250,000 heifer

Not meaning to pick on you @Cowgirl but thought the wild limmy stories would start......

I remember being in UA Huntingtower at a breeding sale, Galloway cow through, cleared the ring and ring side seats and spent the next 10 minutes turning round pivoting on her back legs, pawing and bellowing, snotters flying, sale kept going and 4 other cows were put through before she would follow one out.
Don’t know what happened to her but hanging from her hamstrings should of been the outcome
we have a mix of breeds but stopped keeping limmy replacements far too wild, our sims are niceer cows easy calving and far easier handled they just dont seem to have that nutjob streak the lims did, charolais can be wild too but not as bad
 

The Ruminant

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Hertfordshire
The bit I can’t get my head around is the fact we moved away from native cattle purely because we couldn’t sell the bloody calves to mount up into any real money.
Now we’ve changed definitely for the better from my angle perspective I seem to get shot with shyte saying it’s wrong and I should go back
No bloody way
I didn’t choose what folks want to buy I had to adapt to what they wanted
Also I don’t have any £3000 cows not one
I can however sell £1250 bullocks of £700 cows with a decent bull
I can get £1100 average for a wagon load of 14 months old stores off a mix of cows
I couldn’t see me managing to achieve this with anything else
Interesting and sounds a decent output. What’s your CoP? How much creep do the calves get? What time of year are you calving?
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
they're a banging cross, although obviously you've got to watch the SD bull for size on Gal cows.
Handy 'easy first calf' for SD hfrs going the other way too.........................

Getting fat? Shove her on straw for a winter? Leave the calf on 11.5 months?;)
I would have more of them given the chance but would go for ones that go back more to the SD, we had another one that was more Belty type and she didn't do so well.
She seems happy with her size and straw is to bloody expensive LOL,
Calves tend to stay on till they are ten months here anyway
Its good grass growing land here but its wet in the winter, once you realise that for a few months of the year your best staying off it with cattle or machinery then its fine.
 
You haven’t told us what yours make though
Nobody was nosey enough to ask so I didn't force it on anyone.

I haven't sold a 14 month old steer since I was finishing cattle, these days the only cattle we hold to that age are for going in pound (lb) bags.
Simmental steers for a long time generally around 900 to a thousand a month or so after weaning, so about 9 to 10 months.
Last years averaged 940 at 7 to 8 months.
 
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Hilly

Member
[QUOTE="The Ruminant, post: 7420787, member: 48
Interesting and sounds a decent output. What’s your CoP? How much creep do the calves get? What time of year are you calving?
[/QUOTE]
He dose not answer questions just makes fun of people etc then cry’s when he gets a bit of heat back, good at dishing it out but not so good at taking it.
 
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Errr the customer asked for Angus that you constantly slagg off that’s what they asked for and that why people keep them , perhaps if you didn’t keep slagging them off you would attract getting shot with sh!t as they are just doing as you think you are doing.
Your not still on about that are you?
 

beefandsleep

Member
Location
Staffordshire
I had a chat with the local butcher a couple of months ago, trade was flying and he was thinking about how he could keep all those extra customers once the inevitable happens. He was talking about some Angus beef and a new dry curing cabinet he’d ordered. My ears pricked up, “I’ve got some cracking Angus heifers coming on”, I said “be ideal for you”. He was very enthusiastic. I asked him about his ideal carcass weight, nothing over 300kg he said, all good so far.
Then he showed me a couple of tags off carcasses he had cut up recently, U+3, E3 etc. I explained to him that he wouldn’t find any Angus to compare with those grades and they would likely have a bit more cover on than he was used to. His enthusiasm seemed to Wane a bit, “wouldn’t want anything with a lot of forequarter to deal with, don’t like them too fat either”. Then we talked for a bit about how the conformation affected saleable meat yield. He hasn’t asked me about those Angus heifers again yet but I might have a go at persuading him to try one when they’re finished.
 
I had a chat with the local butcher a couple of months ago, trade was flying and he was thinking about how he could keep all those extra customers once the inevitable happens. He was talking about some Angus beef and a new dry curing cabinet he’d ordered. My ears pricked up, “I’ve got some cracking Angus heifers coming on”, I said “be ideal for you”. He was very enthusiastic. I asked him about his ideal carcass weight, nothing over 300kg he said, all good so far.
Then he showed me a couple of tags off carcasses he had cut up recently, U+3, E3 etc. I explained to him that he wouldn’t find any Angus to compare with those grades and they would likely have a bit more cover on than he was used to. His enthusiasm seemed to Wane a bit, “wouldn’t want anything with a lot of forequarter to deal with, don’t like them too fat either”. Then we talked for a bit about how the conformation affected saleable meat yield. He hasn’t asked me about those Angus heifers again yet but I might have a go at persuading him to try one when they’re finished.
That’s because the market demands lean high grade carcasses
There is a market for the rest and a good market too but it is a bit more specialised and has less catchment if you like to put it that way
 

Hilly

Member
I had a chat with the local butcher a couple of months ago, trade was flying and he was thinking about how he could keep all those extra customers once the inevitable happens. He was talking about some Angus beef and a new dry curing cabinet he’d ordered. My ears pricked up, “I’ve got some cracking Angus heifers coming on”, I said “be ideal for you”. He was very enthusiastic. I asked him about his ideal carcass weight, nothing over 300kg he said, all good so far.
Then he showed me a couple of tags off carcasses he had cut up recently, U+3, E3 etc. I explained to him that he wouldn’t find any Angus to compare with those grades and they would likely have a bit more cover on than he was used to. His enthusiasm seemed to Wane a bit, “wouldn’t want anything with a lot of forequarter to deal with, don’t like them too fat either”. Then we talked for a bit about how the conformation affected saleable meat yield. He hasn’t asked me about those Angus heifers again yet but I might have a go at persuading him to try one when they’re finished.
They are all the same they just want store limmy heifers at 5oo kilos , however , one local farmer has twisted their arms round here and they now taking native stuff a lot of the butchers are now changing and customers are loving it.
 

The Ruminant

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Hertfordshire
I had a chat with the local butcher a couple of months ago, trade was flying and he was thinking about how he could keep all those extra customers once the inevitable happens. He was talking about some Angus beef and a new dry curing cabinet he’d ordered. My ears pricked up, “I’ve got some cracking Angus heifers coming on”, I said “be ideal for you”. He was very enthusiastic. I asked him about his ideal carcass weight, nothing over 300kg he said, all good so far.
Then he showed me a couple of tags off carcasses he had cut up recently, U+3, E3 etc. I explained to him that he wouldn’t find any Angus to compare with those grades and they would likely have a bit more cover on than he was used to. His enthusiasm seemed to Wane a bit, “wouldn’t want anything with a lot of forequarter to deal with, don’t like them too fat either”. Then we talked for a bit about how the conformation affected saleable meat yield. He hasn’t asked me about those Angus heifers again yet but I might have a go at persuading him to try one when they’re finished.
If he’s going to be using his dry curing cabinet to age the carcasses for a sensible length of time (ie at least 21 days and more if possible) then he’s going to need carcasses with a decent covering of fat, otherwise he’ll have a disaster on his hands.
 

beefandsleep

Member
Location
Staffordshire
If he’s going to be using his dry curing cabinet to age the carcasses for a sensible length of time (ie at least 21 days and more if possible) then he’s going to need carcasses with a decent covering of fat, otherwise he’ll have a disaster on his hands.

I did mention that. To be fair to butchers, they know what sells, and it has to be visually appealing. An antique piece of dry aged beef might taste amazing and get rave reviews in a restaurant but put it on a butchers counter and it won’t move.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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