Comptonfarmer
Member
We only finish about 60 a year, all sorts but mostly native with a few fleks and the odd continental. All grass/ Silage and fed 4kg/head rolled barley during second housing. Sold at market out the shed
Beef cattle fattening&finishing
- Thread starter Kevtherev
- Start date
yes its a bugger keeping them out of whole crop balesYes they were sure to bring them on the ships
Not too many and we can bait them all we like, have re-wrapped hundreds of barley bales, big training farm up the way had a team going around fulltime tacking new baits onto posts....
Is that the main issue with it?
Have got cats here which hunt
one good way if you are doing some grass bales around the same time put the grass bales on the bottom layer and the wholecrop on top then they wont find it as quick
- Location
- Gods country (England)
Ive done this before and still didn’t keep them away! Only method I’ve seen work is to stack on end 2 high in single file away from buildings and leave a foot gap between each bale so rats have no where to hide, seen a few do it local last couple of seasons and it seems to work quite well!
- Location
- Limousin/Charentes toad land
We grow a variety of cereals and make the blend to suit the stock after harvest. This year is 20% barley, 20% triticale, 20% oats, 20% spelt wheat (should be 18% protein) and 20% bought in mixer (26% protein).
Bulls doing well add lib with add lib hay/straw.
We now seem to have heifers all around us, grazing them until 3 then feeding the same as the bulls except I dare not go add lib with the cereal mix and am at about 5kg/day each. It's a right ball ache measuring out the food twice per day. Is the advice not to go add lib correct or do folks feed them that way. TBH, you can't get any sense here advice wise about feeding heifers. As all you will hear is "maize silage"
Just to add regarding our bulls, which we have done for some years now (unlike the heifers), we wean at 10/11 months without feed other than grass/mum at about 410, and they go at about 19 months 750ish live, 480ish hung. Back to €4 dead here now
Bulls doing well add lib with add lib hay/straw.
We now seem to have heifers all around us, grazing them until 3 then feeding the same as the bulls except I dare not go add lib with the cereal mix and am at about 5kg/day each. It's a right ball ache measuring out the food twice per day. Is the advice not to go add lib correct or do folks feed them that way. TBH, you can't get any sense here advice wise about feeding heifers. As all you will hear is "maize silage"
Just to add regarding our bulls, which we have done for some years now (unlike the heifers), we wean at 10/11 months without feed other than grass/mum at about 410, and they go at about 19 months 750ish live, 480ish hung. Back to €4 dead here now
M-J-G
Member
At today's exchange that's £2.74 ($5.20) per KG or £870 ($1650) per head for slaughter cattle.Really just what you decide is "finished" - my friesian steers are 550kg now and it depends on the weather how I feed them.
Currently putting on 1.7 per day eating some pretty average tucker to be brutally honest
Angus and Angus X HFD are beating them on similar feed. They're around the 500kg average as were a bit more expensive coming in but lighter than the 6 friesians.
Beef seems to be sitting around the $5.20 cwt or $2.60 lwt mark still - the key here is to get in before the dairymen dump all their culls and empty cows which tends to clog up the chain at the processors and they tend to back the price off a little.
Bit of a premium for hfd and aa though
Long story short they should average $1650 across the lot of them, roughly.
If so it means $525 for us after costs, in ten months
Across the lot they averaged $955 to buy, $18 cartage $61 to winter + a $500 vet bill.
I have a good lid on costs
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Sounds about right.
Prices for livestock are comparable with the UK if you forget that pesky exchange rate thing.
Bet Mr Bossfarmer and Mr GUTHrie wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to how that can possibly be - "good cheap food" you say?
We make up for it with margins though.
Last edited:
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
wellingtonfarmer
Member
- Location
- Herefordshire
We grow a variety of cereals and make the blend to suit the stock after harvest. This year is 20% barley, 20% triticale, 20% oats, 20% spelt wheat (should be 18% protein) and 20% bought in mixer (26% protein).
Bulls doing well add lib with add lib hay/straw.
We now seem to have heifers all around us, grazing them until 3 then feeding the same as the bulls except I dare not go add lib with the cereal mix and am at about 5kg/day each. It's a right ball ache measuring out the food twice per day. Is the advice not to go add lib correct or do folks feed them that way. TBH, you can't get any sense here advice wise about feeding heifers. As all you will hear is "maize silage"
Just to add regarding our bulls, which we have done for some years now (unlike the heifers), we wean at 10/11 months without feed other than grass/mum at about 410, and they go at about 19 months 750ish live, 480ish hung. Back to €4 dead here now
Graze then until 3??
Ours go on ab lib about 13/14 months old for a 3/4 months
- Location
- Limousin/Charentes toad land
Yea, I know
Looking for a 400kg carcass and it keeps a chunk of grass under control.
Winters are the problem
I thought ours were old when they wentYea, I know
Looking for a 400kg carcass and it keeps a chunk of grass under control.
Winters are the problem
- Location
- Limousin/Charentes toad land
I have a Dutch neighbour who grasses heifers through being 4. I struggle to see what they do in the last year?
seems like what they use to do here
ours are mostly steers but we have done heifers get close to 400kg with them at 26 months or so but they will always kill out better if you are having them back for the freezer same with lambs odd that isn't it
- Location
- pembrokeshire
we made some arable silage in the pit one year the rats bloody loved it, they got under the sheet nice warm and cozy, they were big and fat it, made striping the sheet back entertaining
well at least you got a few good meals out of itwe made some arable silage in the pit one year the rats bloody loved it, they got under the sheet nice warm and cozy, they were big and fat it, made striping the sheet back entertaining
Ratatouille anyone ?
- Location
- Limousin/Charentes toad land
dannewhouse
Member
- Location
- huddersfield
mixture of sucklers crossed to lim or bb bull
calves are ad lib on the creep, weaned 7 month old ish. bought in calf ration 2 ton between 60 calves then onto home mix barley protein mix.
they eat 2 ton of corn roughly each.
sold LWT at 12-15 month 500-600kg average above 550 just odd fat heifer goes light maybe a few real shapely bullocks go heavier than 600. 2.10 - 2.50+ ppkg depending on shape. did have a roughly 600kg bullock make 1600 odd at 14 month. also had some planer bullocks at 550kg at 10 month just offering to go fat so went.
ideally they would all be the best shaped but you get a mix from a mix of cows.
calves are ad lib on the creep, weaned 7 month old ish. bought in calf ration 2 ton between 60 calves then onto home mix barley protein mix.
they eat 2 ton of corn roughly each.
sold LWT at 12-15 month 500-600kg average above 550 just odd fat heifer goes light maybe a few real shapely bullocks go heavier than 600. 2.10 - 2.50+ ppkg depending on shape. did have a roughly 600kg bullock make 1600 odd at 14 month. also had some planer bullocks at 550kg at 10 month just offering to go fat so went.
ideally they would all be the best shaped but you get a mix from a mix of cows.
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
Got one customer who hammer mills beans to feed to bull beef has tried lupins as well but not as successful.
Cheapest feed at the end of the day is grazed grass
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Just really exploring options as far as giving fields a break from pasture.Got one customer who hammer mills beans to feed to bull beef has tried lupins as well but not as successful.
Cheapest feed at the end of the day is grazed grass
Doing nowt is usually cheapest...
dannewhouse
Member
- Location
- huddersfield
/\ but is it the most cost effective or most profitable?
- Tags
- calf dairy deadweight grassland maize