dairy people - suck calf availability

lakill Farm

Ok this query is toward the dairy men and women of the country.:D .

I hope the mods dont take this out of context.

What do you do with your surplus calves that you dont rear for beef or replacements?

Sell private or in the mart? Which marts are the best for calf sales and on what day?

All my local dairy lads keep all the calves for replacement/Beef

Why i ask? well as a full time employee and hobby farmer in the midlands its impossible to get time to go to a day sales, and i say 95% of donedeal or Journal ads are either dealers or are single calves and neither suit.

I ideally want to pick up 20/24 calves and rear them to beef myself. I was in carnaross yesterday and prices were down a little but the "dealers" were sticking together like usual. Its not that i dont like the dealers but i was "done" by a dealer. One bitten, twice .

All feed back welcome and appreciated

pakalasa

This is a bit "out of left field" but, do you know any of the lads / lassies driving the milk collection lorries. They'd know who is selling calves direct from the farms. Maybe the AI guys too. You could build up a good relationship with certain farmers then. They'd be glad to sell to good customers too. People that pay on the spot.

lakill Farm

Great idea pakalasa. It was left of field but you might have scored a goal . I never thought of either of those and both have the know and ongoing farmer relations.


UOTE=pakalasa;75980982]This is a bit "out of left field" but, do you know any of the lads / lassies driving the milk collection lorries. They'd know who is selling calves direct from the farms. Maybe the AI guys too. You could build up a good relationship with certain farmers then. They'd be glad to sell to good customers too. People that pay on the spot.[/QUOTE]

easymoney!

i bought friesian bulls in carnaross last week 1 month old 130 , 140 and 150 euros ! what you looking for or is there a certain price you will only give? the dealers shouldnt be able to take you out to easy because theres not that many up there in the calf ring

lakill Farm

I was looking for angusx, herfordx Simx or (BBX, CHarx, Limx (i know these are a bit extra)) type heifer calves. Price well max €250
for AAX / HERX.

There was only a few of same there and farmers were very slow to sell calves in the ring.

easymoney! wrote: »

i bought friesian bulls in carnaross last week 1 month old 130 , 140 and 150 euros ! what you looking for or is there a certain price you will only give? the dealers shouldnt be able to take you out to easy because theres not that many up there in the calf ring

jay gatsby

The price for sucks will be out of kilter this Spring no matter what is happening in the beef trade. The Superlevy will see to that

HillFarmer

But when is the current qiuota year finishing March?

If this is the case dairy farmers wont need calves after this date

charityboy

we could be looking at a large amount of calves hitting the marts in early april as lads/lassies over quota will have them well reared and will be trying to send as much milk to the coops to get milk cheques coming in again and there are also a fair few more dairy animals calving down next year ,they wont be as cheap as this year but i wouldnt panic as numbers should have a lot to do with price ,and i could also be totally off the mark and they could be through the roof ,time will tell

jd06

dont know much about the superlevi, will spring calves be cheaper or dearer

djmc

jd06 wrote: »

dont know much about the superlevi, will spring calves be cheaper or dearer

Dearer at least until 1st of april the new milk quota year

stanflt

if carnaross is open on monday prices should be way down as the last boats were going this week before the christmas break-dealer took all mine on friday even some that were the bare 14days;)

lakill Farm

Carnaross was open yesterday and prices were strong
Its not open again till monday 9th Jan 2012 for calf sales

Its so hard to build a good relationship with a farmer that sells calves ex yard. They are such a higher quality product and in my 2 years of calves i know my choice is

No1 - direct off a farmer ex farm
No2 - through a mart
No3 - off a dealer

And thats based on health of calves number and also price

stanflt

lakill Farm wrote: »

Carnaross was open yesterday and prices were strong
Its not open again till monday 9th Jan 2012 for calf sales

Its so hard to build a good relationship with a farmer that sells calves ex yard. They are such a higher quality product and in my 2 years of calves i know my choice is

No1 - direct off a farmer ex farm
No2 - through a mart
No3 - off a dealer

And thats based on health of calves number and also price

what kin of money were they making

lakill Farm

I saw 3 week old aax bull calf not selling for 350e, freisan bulls of same age selling from 155 - 240e. A great charx heifer calf made 480e

stanflt wrote: »

what kin of money were they making

1chippy

(480) mental money for a calf. cant see where a return can be in that. A few more quid and youd pick up a decent late calf in oct/ nov that would have been suckled and a lot of the bigger risks associated with calves finished with.
If all the costs are REALLY accumulated it would have to be an exceptional set up that would pull in any sort of decent profit. It takes an exceptional stock man also to pick say twenty good animals at a couple of weeks old that are going to thrive on milk replacer and crunch. especially friesan.

redzerologhlen

lakill Farm wrote: »

I saw 3 week old aax bull calf not selling for 350e, freisan bulls of same age selling from 155 - 240e. A great charx heifer calf made 480e

There wasnt many in ennis yesterday but even the worst friesan bulls all made over 200. Seen a black lim bull no more than 2 weeks old make 420 and there was plenty of friesan in him too:eek:

whelan1

i have a lovely 10 day old br/fr bull if anyone wants to buy it:D

lakill Farm

Ill spot you €20 for it, save you the price of a bullet

whelan1 wrote: »

i have a lovely 10 day old br/fr bull if anyone wants to buy it:D

whelan1

not funny in the slightest, am expecting 150 at least for him, smashing calf

lakill Farm

Sorry Whelan , totally uncalled for on my behalf. If you had 10 of them in a batch i would be interested though

whelan1 wrote: »

not funny in the slightest, am expecting 150 at least for him, smashing calf

bozd

saw this thread and was wondering where the best place to get advice from.

I have a small holding, max cattle anytime was 9. Last year I didnt have any cattle as our house cows of 10 years were 'retired' and I wanted a break from the winter feeding - 2 winters gone I am looking at restocking:eek:, prices are shocking.

anyway i have always got cows from my neighbour, brilliant herd so last year he said he would sell me 7 calves in february - circa 1 month old - what i was looking for is information on how to raise them - how long do you give them 'powdered'(?) milk, nuts?, drinking bucket?anything extra - are there any good places to go for information?

we always had the 3 cows, all this the cows did - now we start from scratch - so any tips?

thanks