Advice on Diet Feeders

freedominacup

bob charles wrote: »

way to go:rolleyes:

Fair enough. TBH what I know about buying finishing cattle/beef cattle in general could be written in big letters on the back of a small stamp.

moy83

freedominacup wrote: »

Fair enough. TBH what I know about buying finishing cattle/beef cattle in general could be written in big letters on the back of a small stamp.

Id say if you went that route , the margin would totally be squeezed more than it already is . Is this the way McDonald's work in America ?

bob charles

moy83 wrote: »

Id say if you went that route , the margin would totally be squeezed more than it already is . Is this the way McDonald's work in America ?

well if offers allot of positives for both sides. You can own the land and make your margin out feeding the cattle without having the risk that the cattle lose money/die/ and god knows what else. For the finisher it offers a fixed price finishing cost. Grain would be supplied by the finisher which could be up to 50% of the diet and the rest by the farmer.

Sharpshooter82

freedominacup wrote: »

Wouldn't you be better off at it to some degree? Someone elses cattle, someone elses risk. Your yards, your feed, X price per day for feed, labour, facilities and expertise plus a margin? Maybe not all the time and certainly not all the stock in the place but.....

FIL does that over the winter

6480

reilig wrote: »

Without giving too much information, my business partner has access to a number of by products for free from his business within 5km of the cattle yard. It's a no brainer really. Our side of the bargain is to provide the sheds, the silage, the meal and the land for slurry spreading.

is all the by products safe and will there be a treat to the food chain later , know of a waste recyling place with farming roots that started something like what you are talking and it all ended nasty and the shiny new tub diet feeder now for sale

reilig

6480 wrote: »

, know of a waste recyling place with farming roots that started something like what you are talking and it all ended nasty and the shiny new tub diet feeder now for sale

That's a very general assumption to make - especially when I didn't give details of what I am doing - other than buying a feeder

Rest assured that it's a byproduct that we will be feeding, fully legal, licensed and traceable - feeding waste is another matter!

andrew_ob

Thanks everyone for all the replies, lot of information there!

In terms of the investment in it, we currently have a tractor that we bought to have a loader, worth around €26,000, that is completely paid off. The idea would be sell that, buy a second hand tractor for around the €6000 mark to drive diet feeder, have been looking at tele handlers (as most of our work is loader work) at around the €11-13000, the remaining then on a second hand diet feeder (with possible extra investment), and also then putting up a meal bin. So all in all cash investment would hopefully be less then €6000. we would be buying cheaper meal then what we are currently.

We also have the current problem of not all cattle fitting at the barrier so strongest get majority of the meal. Silage wise this is not a problem as they are fed daily and are never short, so there is always plenty in front of them.

Zr105

andrew_ob wrote: »

Thanks everyone for all the replies, lot of information there!

In terms of the investment in it, we currently have a tractor that we bought to have a loader, worth around €26,000, that is completely paid off. The idea would be sell that, buy a second hand tractor for around the €6000 mark to drive diet feeder, have been looking at tele handlers (as most of our work is loader work) at around the €11-13000, the remaining then on a second hand diet feeder (with possible extra investment), and also then putting up a meal bin. So all in all cash investment would hopefully be less then €6000. we would be buying cheaper meal then what we are currently.

We also have the current problem of not all cattle fitting at the barrier so strongest get majority of the meal. Silage wise this is not a problem as they are fed daily and are never short, so there is always plenty in front of them.

If my maths is right your talkin about putting 7k +cash to the feeder which should get you a reasonably good wagon handy enough, but the thing id say is dont put to much to the feeder and add a bit more to the loader budget, by the sounds of it you'd be relying on the loader a fair bit all year round wereas the feeder is a few months of the year!
If the feeder works out you can change it up after a year or 2 handy enough, but loaders around the 11-13k mark are well worked at this stage unfortunatly, or atleast any I've seen around that money have been anyways...

freedominacup

Zr105 wrote: »

If my maths is right your talkin about putting 7k +cash to the feeder which should get you a reasonably good wagon handy enough, but the thing id say is dont put to much to the feeder and add a bit more to the loader budget, by the sounds of it you'd be relying on the loader a fair bit all year round wereas the feeder is a few months of the year!
If the feeder works out you can change it up after a year or 2 handy enough, but loaders around the 11-13k mark are well worked at this stage unfortunatly, or atleast any I've seen around that money have been anyways...

At that money be very careful. A transmission re-build for a JCB teleporter could set you back up to €9,000. It's the biggest thing likely to be/go wrong but very common.

Zr105

freedominacup wrote: »

At that money be very careful. A transmission re-build for a JCB teleporter could set you back up to €9,000. It's the biggest thing likely to be/go wrong but very common.

Thats exactly why i was saying to put more money i the loader and less to the diet feeder!

visatorro

System I have here is fairly simple. Have a second hand Keenan 140 and one hundred hp tractor. Half fill with pit silage and meal and small bit of straw. Connect her up and away she goes. Starts no problem. It's not ideal but if your tractor is fairly tidy then it's a shame to get rid. You could do this for a while anyway til you get more funds together, prob of no use to you!

grizzlyadams

Reading this thread and was thinking would it be possible to get a feeder on hire for a couple of months with an option to buy or do any dealers offer this ?

visatorro

Conor were doin something like that. I think it was working out 4500 to rent for a winter. Thought it was dear

Hugh 2

I think that this could be an interesting development