Spring 2020..... 1.5m Dairy calves.... discuss.

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649972#Comment_119649972

the only real way to solve the issue is to reintroduce milk quota's but that not going to happen. prior to the milk quota going there was, No jex, no zero grazers, no contract rearing, no high stocking rates, no problems with male calves, no pollution problem, etc

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649972#Comment_119649972

Not the full solution but part of it …these x bred cows are just too small and don’t produce an ainmal that a calf rearer or beef finisher can turn money on

mince the extreme outlet for calves been discussed is finally shut off what or where will all the little x bred bulls that no one wants go????,the dairy farmer certainly won’t want to have to keep them …..will struggle to find someone to take them for free …imo that farmer needs to look at the bigger picture and more within Tegasc should hold there hands up like pat dillon did

the short sighted one dimensional thinking of advisory bodies and lads going 100 miles an hour expanding loading on cows and worrying about sheds ,Storage etc down the road or taking it for granted they’ll find somewhere to offload there calves has us where we are now and once calf export goes the hole gets deeper

Sheep breeder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649872#Comment_119649872

Anto your must know a cousin of mine, the only difference he is on the milk board and is a ifa advisor to young lads and pays nobody. Has to pay the vet when he comes into the yard due to havIng gone through 3 practices.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649804#Comment_119649804

No pockets in the shroud as they say

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119661158#Comment_119661158

Or trailer behind a hearse

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119661888#Comment_119661888

That's my attitude after buying the boat, my reply usually is that I wont have a drawbar on the next vehicle I need

greenfield21

Are dairy numbers still increasing now,

whelan2

They mustn't be. Glanbia looking for new suppliers with no restrictions on supply

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119662073#Comment_119662073

From the geniuses who brought you the peak management supply scheme and other brain farts.

You'd wonder if a poll on Twitter would come up with better management decisions.

Base price

I didn't get to attend the ploughing championships this year but a local dairy farmer friend that we buy calves from told me that Buitelaar had a stand promoting Irish veal/heifer/bull beef and calf to beef.

(https://buitelaargroup.com/)

As an aside, when you click on the link it unfortunately brings you to a UK website.

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119669034#Comment_119669034

https://buitelaargroup.com/longhorn-scheme

They're running this scheme in Ireland 200 for heifer calves and 250 for bulls at 3 weeks old and minimum 50kgs weight, very little uptake of it according to progressive rep that I bought straws of to participate in it, shows the mentality out their of not wanting to keep calves any longer then necessary and the main sticking point of getting them to 50 kgs in weight

Tonynewholland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119669866#Comment_119669866

Surprised there is little uptake. Nothing wrong with those prices for a 3 week old calf.

Morris Moss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119669866#Comment_119669866

Looking at it here myself, average live weight of 600kg cows would rule out a fair few herds.

Did you contact them or was it through the ai company you applied for it?

Siamsa Sessions

I see bull beef being lauded again by some commentators in recent weeks.

If the figures are as clear as suggested, then would it be an option for the AA bull calves out of x-bred cows?

What is the mature weight of that type of AAx bull? Would it be 500kg at 24 months?

(It wouldn’t be for me. I’m just thinking out loud here)

Anto_Meath

AAx out of Xbred cows tend to be very small with a low carcass and near a P grade animal, so I couldn't see them been any good for bull beef as a heavy carcass weigh seems to be the requirement. Possibly a BB or a CH could be a better option as they had a decent carcass and should be R grade animals.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119679043#Comment_119679043

There is too much of a premium paid for AA versus BB to consider using AA cattle for bull beef

Base price

Just read this article from Agriland. Dairy calve registrations to date are slightly up on 2021 figures which I assume will grow slightly to year end. Suckler calf numbers are continuing to decline as per the trend for the past few years.

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/calf-registrations-203991-extra-dairy-calves-in-5-years/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3-WqvqNofftwAnBhhr38nOEw6I_IMyJGVarpr5mBvAL4_hFnUH13xQLAI#Echobox=1667629210

Green&Red

https://www.farmersjournal.ie/calf-slaughter-to-be-banned-from-2024-733582

This should push sexed semen

White Clover

The powers that be really need to get their heads back up out of the sand. The calf issue will only be sorted by having decent cows bred to decent bulls. Anything else should not be accepted and should be called out at every opportunity.

There has been a lot of damage done to irish farming by some of these know it alls who ironically just try to shoehorn another countries failed methods into our irish farming model.

They can't be left to cause anymore damage.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119856092#Comment_119856092

Sex semen will still struggle. Conception rate is too poor. If 20% of your cows end up calving 3 weeks later in a 100cow herd it 4-5k

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119856092#Comment_119856092

Honestly can’t see sexed semen been any huge advantage ….the nos will still be there …a bad quality x bred male or beef calf is still a poor calf and buyers won’t want them ….same applies to stock of Fr ….we have to produce better quality calves that will kill out better ,weigh better ,convert feed better ….just picking shortest gestation bull possible and running scrub bulls won’t cut it

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119856188#Comment_119856188

But maybe thats something we have to accept.it does seem that if you re more selective in the cows you present for sexed ai you ll get comparible conception.it dosent deal with je x cross problem though which is where the absense of slaughter will really hurt

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119856175#Comment_119856175

Agree ….fairly annoying to see an award winning young farmer early in year publicly claiming calf quality is a non issue …..a real 2 fingers up to calf rearers and beef finishers …we need to listen to them and what they want rather than as dairy farmers wanting our bread butter on every side by just concentrating on our side and expecting the beef man to take our scraps

Tonynewholland

Fair play to the journal. They never put the anti farming articles behind the pay wall.

alps

Purely driven by the coops. This is to protect image of their product.

They will enforce it through the MSA....the first sign of how they apply pressure and authority through the means of the MSA's...

They should never have been accepted. When they start here, they'll continue as needs arise.

Suppliers had the ultimate supply agreement in the shareholder agreement.

This move needs to make an allowance for herds locked up for TB, which make up a huge percentage of the supply to this meat outlet.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119856455#Comment_119856455

The allowance/forcemajoure clause in the case of tb breakdown is there ….I don’t have much issue with the outlawing of it or coops making it part of supply agreement /bird bia etc ….not exactly a great image for the industry to allow it continue and it’s use increase

Anto_Meath

It is going to put additional pressure on an already difficult market, I have been talk to 3 friends of mine in recent weeks that would buy and rear between 60 - 150 calves a year. All would be bringing them on to beef. Between the jump in meal and powder milk prices and the large difference in the return on the carcasses all 3 said they were cutting back on what they are going to rear and not buying any calf born after the 1st March. They say rearing late born poor quality calves just makes them busy fools for poor return. I hope to continue buying my 20 calves at the end of March each year, but we will see how that goes.

Green&Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119856369#Comment_119856369

Well the sexed will get rid of 90% of the cross bull calves. the only calves going for slaughter at 15 days are JEX bull calves. If lads are forced to keep them for 8 weeks then they'll be a lot more likely to just breed off younger stock and just use sexed semen

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119856455#Comment_119856455

This was coming down the line for the last three+ years. But tactically it a brilliant move and it had to be done.

Next spring the EU parliament will change the rules for calf export and for calf movement. Between the two rule changes it makes a dairy farmer responsible for the first eight weeks of a calf rearing.

Anybody that taught it was not going to happen was deluded. They had there head in the sand for the last five years.

I would take my chances with any reared 7-8 week old calf and reckon I could make money out of them. If slaughter at 8 weeks become's an issue it will be moved to 12 weeks. The Co-op's had no choice we have too many high value markets. Just look at Twitter and the way large businesses pulled there advertising when they did not like the picture.

There is I think 100 ISH farmers that are slaughtering the 80% of the calves I think. These lads will be rearing them to 8 weeks. The deparywill police this hard after the last two calf death incidents.

However it also closes the door to calf slaughtering to lads exporting at present. There will be some amount of calf shed build in the next 12-14 months. If I was in that situation I would be starting to plan now.

It will be a boon to beef boys. Especially the smaller store or finisher. No rushing to the mart in late February and March buying 12-18 day old calves and trying to look after them

Now the glut will hit as you put them straight to grass

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119856606#Comment_119856606

Conception rate is the issue. 10+years ago Oliver McDonald got the sack from the Farming Indo over telling the truth about it. Cost is another factor. Straws are 2-3 times the price. If it was successful a lot of beef farmers would be at it as well