Anyone exit Suckler system??

I genuinely think anyone that is at sucklers doesn't realise how handy life could be at drystock.

I reared 50 calves on an computerised feeder here last year. It took no more than 20 minutes a day Monday to Friday. Every Saturday morning their shed was cleaned out, swept, limed and re-bedded. Then 20 minutes a day again. No calving of sucklers, getting them back in calf and all of the time and danger that's associated with them.

For a part time farmer dry stock is a far better option imo, be that rearing calves, buying weanlings or buying stores. Sucklers are too time consuming and end up eating time that should be spent on family or the day job that actually pays the bills.

Like I said in my post above, bucket rearing is an outdated concept. Computerised feeder and the labour is gone.

Mine is there since last year but it was €10,500 +VAT. VAT claimed back as its a fixed item, then 40% grant left it at €6300.

A lot of lad's at sucklers pack it in too Bark. Now more than ever with the cost of inputs.

The scours, pneumonia etc can be a problem I admit, but they aren't, and haven't been here for the last 3 years since I started rearing calves. Granted I rear my own, they all get 4+ litres of biestings. The biggest thing needed in my opinion is a shed that can be cleaned out and bedded quickly and easily. If you have that you will do it regularly and a dry clean bed is a huge necessity at the calf game.

I think if I was building a calf shed, I'd have one pen constantly free and rotate all the pens cleaning the pens in turn. I hate to have a build up of straw in a pen. With large numbers, I'd be inclined to have separate sheds too to minimise disease spreading throughout the entire lot.

For anyone with an off farm job that results in the farm paying tax in the high band you’d save half the price of the feeder on your tax bill too which makes it a small investment then for what it does.

If you’re going to rear 50 calves a year and average the price out over 10 years or so worth of calves you’d be talking about a fiver a calf to save all the mixing and carrying buckets.

Just to add, I'm a suckler and calf to beef farmer. Slowly the Suckler numbers have been dropping. Will they every go, don't think so, mainly because I enjoy calving a few cows, improving breeding.

On the auto calf feeders, it's my 1st year with one. By god is it some time saver and body saver. 10 mins twice a day during the week and a clean out of the shed on a Saturday. I was lucky I scrapped in with the young farmers grant application at the end of the first 5 years so got 60%. Like grueller got the vat back. So the total out lay was €4100 to be written off over 7 years Its small money when you are at the higher tax bracket with off farm work. It bring the cost back to approx €2050.

On the shed front, it's in a 5 span lean to open on the east side. Gates are sheeted. Feeder is in the middle pen and calves are spilt in 2 bunches. When cleaning out I lock then into the middle pen near the feeder and clean out the bedding area. I leave a large square of straw in and another on top. Serves 2 jobs extra shelter and bedding only a matter of knock down a few flakes. A bit of thinking on hanging a few gates can make life very easy.

Calf to beef is profitable but only if you can take them the whole way. As Bass says there's only margin for one person in the beast.

Part time work with calf to beef can work very well, you have light yearlings that can go to grass early, you tend to have a lower demand for grass at the start of the year. Heavy ground they suit well, with a few strips wires and keep moving and back fencing .

After my few weeks running with an auto feeder, it's revolutionary to my springtime daily routine. Not tied to the clock when calves have to be feed. Very little washing up and great info on calves. I don't miss the bawling of calves waiting to be fed and I haven't picked up a bucket with calves this year

@Jim Simmental it the same here in the North East which would be heavy dairy country, good suckler cows / springing heifers are €2,000 +, I see Jalex has a sale coming up soon and I can bet there will more nearer the €3,000 mark than the €2,000 mark.

There are pros and cons for every system of farming, full time farmers have to be able to pay the bills every month and the best system for this is dairy. For part time farmers then there is an element of trying best to balance the full time job with the part time farm. These farmers can experiment a bit and use combinations to try and get the best return from the time and money invested. It could be sheep, pigs, chickens, sucklers, dairy calf to beef or snails. There is money to be made on all these if you can get it to work for you. I know on my own farm I would like to explore the idea of a few chicken houses as it seems a steady way of having a steady income, but the cattle would probably have to go and use the land for tillage to use up the chicken dung. If there was more money paid for willows then that could be an option too.

@monseiur yes I do anyway because its all part of the farm income that lead to the profit on the farm, just like i said the €160 a cow I received last year for the suckler cow grants to calculate the €1060 more I received for my suckler bred stock over my bucket fed calves.