12 month Bull beef

[Arceye]

Does anyone know how much, if any, money there is in growing bull beef, buying weaned calves and selling at about 12 months old?
Straw can be traded for muck, bean and barley home produced.
What protein percentage in the feed is used? I've been told to budget 1.4 tonnes head.
Buitelaar do a scheme going to Spalding which is a slaughterhouse closer to us compared to some ABP places.
Just looking at different options.
AI

 

[tr250]

Are you talking about beef or dairy bred bulls

 

[cull cows]

You will use closer to 2.5tonnes not 1.4tonnes

 

[pine_guy]

You will use closer to 2.5tonnes not 1.4tonnes

Depends what age and weight he kills them. Nine month olds into Spalding won’t have eaten that much.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Does anyone know how much, if any, money there is in growing bull beef, buying weaned calves and selling at about 12 months old?
Straw can be traded for muck, bean and barley home produced.
What protein percentage in the feed is used? I've been told to budget 1.4 tonnes head.
Buitelaar do a scheme going to Spalding which is a slaughterhouse closer to us compared to some ABP places.
Just looking at different options.
AI

We run 150 bulls all the time, all on purchased feed (we haven't that much land so we need to farm something we can keep indoors) I use 2.4-2.5 tonne of feed from 12 weeks to 13 months. I do trade my straw in return for the muck to spread on the grassland. The main difference I've found in profit & loss is the type of calf going in at the start. For me they need to be 3/4 fresian with only a bit of Holstein. I can't make beef bred calves pay any better than good dairies, the extra money at the end has to be spent on the calf in the beginning. I tried buying weaned calves to cut down the workload but they cost money when they went, too much expense and not up to scratch regarding health status and early growth rates. Everything comes at 4 weeks old now and we take them right through. I do have a couple of pens of limousins off the suckler cows but if I had to buy them at 6 months I wouldn't bother. As much as I enjoy looking at them while they grow! Got too be 280kg min deadweight at 12 months to make a bit of profit. Find a good fair buyer though. There is money to be made, just have to work it just right!

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Ours start on 16%CP, then 14%, dropping to 12% after 13 months old if they are still here. I've been told I could tone the protein down younger but the system works and I'm loathed to change it, if I bugger up a bunch of Bulls it would cost a fortune to correct it

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Ours start on 16%CP, then 14%, dropping to 12% after 13 months old if they are still here. I've been told I could tone the protein down younger but the system works and I'm loathed to change it, if I bugger up a bunch of Bulls it would cost a fortune to correct it

 

[Hfd Cattle]

We run 150 bulls all the time, all on purchased feed (we haven't that much land so we need to farm something we can keep indoors) I use 2.4-2.5 tonne of feed from 12 weeks to 13 months. I do trade my straw in return for the muck to spread on the grassland. The main difference I've found in profit & loss is the type of calf going in at the start. For me they need to be 3/4 fresian with only a bit of Holstein. I can't make beef bred calves pay any better than good dairies, the extra money at the end has to be spent on the calf in the beginning. I tried buying weaned calves to cut down the workload but they cost money when they went, too much expense and not up to scratch regarding health status and early growth rates. Everything comes at 4 weeks old now and we take them right through. I do have a couple of pens of limousins off the suckler cows but if I had to buy them at 6 months I wouldn't bother. As much as I enjoy looking at them while they grow! Got too be 280kg min deadweight at 12 months to make a bit of profit. Find a good fair buyer though. There is money to be made, just have to work it just right!

Do they have Barley straw or silage ?

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Do they have Barley straw or silage ?

Best wheat straw I can find. I've found there isn't enough fibre in barley straw and the muck gets too loose. The young stock all get barley straw but when they get on high % of barley in ration they go on wheat. When barley grain hit £200/tonne a few years back I swapped onto confectioners blend. That was a steep learning curve! I had never given them silage before that but they need it with the confectionary blend. Not lots, I just opened a bale in the straw bay and every pen had a big armful in the trough each end of the day.

 

[Durry cows]

Best wheat straw I can find. I've found there isn't enough fibre in barley straw and the muck gets too loose. The young stock all get barley straw but when they get on high % of barley in ration they go on wheat. When barley grain hit £200/tonne a few years back I swapped onto confectioners blend. That was a steep learning curve! I had never given them silage before that but they need it with the confectionary blend. Not lots, I just opened a bale in the straw bay and every pen had a big armful in the trough each end of the day.

What’s different with the confectionary blend? Why do they need silage then?

 

[Arceye]

Are you talking about beef or dairy bred bulls

Dairy bulls

 

[Arceye]

We run 150 bulls all the time, all on purchased feed (we haven't that much land so we need to farm something we can keep indoors) I use 2.4-2.5 tonne of feed from 12 weeks to 13 months. I do trade my straw in return for the muck to spread on the grassland. The main difference I've found in profit & loss is the type of calf going in at the start. For me they need to be 3/4 fresian with only a bit of Holstein. I can't make beef bred calves pay any better than good dairies, the extra money at the end has to be spent on the calf in the beginning. I tried buying weaned calves to cut down the workload but they cost money when they went, too much expense and not up to scratch regarding health status and early growth rates. Everything comes at 4 weeks old now and we take them right through. I do have a couple of pens of limousins off the suckler cows but if I had to buy them at 6 months I wouldn't bother. As much as I enjoy looking at them while they grow! Got too be 280kg min deadweight at 12 months to make a bit of profit. Find a good fair buyer though. There is money to be made, just have to work it just right!

That's quite a bit more barley than I've been told! They are looking to kill them from 220kgs minimum and paying £3 kg. How do they kill out are they 50% being so young?

 

[Full of bull(s)]

That's quite a bit more barley than I've been told! They are looking to kill them from 220kgs minimum and paying £3 kg. How do they kill out are they 50% being so young?

If you are killing them around 230kg they should be gone by 11 months, at that age they won’t have eaten anything like that. Once they weigh over 400 kg live they start to slow down so killing at 13 month say, two extra months is well over another half tonne of feed just there, with lower weight gain to show for it. Everyone can tell you about one or two that just keep piling it on but as an average they will gain less a day at 13 months eating 11/12kg a day than they do at eight months eating 8kg

 

[Werzle]

I know a chap taking 700+dairy beef bulls from 21days to fat and swears by average hay as his fibre source, reckons straw quality varies too much and caused him to many problems. I know another finishing 500+ Suckler bred bulls who feeds all home grown corn in a tmr with grass silage.

 

[DrWazzock]

Looking back I probably had best profit margin with my British white bulls pushed hard and sold at just over 500 kg at 12 to 13 months old. Plenty of creep out on grass with their mothers first summer. Plenty of barley and protein over winter, weaned late autumn. Turned out again for a couple of months on the new spring grass while keeping up tne concentrates. About £950 each fat. Didn't top the market but I reckon I made more margin than castrating them and selling something resembling an ox at 750 kg 29 months old.

 

[WHF]

Budget on 1.5 tonne from 180kg, (over a weighbridge figure) include more if they’re coming to you younger. Do some accurate figures!.....some will die, some won’t grow as fast as you had hoped and the feed price can do a lot in 6 months. The muck back from them onto the arable ground is great but.....there is an awful lot of tearing around baling, hauling, bedding, loading back out and hauling again that’s involved and certainly isn’t cheap.
Buit will finance them for you if you’re trying to get into finishing cheaply. But it’s definitely not a high profit job.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

What’s different with the confectionary blend? Why do they need silage then?

The sugar content is that high that they get acidosis for fun. We found they needed the silage to get enough fibre to counter act it. We lost 3 or 4 Bulls that winter/spring though too much confectioners. I think it would be perfect in a tmr ration but adlib in the hopper was playing with fire

 

[Anymulewilldo]

If you are killing them around 230kg they should be gone by 11 months, at that age they won’t have eaten anything like that. Once they weigh over 400 kg live they start to slow down so killing at 13 month say, two extra months is well over another half tonne of feed just there, with lower weight gain to show for it. Everyone can tell you about one or two that just keep piling it on but as an average they will gain less a day at 13 months eating 11/12kg a day than they do at eight months eating 8kg

Yes, our cut off is 14 months. Once they hit that they have to go. If they aren't ready by then it is costing too much to feed them

 

[HarryB97]

We run 150 bulls all the time, all on purchased feed (we haven't that much land so we need to farm something we can keep indoors) I use 2.4-2.5 tonne of feed from 12 weeks to 13 months. I do trade my straw in return for the muck to spread on the grassland. The main difference I've found in profit & loss is the type of calf going in at the start. For me they need to be 3/4 fresian with only a bit of Holstein. I can't make beef bred calves pay any better than good dairies, the extra money at the end has to be spent on the calf in the beginning. I tried buying weaned calves to cut down the workload but they cost money when they went, too much expense and not up to scratch regarding health status and early growth rates. Everything comes at 4 weeks old now and we take them right through. I do have a couple of pens of limousins off the suckler cows but if I had to buy them at 6 months I wouldn't bother. As much as I enjoy looking at them while they grow! Got too be 280kg min deadweight at 12 months to make a bit of profit. Find a good fair buyer though. There is money to be made, just have to work it just right!

Set up an AFU weaned calves are an absolute steal if they are restricted

 

[Half Pipe]

If you are killing them around 230kg they should be gone by 11 months, at that age they won’t have eaten anything like that. Once they weigh over 400 kg live they start to slow down so killing at 13 month say, two extra months is well over another half tonne of feed just there, with lower weight gain to show for it. Everyone can tell you about one or two that just keep piling it on but as an average they will gain less a day at 13 months eating 11/12kg a day than they do at eight months eating 8kg

Is under 12months not classed as veal!?