All things Dairy

borderterribles · Oct 28, 2021

eulb said:
We lost some land we’d tenanted for nearly 30 years,after losing the land I decided it wasn’t happening again,so we now own everything except 7 acres.
Had a terrible run of heifers coming in with blind quarters,no signs of summer mastitis just blind,infuriating because our youngstock was always spoilt,cubicles cleaner than most milk cows etc.
Easier just milking and not having youngstock to look after,either myself or wife milks so we both see ever animal on the farm at each milking,only have milking assistants so semi skilled etc.
We carried on serving to the black and white so if we changed our mind we were 9 months ahead,we had great prices for heifer calves but the amount served to sexed means the price has now dropped,fortunately I swapped to serving with the blue so only a few left to the b/W now.

Never a truer word than " You can buy the ones you want, but EVERYBODY breeds ones that they would never buy"

Jdunn55 · Oct 28, 2021

borderterribles said:
Never a truer word than " You can buy the ones you want, but EVERYBODY breeds ones that they would never buy"

True, but you can also breed the ones you would never sell

vantage · Oct 28, 2021

lazy farmer said:
View attachment 994030Really excited tho see what this lot do. Our most uniform group ever and first group to include selected sexed heifers. In theory some classy high solids individuals in there

Photo taken today? If so you are truly in a rain shadow! Heifers here are part amphibious today!

lazy farmer · Oct 28, 2021

vantage said:
Photo taken today? If so you are truly in a rain shadow! Heifers here are part amphibious today!

Yeap taken today. No rain of note this week. Just seen the forecast that front has been stuck over you for days now !

vantage · Oct 28, 2021

lazy farmer said:
Yeap taken today. No rain of note this week. Just seen the forecast that front has been stuck over you for days now !

Ideal weather to re-sheet my storage shed, which currently has NO sheets on it!

Spudley · Oct 28, 2021

It's miserable here today, the cows didn't go out at all. I've only got 3 or 4 days of grazing left, so might just hit the goal of grazing till the end of October. On the whole it's been a good season, a mainly dry August and September has made a huge difference and the ground has held up very well until now. It's amazing how quickly it deteriorates though!

vantage · Oct 28, 2021

Spudley said:
It's miserable here today, the cows didn't go out at all. I've only got 3 or 4 days of grazing left, so might just hit the goal of grazing till the end of October. On the whole it's been a good season, a mainly dry August and September has made a huge difference and the ground has held up very well until now. It's amazing how quickly it deteriorates though!

Pretty much the same here, although heifers have grass got another 2-3 weeks.

Blue. · Oct 28, 2021

Oceans of grass here,just need arm bands to get it.

Beef farmer · Oct 28, 2021

8 left. Last 16 will have all calved in Doors

som farmer · Oct 28, 2021

borderterribles said:
Never a truer word than " You can buy the ones you want, but EVERYBODY breeds ones that they would never buy"

Jdunn55 said:
True, but you can also breed the ones you would never sell

large dealer we know, always reckoned 1/3 were faulted, he must have calved and sold 1,000's, 3/4 rd, hard calvings, health, kickers etc, and don't expect he's far wrong, calving your own, you just keep those hfrs, as one of those things that happen.
If it wasn't for the TB risk, flying herds look attractive, young stock tie up a lot of money.
Talking with friends, the cost of rearing hfr's came up, and we all know the figures quoted, by experts.
But one of them, rears all his beef calves, to sell at 2yr old, or thereabouts, and is delighted when they come back at £1000 /£1100 a head, even more so this year ! So if you can make a sensible profit at that price, with beef stores, BB and AA, why do the 'experts' quote figures of £1500+ ? We know our replacements don't cost that, and friends hfrs, are reared with the beef stores, till calving. Is it because so many born, don't calve ? Sexed semen has dealt with hf bull calves, so that must reduce costs.

upnortheast · Oct 28, 2021

upnortheast said:
Did you happen to get a decent pic of the Ayrshire heifer with the old fashioned headgear

Just been sent a pic, put it in the Ayrshire cattle thread

lazy farmer · Oct 28, 2021

som farmer said:
large dealer we know, always reckoned 1/3 were faulted, he must have calved and sold 1,000's, 3/4 rd, hard calvings, health, kickers etc, and don't expect he's far wrong, calving your own, you just keep those hfrs, as one of those things that happen.
If it wasn't for the TB risk, flying herds look attractive, young stock tie up a lot of money.
Talking with friends, the cost of rearing hfr's came up, and we all know the figures quoted, by experts.
But one of them, rears all his beef calves, to sell at 2yr old, or thereabouts, and is delighted when they come back at £1000 /£1100 a head, even more so this year ! So if you can make a sensible profit at that price, with beef stores, BB and AA, why do the 'experts' quote figures of £1500+ ? We know our replacements don't cost that, and friends hfrs, are reared with the beef stores, till calving. Is it because so many born, don't calve ? Sexed semen has dealt with hf bull calves, so that must reduce costs.

Unless you reduce labour within the business I really don’t see the benefit of a flying herd( if there on off land) and the problem with reducing labour is it makes other parts of the business creak at busy times.

Spudley · Oct 28, 2021

Tough nut calves don't seem to mind the wind and rain! They've been out since they were 2 weeks old though and don't know anything else.

lazy farmer · Oct 28, 2021

Spudley said:
Tough nut calves don't seem to mind the wind and rain! They've been out since they were 2 weeks old though and don't know anything else. View attachment 994080

How old. ?

Dead Rabbits · Oct 28, 2021

som farmer said:
contactless payment must be shopkeepers heaven, not only does it cave some money, it increases the urge spend, it's so easy, some don't keep a 'tally' on their spend.
It really shows how far we have come, l remember the old card systems, your card, into a manual machine, paper in triplicate, one for you, one for the shop, and one to the bank, who transferred the money, before that, cheque guarantee cards, written manually. Now, 1 quick flash, job done.

Still common here. Not much contactless payment around. Cash only still around as well. I’ll buy fuel today and get 5 cents off per gallon for using cash

Spudley · Oct 28, 2021

lazy farmer said:
How old. ?

7 months

frederick · Oct 28, 2021

lazy farmer said:
Unless you reduce labour within the business I really don’t see the benefit of a flying herd( if there on off land) and the problem with reducing labour is it makes other parts of the business creak at busy times.

You have to remember rearing heifers for a block herd is an awful lot simpler than 365. We both have two groups with intensive input as calves and that's it.
Calving 10-15 a quarter would be much harder work.

lazy farmer · Oct 28, 2021

frederick said:
You have to remember rearing heifers for a block herd is an awful lot simpler than 365. We both have two groups with intensive input as calves and that's it.
Calving 10-15 a quarter would be much harder work.

Fair point. I do forget how hard the majority like to work.

Jdunn55 · Oct 28, 2021

som farmer said:
large dealer we know, always reckoned 1/3 were faulted, he must have calved and sold 1,000's, 3/4 rd, hard calvings, health, kickers etc, and don't expect he's far wrong, calving your own, you just keep those hfrs, as one of those things that happen.
If it wasn't for the TB risk, flying herds look attractive, young stock tie up a lot of money.
Talking with friends, the cost of rearing hfr's came up, and we all know the figures quoted, by experts.
But one of them, rears all his beef calves, to sell at 2yr old, or thereabouts, and is delighted when they come back at £1000 /£1100 a head, even more so this year ! So if you can make a sensible profit at that price, with beef stores, BB and AA, why do the 'experts' quote figures of £1500+ ? We know our replacements don't cost that, and friends hfrs, are reared with the beef stores, till calving. Is it because so many born, don't calve ? Sexed semen has dealt with hf bull calves, so that must reduce costs.

I think a third is probably on the extreme side if I'm honest, only 1 3/4 out of my heifers this year and only 2 difficult calvings and that's more the calf than the heifer, I've calved 25ish in this year
Personally I don't class kickers as a fault unless they don't settle down. Every single one of mine has, my best heifer was an absolute bitch when she calved, she's now got a temperament to match her looks

As for cost to rear a heifer vs cost to rear a beef bullock, my heifers will cost between £1250-1500 to get them to calving depending on input costs, the beef calves however don't need to have any vaccinations, are fine to have whole milk, don't need to be served etc
All the little extra costs for heifers are what causes them to cost more to rear

I

Jdunn55 · Oct 28, 2021

lazy farmer said:
Fair point. I do forget how hard the majority like to work.

You have to remember not all are lucky enough to have a contract that will allow them to be a block calver!

For instance saputo require a red tractor inspection if you cease milk production for a month or 2 while your cows are dry when you start up again, so that would be your Christmas holiday gone!

I do admire how easy you make things though

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