Contract Rearing

Pedigree herd before he retired, half forced him to leave as he wouldn’t fall in line with the new cross bred mentality.

Didnt even bother to start breeding into a cross bred herd from the hols full clearance and replaced with a brand new herd that’s why their ebi is so high.

Anyway it would have been a much better exercise to show farmers the affects of cross breeding to carry out the transition on their own herd over time.

Theyve had a few yes men managers since Gene left but Derek is calling the shots and he is insufferable.

Good I’m delighted to hear it, the last time I was there was 4 years ago this weekend so fortunately I’m not up to date with whatever nonsense they’re at these days

New herd is hardly either, I think sub 400kgs ms sent last year delivered, the new jcb 320s with a 24 cube Abbey tub and 150k valtra feeding the cows made me laugh in one of their videos, half a million euros worth of machinery to feed a herd of grass based cows

Can be a good fit for someone exiting milk. Most likely have cubicles, paddock systems etc in situ. We exited milk more than 10 years ago, store to beef now. Still using the same housing so bullocks in cubicles. Works, but not ideal and to be honest returns and numbers are not at a level where we could justify building proper slatted shed. Never looked in to contract rearing but I'd say it could work well here.

What about the housed period? €2/day over 365 days wouldn't do.

One variable that needs to be sorted is the nuts. Poor grazing season, needs higher nut input/day. Similarly, silage quality can vary and nut input/day may be higher. The key target weights have to be met with the dairy replacement. If they vary a bit with calf to beef, it doesn't matter much.