Bucket Rearing a few bought in calves

Tora Bora

I was at the mart last week, and couldn't believe the prices being paid for suck calves. Nice charolais X bull calf three weeks old €465:eek:

Anyway, good framed friesian calves off british friesian cows, making €60 to €80!!

Got to wondering, if there would be a few bob to be made by buying say 4 and rearing with milk replacer and concentrates and grassing for the summer??
Sell again next March, or maybe in the autumn of 2013!!

What do ye think?

lakill Farm

Tora Bora wrote: »

I was at the mart last week, and couldn't believe the prices being paid for suck calves. Nice charolais X bull calf three weeks old €465:eek:

Anyway, good framed friesian calves off british friesian cows, making €60 to €80!!

Got to wondering, if there would be a few bob to be made by buying say 4 and rearing with milk replacer and concentrates and grassing for the summer??
Sell again next March, or maybe in the autumn of 2013!!

What do ye think?

buy 8 calves and a 10 teat jfc milk bucket or buy the 4 calves and get a 6 teat version

8 calves will use 1.5bags of 20kg milk replacer per week €36 bag x 1.5 = €54
1 bag of crunch 20kg rising to 3 after 6 weeks per week €10.40 per bag

Factor in a electric kettle per 3 calves for mixing water twice per day

will you make money - Yes if you keep them all alive.:D
apart from that i enjoy it .

bbam

€60-80 for good calves is a bargain for this year.
There is no doubt that at that money you will make some money as said, if they all survive.
Don't have my figures to hand but I think we were spending €260-280 for the first 14-15 months all in.

lakill Farm

[QUOTE=bbam;77629925Don't have my figures to hand but I think we were spending €260-280 for the first 14-15 months all in.[/QUOTE]

Including the calf and land rental?

bbam

No and no.
But I wish it did.

Tora Bora

bbam wrote: »

€60-80 for good calves is a bargain for this year.
There is no doubt that at that money you will make some money as said, if they all survive.
Don't have my figures to hand but I think we were spending €260-280 for the first 14-15 months all in.

Thanks for the info.
What kind of weights are you hitting at 14 months, and are you talking about friesian calves there?

TB

bbam

Tora Bora wrote: »

Thanks for the info.
What kind of weights are you hitting at 14 months, and are you talking about friesian calves there?

TB

No.. Fr don't sell well in our local mart so we don't bother with them..
Weights, last few HEX we sold made somewhere round 360/390 KG

They need time to come into a good looking animal, at 8-9 months they can seem very small..

If you're buying, try and time it so that the weather is good enough to let them straight to grass as soon as they are weaned... It cuts down on their housed time at a vournerable time and cuts down on feed costs too..

I don't know if I'd bother for four calves... For the same time feeding them you could rear 10/15 and then it would be worth your time..

easymoney!

Tora Bora wrote: »

I was at the mart last week, and couldn't believe the prices being paid for suck calves. Nice charolais X bull calf three weeks old €465:eek:

Anyway, good framed friesian calves off british friesian cows, making €60 to €80!!

Got to wondering, if there would be a few bob to be made by buying say 4 and rearing with milk replacer and concentrates and grassing for the summer??
Sell again next March, or maybe in the autumn of 2013!!

What do ye think?

what marts this? thats savage value!!

simx

easymoney! wrote: »

what marts this? thats savage value!!

about to ask the same question

PatQfarmer

lakill Farm wrote: »

buy 8 calves and a 10 teat jfc milk bucket or buy the 4 calves and get a 6 teat version

8 calves will use 1.5bags of 20kg milk replacer per week €36 bag x 1.5 = €54
1 bag of crunch 20kg rising to 3 after 6 weeks per week €10.40 per bag

Factor in a electric kettle per 3 calves for mixing water twice per day

will you make money - Yes if you keep them all alive.:D
apart from that i enjoy it .

Glad to see that! Despite the work and worry, I enjoy it too:D

red bull

Saw 3 holstein bullocks 280kg at Tuam mart last week making €680 unsold born April 2011. They were probably bought as calves for less than €100 last spring