Dairy Calves 2024

Lios67

Looking for a bit of advice, I want to sell calves tomorrow and haven’t got text regarding bvd. I checked icbf and showing negative. Is it ok to go to the mart without receiving the text. Thanks

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120425254#Comment_120425254

Take a screenshot of your calves on icbf showing that they are negative on your phone.

But I reckon you should be ok. The mart gets their info on calves through the system and icbf. It's not like they receive a text like you do.

Lios67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120425274#Comment_120425274

Cheers for that, will do

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120425274#Comment_120425274

Are you sure the marts get there info from icbf cause i had this problem last year and animal health Ireland are also involved in the process can not remember exactly who notifies mart

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120425337#Comment_120425337

Well they are getting it from some system. It flags up if they are not tested or positive.

If I was @Lios67 I'd tell them tomorrow when the calves are being taken in and show them the screenshot and about the text. I'd be 99% if it's on icbf negative it's on the marts system.

K.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120425254#Comment_120425254

Check animal eligiblity for a movement permit on agfood.if they are good to go your good to go

Lios67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120425558#Comment_120425558

Thank you

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120422627#Comment_120422627

Pignet lairage to reopen tomorrow

kevthegaff

Will exporters resume buying immediately

Injuryprone

The few I have left were collected late last night, so I'm assuming they're on the road today, if not already gone

whelan2

Friday I was told, that's the normal day for around here

whelan2

A local farmer told me yesterday of a big dairy farmer locally who loads calves into a cattle trailer soon enough after birth, drops them with other farmers with a few drums of biestings. Some of these calves would still be wet. No payment for calves until later in the year....

Castlekeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483521#Comment_120483521

Some quare carryings-on around the country now, the New Zealand influence has scarred our proud dairy farming culture.

That said those calves probably have a better chance where they're going, and the farmer knows it, better than a lot of other stories.

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483521#Comment_120483521

In reality it is a great system the dairy farmer should be giving the calves for free at the least ,considering what calves are making at the mart!!!

whelan2

Yes it's a good idea BUT not legal

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483651#Comment_120483651

You would make a great guard!!!

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483544#Comment_120483544

From 2005 onwards the minute large numbers of dairy ag students who are now today's farmers got indoctrinated to the booby calf system when out their on placement that dye was cast, now co-ops are bringing in over the top rules for 2024 to force the above to change their ways, but of course the 95% of dairy farmers who were doing their calves half right are now caught having to comply aswell, will the co-ops actually suspend milk supply from next year to lads who don't follow the rules is another hornets nest

mr.stonewall

You suspend once and for one the marker stone is set, every one then knows it clear.

Now the decisions are being made for the calves of next year. As a calf to beef farmer I hope that the beef sub index of sire is being considered not just picking of the DBI index

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483679#Comment_120483679

The problem with calves leaving a farm too early and in situations like above is it encourages the wrong types to take a chance. The incidents over the last few years where significant dead calf numbers were found were in situations like described above.

In the vast majority of cases it's grand however it's the outlier where the issues are

Castlekeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120483702#Comment_120483702

I agree, the problem that has got us here is that the lack of policing and enforcement, a bit like rural speed limits, and OTT regulations, policies, and rules aren't the answer.

If I went to the mart with a single tagged animal, I'd be in the DAFM isolation box myself, but someone else can dump a trailer load of barely living calves and leave them there unsold without a bother. It's a disgrace tbh.

A few yellow or black cards in the last few years might have set a tone and put a bit of manners on people, as well as encouraging a bit of forward thinking when people were deciding on their breeding policy.

It wouldn't have suited the agenda of a lot of influential IFJ/IFA types though.

Anto_Meath

There is a dairy farmer near me and he had an arrangement with another lad in that the second lad would take all the bull calves at 10 days free of charge, but he had to take them all exactly on the tenth day. The second lad would rear them until they were off milk and then sell them as runners in the mart and on Done Deal. Dealers were buying them an putting them into lads around this time of year that needed cattle for 7 months and then they would appear back in the mart in October / November @ circa 100 kgs and 4 -5 previous owners.

I met the calf rarer in the mart recently buying decent quality calves, I asked him about the calves he normally got from Gerry, he said he lost his shirt on it last year and would never do it again, left with a lot of bad calves that he couldn't sell once off milk and ended up feeding some of them for the winter & only in the last few weeks got rid of them at less than €400 each. Something need to be done about these poor quality cattle as it doesn't pay to feed them to beef especially in the first year.

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120486846#Comment_120486846

Any dairy farmers with unsaleable calves will either have to rear them in-house our get them contract-reared from next spring to at least 8 weeksthen they can sell our get them slaughtered if their still unsaleable, a few real cute lads will register them a month older and go with them for bobbying earlier

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120486846#Comment_120486846

Is there not a bit of personal responsibility comes into this too? I rear calves and the one thing I don’t do is buy a calf I’m not happy with.

There’s no dairy farmer holding a gun to any calf rearers head to take their calves. If every calf rearer only buys the calves they want then the dairy farmer should end up left with the poor calves and it’s not the concern of any other farmer if the poor ones then have to be reared on the dairy farm.

The real issue with your neighbours story like that, (although this probably doesn’t apply directly to the calf man in your story as he is now buying decent calves in the mart) is the calf man thinks he can’t lose getting the calves for free so gets a bit greedy and takes all he can get.

A lot of the time that works out profitable so fair enough. There’s one bad year then and it’s all the dairy man’s fault. I’m sure the calf man doesn’t go back to give the dairy man an extra cut of the profits when he’s doing well from the arrangement so no point complaining when there’s one bad year.

If the dairy man’s calves aren’t up to scratch then don’t take them off him and you can’t lose money on them then. It’s as simple as that.

Anto_Meath

@DBK1 I would agree with you.

In the case of the lads I referred to, a few years ago when this arrangement first started the majority of the dairy farmers bull calves would have been ok. Put the quality as progressively gotten worse over the years with more extreme jersey breeding. A calf that is less than 20% jersey can be ok, but something that has 50% + breeding is a not much used for beef.

whelan2

In fairness at under 10 days old it's hard to judge the quality of a calf

Siamsa Sessions

The range in calf quality is huge and in my experience there's 3 broad categories.

Winners - There's always going to be a few that pretty much rear themselves: no health issues, slug down milk like it's free (!), and then horse into 1kg of ration/nuts. Just stand out of their way and leave them at it. They're the ones you see getting their picture in the IFJ when they're 500kg at 17-18 months.

Also-rans - A middle bunch that do OK. No real issues and once you keep them right, they'll be grand. But they'll never leave great margin (maybe €150-200 at current prices)

Runts - The third group are the problem: scour when no other calf has it, slow on the milk, and only smelling the ration. There's at least 1-2 of these in every pen of 20 calves and they'll take more of your time than the rest put together. They're more likely to be young, small, heifers, and out of JEx or FRx cows.

When you're buying at the mart (and even direct from farm sometimes), it's only a question of how many you have in each category, and if you can promote one from one group up to the group above. Any press release that talks about "average" weight or "average" price is downplaying the figures for the third group, the runts, in the middle of the other groups.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120487071#Comment_120487071

This is really the crux of it. It's very hard to judge a calf at 10 days or even at 20 days especially if he is registered 3-7 days late.

It's grand stating not to buy them.and it not just dairy bulls. There is a lot of badly bred AA calves and it's really very hard to judge them at even 18 months as to whether they are poor weight for age, badly done or just animals with a poor daily growth rate. There is a neighbor that dose heifers and from this autumn on there is no more AA heifers coming on to is place. There are too many killing sub 300 kgs DW and not grading better than O=.

When calves are 8-10 weeks old you have a significantly better chance and of marts weigh calves you can watch the weigh when buying

Green&Red

@Bass Reeves do you keep an eye out for any particular AA bull?

I mean in a good way

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120487218#Comment_120487218

A lot of marts are not weighing calves and others don't show the dams breed code. As I posted before there is no consistency across marts as to the information displayed on the mart board.

Bangoverthebar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120487218#Comment_120487218

I think there are two sides to the story on what weights finished calves come into.

Some lads pay peanuts and expect miracles.

The calf rearer has to be genuine and ask themselves, am i rearing the calves right, is my grass right, silage quality good, dosing right etc.

If all the above is spot on, then by all means blame the calves genetics.

But you can see passing by the road, many farms are old school, set stocking, no grass managenent and find its easier to blame the dairy farmer than look within.