Arla

If you have signed up for the golden cent (arlagarden +) they have access to your cts acount, wouldn't take an analist long to work out whats going on.
Not sure how its its going to work here, all calves ar usualy kept to 3-5 weeks old, then a 50 mile round trip to the mart, so am i going to have to keep these calves to 8 weeks old before taking them to mart ?
Great way to lose money.
 

bar718

Member
If you have signed up for the golden cent (arlagarden +) they have access to your cts acount, wouldn't take an analist long to work out whats going on.
Not sure how its its going to work here, all calves ar usualy kept to 3-5 weeks old, then a 50 mile round trip to the mart, so am i going to have to keep these calves to 8 weeks old before taking them to mart ?
Great way to lose money.

No you can still take them to market as long as you can get assurances that the calves will not be being bought to go straight to slaughter. Auction marts will soon find ways of accommodating these calves to be able to give the assurances over not slaughtering until after 8 weeks of age so as to maintain the business.
 

O'Reilly

Member
I was talking to a Guernsey breeder who, I think I remember, said that they leave bulls entire to about 3 months, then the vet castrates them, and they get a reasonable animal. I would think that if true, this would be something that might work on these kiwi things. There must be a way, and with the calves worth nothing thee must be an opportunity for someone.
 

vantage

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembs
Hopefully there will be an improvement in sexed semen conception rates by the cut off date, that will then leave beef calves. The only problem then is TB.
 

PDB

Member
Livestock Farmer
Processors will buy bull calves at 8 weeks old rather than 2. Very difficult to balance the ethics vs economics

I personally feel that the improvements in sexed semen will increase the number of beef calves born beyond demand and decrease the value of dairy bulls further
 

Rossymons

Member
Location
Cornwall
I'll freely admit that I work for Cogent and have done on other threads so maybe I gave a vested interest but...

I would have no qualms in using 4M on everything. It's doing the business on farm - in fact the farms I'm on now don't have any conventional dairy semen and I might have only used a very small fraction whilst training too.

I can't speak for others though purely because I haven't used them.
 

O'Reilly

Member
I'll freely admit that I work for Cogent and have done on other threads so maybe I gave a vested interest but...

I would have no qualms in using 4M on everything. It's doing the business on farm - in fact the farms I'm on now don't have any conventional dairy semen and I might have only used a very small fraction whilst training too.

I can't speak for others though purely because I haven't used them.
Out of interest, are you using much sexed for male beef semen?
 
Ultimately more animals surviving longer is going to mean more and more kg's of beef into market that all ready appears strained and marginally profitable.
Culls, Rose beef and prime cattle of all grades will take a hit unless we can export or stop imports.

We import 30% of our beef, why can we not fill this market?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 119 38.6%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 118 38.3%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 42 13.6%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 6 1.9%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 5 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 18 5.8%

Expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive offer for farmers published

  • 238
  • 1
Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer from July will give the sector a clear path forward and boost farm business resilience.

From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and The Rt Hon Sir Mark Spencer MP Published21 May 2024

s300_Farmland_with_farmFarmland_with_farmhouse_and_grazing_cattle_in_the_UK_Farm_scene__diversification__grazing__rural__beef_GettyImages-165174232.jpg

Full details of the expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer available to farmers from July have been published by the...
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