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Exited Suckler Cows

2

Comments

  • #32
    Sugarbowl
    Registered Users Posts: 841 ✭✭✭Sugarbowl


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122463707#Comment_122463707

    what caused that with the cow? Grass tetany?



  • #33
    kk.man
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,582 ✭✭✭kk.man


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122466834#Comment_122466834

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



  • #34
    TinyMuffin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,054 ✭✭✭TinyMuffin


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122467215#Comment_122467215

    horse this stuff into em.

    IMG_0778.jpeg



  • #35
    TinyMuffin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,054 ✭✭✭TinyMuffin


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122467042#Comment_122467042

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



  • #36
    Jb1989
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,490 ✭✭✭Jb1989


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122467521#Comment_122467521

    Mineral lick bucket in the field?



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  • #37
    Donald Trump
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,993 ✭✭✭✭Donald Trump


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122467521#Comment_122467521

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



  • #38
    Sugarbowl
    Registered Users Posts: 841 ✭✭✭Sugarbowl


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122467881#Comment_122467881

    what do you mean by that?

    The neighbor had a dead dairy cow yesterday morning. Perfect the evening before. I must get a bucket for mine as my initial thought was tetany



  • #39
    Donald Trump
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,993 ✭✭✭✭Donald Trump


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122468222#Comment_122468222

    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.



  • #40
    Rusheseverywhere
    Registered Users Posts: 315 ✭✭Rusheseverywhere


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122467521#Comment_122467521

    Done for blackleg?

    https://www.agridirect.ie/product/easi-trace-mineral-tablets

    If you have water troughs I used those. Grass tetany most likely if not blackleg.



  • #41
    TinyMuffin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,054 ✭✭✭TinyMuffin


    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.



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  • #42
    Rusheseverywhere
    Registered Users Posts: 315 ✭✭Rusheseverywhere


    Grueller great post never really considered nitrates as being in Organics was not an issue but way you explained it another massive issue for sucklers. seen weanlings around 300kg making well under 1000. Looking at one mart online suckler heifers 275 to 300 making around 800. Waste of time. Also just in general not calculated it but my cows stayed around 800kg for say 7 years so zero weight gain for those 3 years they were fed and kept. ie 800 kg at 3 years sold similar weight at 10 as a cull cow. Think smaller cow way ahead for lads at it. I had old style cows that were up on 1000kg had in last few years started changing down to 700kg cows big enough



  • #43
    Rusheseverywhere
    Registered Users Posts: 315 ✭✭Rusheseverywhere


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122468333#Comment_122468333

    They do and zinc. Better link for tablets below. Yeah mostly young stock but blackleg can hit cows too. Always injected mine. See if soil disturbed in field or down a drain. Neighbour lost cows when tree fell over and cows went near soil on root ball. Vet said clostadrium in soil

    https://www.cattleproducts.ie/products/easi-trace?variant=42114805956824&currency=EUR&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google%2Bshopping&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw8MG1BhCoARIsAHxSiQnLdtg3DCtYXa9LAntTxjyK-PhZn6LkIVTouUVeSFKnqUPilBYFMIEaAvcAEALw_wcB



  • #44
    Dunedin
    Registered Users Posts: 2,355 ✭✭✭Dunedin


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122467215#Comment_122467215

    buying in cull cows would be madness - the thoughts of what you’d be bringing around the place makes me think that I’d rather calve 200 suckler cows.



  • #45
    Anto_Meath
    Registered Users Posts: 1,353 ✭✭✭Anto_Meath


    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...



  • #46
    Bass Reeves
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,818 ✭✭✭✭Bass Reeves


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122468515#Comment_122468515

    If you have exited sucklers then it's immaterial what comes in to your farm in a way. A farmer changing systems has to work to his strengths and skill sets. This is why you see many dairy farmers as they exit milking change to calf or heifer rearing.

    With a suckler farmer it's no different. He will struggle buying stores or even calves. His land may be middle of the road, but he has skills regarding calving and managing cows.

    As @Anto_Meath pointed out you cannot rock up and expect to buy 20 stores in one go. 5-8 is a great days buying if you are watching for your margin. You will need less cull cows and you can buy all year round now. If you are lucky enough to have a cubicle set up for sucklers and/or an old dairy parlout all the better.

    TThere Is no easy money in farming if you want profitability you have to work at it. Looking at organics stocked very low you are only drawing the payments. If you are stocked high you need straw if you are not growing grain yourself 70 bales will set you back 2.5k. That is some hole out of an organics payment

    Slava Ukrainii



  • #47
    Dunedin
    Registered Users Posts: 2,355 ✭✭✭Dunedin


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122468956#Comment_122468956

    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.



  • #48
    Dunedin
    Registered Users Posts: 2,355 ✭✭✭Dunedin


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122463287#Comment_122463287

    just to add to this a bit. Firstly, I would be happy with the return form my sucklers but by God do you work for it. Calving, tagging, dehorning, getting calves going, scour, breeding, castration, weaning, dosing, etc. all take a lot of time. Not to mention the safety element when cows calving.

    It’s unfortunately incompatible to getting young kids involved as you simply cannot bring young kids around suckler cows at calving time. I grew up rearing bucket fed calves, had my own few and went on from there. That’s not there with sucklers. Now I know there are plenty that bring their kids with them but it only takes one slip up and you have a tragic situation.



  • #49
    Bass Reeves
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,818 ✭✭✭✭Bass Reeves


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122469624#Comment_122469624

    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

    Post edited by Bass Reeves on

    Slava Ukrainii



  • #50
    Cavanjack
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,638 ✭✭✭Cavanjack


    Any trading system will have tb risk. Most lads at cows have feedlot status. Buy 200 ish cattle a year here. Roughly have one every 2 years go down and it’s usually in the factory they are found to have lesions.
    If you worry about every thing that can go wrong you wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning.



  • #51
    epfff
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,410 ✭✭✭epfff


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122469624#Comment_122469624

    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.



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  • #52
    TinyMuffin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,054 ✭✭✭TinyMuffin


    haven’t had a reactor in over 10 years thank god but had to test in November, April and they want me to test again before 30 of August. Contagious test or some shite. All the dairy herds around with land touching mine are constantly going down so I’ve to keep testing every 4 months until the department are satisfied.



  • #53
    Rusheseverywhere
    Registered Users Posts: 315 ✭✭Rusheseverywhere


    Personally might buy cull cows as they have no organic premium 99% of them sold in ordinary . Stocking rate to get the organic is 0.1 LU per HA so 10 LU per 100HA. Just farm the premiums and relax! Have enough weanlings kept to see me through this year. Also have TB rules changed with buying in to allow compensation if the animal bought in goes down with TB? Used to be when I was down no compensation was paid. Also Cavan do you buy yourself or use an agent? Tempted to use a dealer but know if good ones can land you the odd queer beast into the load.

    I used to go whole way through to factory then switched to sell bull weanlings and kept heifers to factory then switched to sold all weanlings. If was not in organic and general suckler I think sell bulls and keep heifers was the most profitable. I always had option of selling bulling heifers and made some good money on them; factory plain ones or ones not sell. Anyway as said glad out so much work with cows.



  • #54
    Cavanjack
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,638 ✭✭✭Cavanjack


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122471428#Comment_122471428

    Buy myself, online works great. Buy 50% or more straight off the phone or laptop. Tried dealers/agents before but rarely happy. Buy 50ish weanlings off three different men every year too which saves time.



  • #55
    Anto_Meath
    Registered Users Posts: 1,353 ✭✭✭Anto_Meath


    Can't use agents to buy you cattle, margins are to tight in beef and they need to make a living.. I haven't a clue how much a head an agent would be looking for but I would guess €20..on 20 animals that the profit on 1 animal gone, another 1 gone to the Mart at purchases, 2 gone to the Mart a sale & 2 gone to cove haulage. That's the profit from the first 6 animals you sell gone...



  • #56
    blue5000
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,679 Mod ✭✭✭✭blue5000


    Still at them here, as I got older and wiser a few changes were made. Went organic and cut cow numbers by half. Stopped throwing tons of meal at bulls in a shed. I've been breeding for easy calving, low maintenance smaller (550-600kg) cows since I started suckling. Current bull is an angus and cows are mostly angus x aubrac.

    I drove up to a funeral to N Mayo a couple of weeks ago and there's hardly any cattle to be seen in parts of it. Drove through Clare last week and the big charolais x cows are gone scarce there too. The big problem for sucklers is how long and expensive the winter is. The higher your stocking rate is and the longer the winter is, the more vulnerable you are to fertiliser price spikes and bad weather.

    I'll stick at them for a few more years anyway, as mr. stonewall says there should in theory be a bit of a demand for organic stores. There's only about 60 organic dairy farms in the country.

    If the seat's wet, sit on yer hat, a cool head is better than a wet ar5e.



  • #57
    _Brian
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,601 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058362843/exited-suckler-cows

    We sold the sucklers in 2009, was a loss making enterprise and hard going with a full time off farm job.



  • #58
    massey 265
    Registered Users Posts: 158 ✭✭massey 265


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122471428#Comment_122471428

    Just a point on if one has a tb reactor in an organic herd.Im organic here since 2002 and had 1 heifer go down as a reactor in annual test for tb.When valuer came out to value the heifer on farm i asked him was there any extra for organic animals that went down with tb as the organic factory price is usually 10 to 15 % ahead of conventional price.He coudnt answer my query but said he would check it out and got back to say yes there was 15 % extra over the conventional price for full symbol stock on a full symbol farmthat go down with tb.I presume this is still the case but if i didnt ask would i have been made any the wiser ?



  • #59
    jfh
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,292 ✭✭✭jfh


    I exited sucklers this year, cows were mainly sim x so put on big weight, now trying to pick up the odd weanling, slow going, bought 20 calves and bucket reared them, complete change of mindset



  • #60
    Jim Simmental
    Registered Users Posts: 175 ✭✭Jim Simmental


    somber reading….


    Still at the sucklers here - signed up for SCEP so stuck with them for another while. I do not intend on replacing any cow that needs to be culled more so due to the cost of springing heifers - €2000 doesn’t really buy anything these day - a lot of money to have tied up in one animal.

    Has anyone regretted getting out of them ?

    and on the financial side of things - can you see an improvement in the dry stock compared to the sucklers ?



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  • #61
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,865 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    Local dealer here charges €20 delivered into the yard for weanlings. Know someone who availed of this and happy out. He also got out of suckling and happy with the drop in workload.

    'If I ventured in the slipstream, Between the viaducts of your dream'



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