registering them though. Around 50 euro each and I'd have to rent land as im already overstocked here.
I guess they'd just have to be fed well for 12 months as they'd have to be gaining about 1.5kgs a day (365 * 1.5 = 547.5) and they would want to be 500kgs plus yes??

pakalasa

Pacoa,

Years ago before the Holstein influence, we finished all friesian bullocks. Out of about 30 or so, we would get only one or two O-grades, the rest all R's. As you know they are great cattle to grow, but the conformation does have to be right.
Why not pick the best of them, shape wise and give it a go. If they are left as bulls, then even better.

Pacoa

I guess thats the only way i'll find out, maybe next year if i can get extra land.
I've heard they fight alot cause they're bulls, heard of them breaking legs etc. Is this the case and are there ways of preventing it?

JohnBoy

yeah I've seen that too.

they take a lot of management in a shed. A friend had them a few years back.

wouldnt do it again because of the job of managing them.

He had a series of guy lines strained across the shed, electrified, and then lengths of fence twine hanging down with a washer or nut tied on the end. these were designed to hang around 6 feet from the ground. meant that if they tried to mount another bull they had a chance of getting a shock in the head.

It helped, but they'd sometimes just gang up on a weaker one and puck the sh*t out of it.


angry little fellas. dunno if they're better behaved on grass.

maybe all bulls in a shed are like this