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Silage and same amount of meal. I’ve never finished cattle out of a shed? What’s involved might be best practice to get me out.

They want yo be doing better costs go from 1.5/ day to nearly 5/day. To feed cattle I side you need a rising price to cover costs. Finished cattle last year at the end of the year inside. It was just not worth it.

With watery grass soya hulls and cereals

If you carry cattle that far and are that near finish on anyway half decent land you have them finished by late May/June just in time for the peak price usually

July & August this year have been wetter than most Septembers in recent years. Personally I farm to weather / ground conditions not what month of the calender is saying. For a small country there is a massive difference between weather / land in Cork / Waterford and Connacht / Ulster.

Finishing some inside and outside atm. The ones inside have come to hand at least 3 weeks quicker albeit with more meal. Less damage done to the land, easier to feed and if cattle keep dropping will have left more money. Every one to there own

Jaysus not financially sensible

I call it sensible farming. Heavy continental cattle make shite of the land very quick with the weather we had the last 8 weeks. When you go to the factory lairage and see some of the shite thats presented for killing that needed another 6 weeks feeding.... thats what I call hobby farming

Fully agree. Went round all the groups of finishing bullocks a few weeks ago when the land was getting wet and pulled a quarter of each group in to finish in the shed. If they were all left out they’d have ploughed the place and I’d have no grass left.

As it stands the finishing bullocks still outside have loads of grass and are flying since the ground dried up. I’ve 20 big bullocks inside that are also very happy. They are eating last years bales and 10kg of meal. Another month will finish them. It’s not ideal as I would have liked to finish them on grass but it was better than taking the risk of everything running out of grass if the weather had to stay bad.

I’ve also started buying stores for next year earlier than ever because the heavier bullocks are inside and grass is now plentiful.

Like yourself I fully agree with Robson. I put continental heifers in the shed nearly 4 weeks ago now. They were on top quality grass and 4-5kgs of meal outside for 6 weeks before that and I might as well have thrown the money for that meal down the drain. They weren’t thriving and were only tearing up the fields around the troughs and along by the ditches where they were huddling together in the rain.

Put them into the shed and slowly upped them to 9kgs per day of meal and obviously ad -lib silage as well and they’ve turned inside out since. It was an awful mistake to leave them out so long, I should have had them in the shed 6 weeks earlier and they’d have been hanging long ago.

Finishing cattle on grass is fine in nice dry weather. I’m the unsettled weather this year and wet grass going into them then it’s a waste of time trying to finish them outside. Far better off to be on 9 or 10kgs of meal indoors for 30 or 40 days than be on 4kgs outdoors for 100-120 days and the whole place tore up after them.

Huge weight difference in animal killed in June v August- could be up to 100kgs dw.

young cattle simple don’t kill out as well - the extra two months makes an awful difference. And at circa €5kg, that could equate up to €500 per animal.

I’ve often put up my kill sheets here with steers over 500kg dw. I’d never get close to that in June.

If you have good cattle over 700kg and are approaching the 30 month mark, R = grade does it make sense keeping them on for another 8 week's and driving up the weight and hopefully a grade.

At grass and getting meal.

ADG .80kg

When slaughtering cattle DW is just one consideration. Price difference between Mid June and late August is 30+C/ kg, ( this year it was 40/kg, last year it was nearer 60c/ kg). At 30c/ kg on a 400 kg animals the next 20-25kgs is gone and that is presuming the animal stays under 30 months

You have to factor in extra cost if feeding ration every 100 kgs ration takes 8kgs to pay for it.

Finally you have replacement cost. A replacement bought in the spring early summer will usually be ready to go early mid summer the following year in my system.

Against that you cannot finish all cattle either early or late in the season. Housing early means closing more ground for silage or cutting low DM silage in September or October which is an expensive product.

Nothing like a good September to fatten up cattle.

It’s only the cost of grass to keep cattle extra two months - meal feeding is still 6-7 weeks regardless.

if selling in June, replacements will be more expensive than august.

why can’t you finish all late - I do .

what’s finishing cattle in August got to do with housing early/cutting silage in September October - never heard such gibberish in my life

I would largely agree with that. Even add October, if reasonably dry. This year, though wet, the weather has been mild or warm.

On the downside IFJ last week said grass Dry Matter currently can be around 11/12%. My stock have done well outside recently; unlike other years they have plenty grass.