Anyone exit Suckler system??

I have to totally disagree with you about quality of product sold now. People's taste has changed. Cattle are carried to a higher level of finish often. Biggest issue is a lot of the product is sold as a generic offering.

In the Pyrenees the market a cow beef product and the cows have to be 10+ years old and at heavy weights. They receive more than we do for prime beef.

Yes there is a certain amount of boner's in the cull cows market. We slaughter something around 1.8-2 million cattle a year. 80-90% of that is finished to a good standard whether it's a cow, young bull, heifer or bullock.

Different markets have different demands. Look at the demand for Ram lambs for Ramadan which personally I would not touch

I thought you might :-)

Yes, I might have been a little harsh. We do produce in general excellent beef, and yes, when you smother any mince in deep sauces, it all tastes the same.

Again, I agree that there's absolutely nothing wrong with old cow beef IF and only IF it's finished correctly and aged properly. A thin cow - like a thin ewe will if fed put on new muscle and fat. The oul yoke that was half fat since last year - like a lot of modern sucklers are, is horrible.

Look at the steak section in any supermarket. Most of it is cow beef and tastes horrible, except for the premium ones in the nice black and gold boxes, "30 day dry aged Angus" for which you pay a lot more and get a half Angus, half Holstein bullock.

I think our best beef is largely exported and we're left with whatever the supermarkets can buy cheaply and make a margin on. Our own fault for buying beef off them.

Continentals have almost no fat through the meat, - this is an accepted fact, as is that fat gives the flavour. There's a reason Gordon Ramsey uses only Dexter in his restaurants. They have spider marbling.

Lastly I also agree about the ram hoggets, - they're a disgusting stain on the industry, I wouldn't eat one myself and I love hogget/lamb.

They do however usually make money and it's an outlet for the mountain lambs who won't be fit any other way until they're nearly 2.

I dont agree they left a few bob, its a long time waiting for money plus you have the expense of keeping the followers. IMO Calf to beef should be no more than 24 months max but most should be dead by 21 months to make the system pay.

Most of the beef in supermarkets come from wholesalers-factories so its pot luck what the supermarket gets,could be 20 month heifer or 36 month steer or anything inbetween.Just look at all the new steak names out there eg. cowboy steak etc.Where did these magically come from?.They wernt there when i was boning beef and the animals havnt changed .Imo stick with ur local butcher who has local heifer beef ,properly hung with full tracability.

Agree 100% ..I look at the meat through the plastic. If it's 'glossy' looking it's bull beef and that is leather. If the meat appears dryish then I buy.

I do not get this idea/notion you are a long time waiting for your money. You are 6-8 months longer the first time you do it. After that it the same as any other beef finishing system with the advantage that it's low cost.

Neighbors near me is finishing U16 month bulls. Mostly AA and HE with a few Friesian's. 3 weeks ago they went virtual adlib. He is giving them access to straw and the 20 of them are getting 12 bags of ration a day. I presume it some magic mix with megalac. Costs are 7/day at least I presume and they will be on that for 60-70 days on average plus what he has already soend to get them to.this stage

At present beef prices he would probably get 5.2 on the grid for them, I am not sure if the are on the ABP bonus scheme but he is looking at 5.4 average if that is the case. He reckons they will kill 280-290 average so about 1525 net of slaughter charges. He lost one about six weeks ago.

It's the same without claiming vat back and depreciation as against putting something in as maintenance and not claiming. When you are in the system it'such more profitable.

What is waiting six months longer for you money is a system you may be repeating for the next twenty+ years. I be looking at the Autumn finish at 18-20 months except when too many lads go at the price will be brutal. At present we are 70-80c/ kg ahead of the autumn price of last year. We are the same as the Feb/ March price.

That is 250ish on an animal killing in the 350 kg range. A lot depends on your system if you can make fairly decent silage and keep average winter below 135 days

Definitely if I was calf to beef I be trying to hang anything that would kill decent and grade ok at 10-21 months. Longer than 4-8 weeks and I be reluctant to feed it.

That's correct but you have to play the deck you are dealt in order to survive.

The only way you can make money from an animal that has to be kept from 30-36 months to fatten is if the man you bought him off lost a fortune when selling him to you. All you’re doing then is taking his money.

The only people that will tell you quality animals eat over a ton of meal to fatten are lads that don’t have the quality animals. I regularly kill hex and continentals off grass with no meal and they’re gone at around 20 months for the hex and 24-26 months for the continentals.

The only secret to killing cattle at them ages is to give them meal as a weanling. The lads that don’t do that are the ones feeding a ton to finish them then. 2kgs on average per day during their winter as a weanling for about 80-100 days, so 160-200kgs per head, is worth far more than a ton of meal as a finisher.

I agree with your post except I’d amend your compensatory growth bit. Compensatory growth is a factor but it won’t make up for a whole winter of poor growth.

The weanlings getting meal will get full advantage of compensatory growth too. Just take them off the meal and onto a silage only diet for 3 to 4 weeks before turnout and they’ll grow just as much when they hit grass as the badly done hungry animal that got no meal will.

One of my kill sheets from last October...these are Fr not even 21 months...it can be done but I'm not going to educate you. Their weights AVG 290 which is more important to me than grades.

Btw don't compare me with previously mentioned.

You killed them as bulls ,what age did you buy and what price roughly .Were you feeding for long and what rate .

Your dismissing 29 months but if your animal comes into E1900 only 7/8 months later months later are you gaining anything by turning over the stock younger

He did not kill them.as bull as he got QA on them. They seemed to have averaged nearer 280 than 290.

In other words you bought them at good value for there weight. The profit was on them before you bought them. Grand if you have time to spend in a mart. Few part time lads have time to run 60-90 days systems. I see a full time lad at it locally however his father now in his 70's spends 3-4 days a week in marts. He is doing 70-80 mile on average return per day.

You bought them with a margin and probably fed them adlib for 40-70 days. The previous owner was probably QA so you did not need to hold them 90 days.

Short term systems are grand if you have time and want to send time in marts.

Yes I killed fr at 380kgs DW a while ago absolutely beautiful cattle to look at. They eat but they also convert very easy. Not many do them now. Again I didn't wait for 29 months.

What are you going to do instead, the good reasons for exiting aren’t seen at this time of year when calves are running around the fields but in the winter when they’re eating costly silage and in the Spring when you’re up all night calving them and trying to keep calves alive or getting poor prices in October for weanlings.