Beef cattle fattening&finishing

[Kevtherev]

Though it would be a good idea to have a dedicated beef thread for folks to post about their systems on Farm.
1.Rations used either grass fed and or barley/concentrates
2.Daily live weight gains
3.Breed of animal/sire
4.End ppk at either mart or abbatoir
5.Time scale to finish
A place to share knowledge about your system etc
Thoughts
@Northeastfarmer @Henarar @Kiwi Pete

 

[Henarar]

We don't finish any Kev apart from one per year for the freezer [both our freezer and friends/family] so our way of doing it may well be very different to others
1. they are our own suckler calves so will have milk till weaning at about 10 months as well as pp grass and silage/hay, they stay on grass or silage/hay only till between one and four months before we want to kill them then we give them two of three kgs of blend per day as well but we have had some that haven't had any

2 they go at about 26 months as a rule but some have been older and are mostly over 700 kg the last one was 740, but I am not sure what they are doing per day

3 British blue sired but could be out of any breed of cow the last one was a Baz cross

4 we charge £7.50 per kg

5 finish as I said above at 26 months really because that's when we want to do the job

probably not much help to the thread but its what we do and have had very good reports about the beef

 

[Pan mixer]

I too grow mine slowly on grass alone and put one finished one through the shop each month at anything from 19 to 30 months of age.

I have recently upped the cow numbers a bit to graze some nature reserve land locally and will be looking to sell some as stores at about 22 months old, 10 this year and more next year I hope.

Funnily enough I am about to try and sell them this week - Angus (named sire) cross, grass fed only, BVD free, 48 month TB.

 

[onthehoof]

Similar to above all grass finished.
Out winter 100 try not to feed them anything apart from grass.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Trade secret, sorry.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

All grass here Kev.
Silage over the winter and then turnout onto grass and planned holistic grazing system.
Angus steers and dairy cross bulls here, best DLWG over 2kg but that's through spring with excellent quality, when following store lambs it's back from that.
Not sure what weights they'll go to but different specs over here as it's all all-grass.

 

[scholland]

Grass and milk until weaning, 2 kg barley and a little protein and silage all winter. Our to grass, last few come back in to finish on barley, silage and some protein.
318kg average at 19 month all aa and aax.
Simple system and not to much inputs. All go to local butcher.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Where’s @gone up the hill with all those bargain basement profit makers

 

[cull cows]

I

i fattern cast cows this is one that went last week and weighed 445kg dead

 

[mo!]

I buy them for nowt, feed em on fresh air and sell them dead for a fortune.

 

[cull cows]

I buy them for nowt, feed em on fresh air and sell them dead for a fortune.

Easy money

 

[mo!]

 

[BiomassMan]

I

i fattern cast cows this is one that went last week and weighed 445kg dead

Do you buy direct from farmers to fatten or from market?

 

[Old Tip]

I buy them for nowt, feed em on fresh air and sell them dead for a fortune.

I thought you were going to say “and pay a hundred quid a head for a man to take them away”

 

[mo!]

I thought you were going to say “and pay a hundred quid a head for a man to take them away”

Sadly that would be closer to the truth.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Where’s @gone up the hill with all those bargain basement profit makers

It says finishing not fhinishing.
May be the issue?

 

[cull cows]

Do you buy direct from farmers to fatten or from market?

I do both but mostly out off markets

 

[deleted user 837354]

Can someone please outline for me:

-Purchase price of a reasonable weaned calf

-Typical value finished

-Time taken to finish

-Feed requirements

Have not examined beef costs for 10 years at least.

I would also be interested in the time taken to look after 100 beasts per day.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Can someone please outline for me:

-Purchase price of a reasonable weaned calf

-Typical value finished

-Time taken to finish

-Feed requirements

Have not examined beef costs for 10 years at least.

I would also be interested in the time taken to look after 100 beasts per day.

£800-£1000
£1400-£1640
6-12 months
0.5-2 ton

 

[deleted user 837354]

£800 for a calf? Really?