Exited Suckler Cows

it’s a hobby for a lot, especially those with an off farm income.

A vocation indeed. I have a tiny little 12-16 Limo cow herd. For the most part breed to be quiet. I enjoy the bit of physical work (though it does detract from family times sometimes) but equally adds to family time when I am out the fields with the young lad examining how many flys on are on a cow shite 😀. It’s a hobby that turns a few pound (could maybe turn the same if leased out and have no work….but what the **** works I do all evening and weekend).

The more that exit the better for me as my U grade weanlings be more and more in demand.

I’m the only 1 in the locality with suckler cows. Calved 55 this spring and hope to do the same next spring plus 25 heifers that have been with the bull. Uncle got out of sucklers 5 years ago and buys the best weanlings I’d have for top dollar. Lots around here buy good weanlings and someone has to breed them. Nothing nicer than walking through cows and calves happy out grazing. Although I had a dead cow Tuesday morning.

that’s me exactly. I won’t be giving up the sucklers any time soon but I don’t mind hearing others giving them up either.

Some honest opinions there!

We're exiting sucklers at the minute.decided last year .started by not getting them back in calf. Though we have 1 new suckler since!! (A sold heifer turned up in calf....we bought her back and she calved a nice w head on May 2nd.

19 sucklers. 10 left. SOLD 5 at the mart. All Wheads not ready for factory. Another 4 factory fit shorthorn went for killing.

9 left to sell. 2 are lovely cows plenty good for breeding.1 is a cracking 3 Yr old shorthorn but I think I'll just leave them off together .(as oppose to looking for a buyer) Mart and factory again in a few weeks.Will give them nuts to push them on .

Underfertilized weed feed ! Good point Silver Dream.

One of my brothers had the same opinion as some of ye. To keep them when everyone is exiting.

Like others in the comments, main jobs are off farm and we are busy with families and sport as well.

Plus. There will be more shed space and less bales needed.

Will miss calves being born on the farm alright. For the hour or 2 after birth, that gave great job satisfaction. But Silverdream definitely balances out that out with her raw comments about suckler farming.

Some lads just can't handle hardship. 😀

Some lads like getting paid for their labour

Great Post. Everyone has their own experience and will do what suits them best. I know a few that got out over the last few years and went drystock. Never been happier. Others just let the place out,had kept minimum stock for a few years. I often wonder tho where are all these drystock going to come from. Plenty young lads wont/can't calf down cows and getting into drystock.

Will calf prices get very dear if supply demand change? Will people get more focused on dairy bred calves? I think the tide will turn before too long on sucklers. Its a dying trade like a lot of the farming industry.

I think the people who stick with it will get proper money for their stock. Look at the marts and all the culls that are going through it. Alot of good breeding gone from those farms that chose a different path to follow.

Opinions are one thing, but the hard data tells a different story.

Total Suckler cow numbers have fallen from 1,099,589 in 2013 to 844,978 in 2023. That's a total reduction of 23% in 10 years.

Suckler-Cow-Numbers-by-county-2013-to-2023.pdf (icbf.com)

It's the calving and the lambing is one of the key issues. Can't be done if you've a job elsewhere. Are we going back to 50 years ago. The X dairy calves going up west to be reared and sent east then to be fattened?

I think you are hitting the nail on the head with the 1st sentence Water John.

Someone else above also touched on the related issue, to alleviate the stress of part time farming and calving, easier calving breeds are being selected. This leads to plainer stock. The bottom line then is that you are missing the niche market of export quality cattle then and you might as well have dairy cross stock if you are selling cattle by the kilo into the mass market.

The nitrates also mitigate against the suckler here. The suckler cow and her calf to a year are 89kgs of organic nitrogen. That is the same as 3.7 dairy cross calves to a year old. That is, at last springs prices, north of €3000 in sales for 89kg on the nitrates . The suckler weanling, bulls against heifers is probably €1200-1400 in sales average on u grade stock. You can argue costs whichever way, that's a larger argument, but the output is plain to see.

The suckler cows biggest problem is she puts on probably 150kg of beef every summer that you don't get to sell and selling kgs of beef is the name of the game if its beef farming you are at.

Going back a bit further, there were only 478,000 suckler cows in the state 40 years ago, and numbers didn't cross 1 million until 1994, so the idea of having 1m plus suckler cows in the country is more recent than Ray Houghton's goal v Italy.

All driven by coupled payments and the introduction of milk quota of course. The notion of sucklers being the 'backbone of the country' is quite dubious. In time, suckling it will be remembered a passing phase in Irish agriculture.

You would not be lambing. I said that with the amount of hill farmers joining organics if I went into organics I be looking at finishing hill lamb rather than finishing cattle.

On the cull cows you will ways end up with a few incalf,you inject anything bought up until late September. You will buy a lot of stuff guaranteed not incalf but you will end up with few incalf. A former suckler farmer will have the skillset to manage them.

At present you can buy cull cows for 60-80% of there price 5 years ago and the finished price is probably 20-30% ahead of the price back then. A cull cow bought for 4-500 euro today could make 1500+ next May/June.

Nobody is going to hand you decent margins without you working around the edges of the system or unless you are willing to have substantial capital tied up in the system

To put meat on them parlour cows Bass is no joke. I did it and wouldn't return to it.

don’t know. On the same field for 3 weeks and grass wasn’t very lush and nights weren’t too cold.

You'd know from the ground around her if it was grass tetany.

They go down and then go into spasm, just kicking. If they are out in the field they'll have all the ground around them scraped from the kicks. It kills them quickly. That said, I only saw it once and it must be 20+ years ago.

there were 30 cows and calves after standing around her so couldn’t tell. Black leg wouldn’t affect a 6 year old cow. Only young stock I believe and never had it on this piece of ground. Those tablets have no magnesium in them.

In fairness if I wasn't at what I am at I would fatten cull cows or buy older sucklers cows with a calf at foot, let her rear the calf then split and finish both. It is probably the most profitable game in the beef job... but its hard work, with high risk.. Next best paying is buying 14 -18 month stores and finishing to beef.. but you need time to buy them, you can't just rock up to a mart and buy 15 - 20 in 1 go, you ll end up with no value... you have to be patient and pick up the out of spec lad, 3 moves, nearly out of test, good shape but wrong colour. Some marts you ll have 5 or 6 out of others you ll be lucky to get 1.

Next most profitable is actually breeding your own and bringing them all the way to the hook.. mart takes €50 out of every animal any time they are there so if you remove that then that €50 is in your pocket...

Buying in cull cows greatly increases the risk of TB. If herd is restricted as in, you go down with TB, farmer will not be able to buy in stock so just be prepared for that.

Is it practical for a farmer to have the time to source in the mart, get them home and settled in etc. the one point that you constantly miss is that 95% of beef farmers work off farm.

So the extra work of that coupled with thr TB risk and the extra work in additional TB tests all add to the reality, that while there may be a margin there, it is not a feasible option for the vast majority of people. These type of forums should be to share advice/opinions to help others so I’m sharing mine.

But all to their own.

You seen to forget that for 16 years after I bought the farm I did exactly that, worked and sourced cattle unfortunately there was no LSL back then and I had no parent to fall back on, and give a hand now and again.

Dunedin you can spend your life looking at problems or you can look at solutions. As I pointed out again and again at farming you will not be profitable unless you work around the edges.

Look at the advantages of cull cows relatively easy to source, if you buy ex dairy stock they are quite to work with. If you need to get one in out if a field she would follow a bucket out of the field for you. A store bullock will not.

Lads are leaving sucklers because of profitability and not being able to control the work load. I am just pointing out the options. Every system has its issues if you go down with TB every 2-3 years ( and from the lads locally that do it going down seems to be 5 years plus plus

Tb not a problem buying. Just get permit to buy from dept.

I was locked for 14 months in row at one stage never more than few days I couldn't buy. Last time I was locked they didn't even bother asking for any paperwork to give me 2 months buying permit.

I pick cattle for marts at night when kids in bed and let them settle in on there own while I'm at work next day. Often if I'm busy or the kids have football I give them a week before bothering them. If the have water grass and fence you are only disturbing the settling in by looking at them.