Buying cull or otm cows

[Swaley]

Just wondering can a business be made from buying cull cows. Are they easy to fatten. Could they be put back in calf and made into suckler cows. If there are many people doing this type of system I would like to here your thoughts.
Many thanks all.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

I certainly wouldn’t be buying cull cows to make a suckler herd....they are cull for a reason

no experience finishing dairy bred cows but finish all my own cull cows and youngish cow finish as fast if not faster than a heifer dependant on What condition she’s in to start with....6 weeks ad-lib barley usually skins them over good enough

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

If you start buying culls you will be surprised how many of them will be in calf! As already said culls are culls for a reason and bad bags or mean temperament when they have a calf are why they get chucked out young.
Buy the right sort of cows and yes you can make a living out of them, but be warned some of them eat an awful lot before they put on any weight.

 

[sticky]

Is @cull cows still on here he's the man to ask.

 

[Werzle]

Cows can be spitefull sods too and almost worry the meat off each other. I wouldnt be going down the route of buying/ fattening cows unless i had tons of stock feed spuds available

 

[cull cows]

Forget it this year!!
The cows are to dear at the moment they haven’t fallen in price like they do most years.
Also feed and straw is to dear in my opinion

 

[Woolless]

Maybe half of the cows we get in to kill at work come from finishers rather than farmers, often with a fairly quick turnaround. So I assume it works for them. Unfortunately, a few make it as far as that still in-calf, as @Frank-the-Wool says. If you do go down that route, I would recommend having them PD'd. And insist that the vet feels with their hand, not just with the scanner!

 

[neilo]

Used to be a dealer from Cheshire in Banbury market every week who would spend ages walking down the race as they were sorting the barren cows, 'knocking' them to feel/listen for a calf. If they were in calf (quite a few were) and half decent, he would buy them for killing money, take them home to calve them, then put them out on finance to all the 'clever' dairy farmers that thought they were getting cheap finance. In those days of calf exports, a decent beef calf would be a few hundred quid at a month old, then a fresh calved dairy cow to sell/put out on finance.

Usually cull for a reason of course, but some would just be because they didn't seem in calf, would be dry too long, etc.

 

[Werzle]

Used to be a dealer from Cheshire in Banbury market every week who would spend ages walking down the race as they were sorting the barren cows, 'knocking' them to feel/listen for a calf. If they were in calf (quite a few were) and half decent, he would buy them for killing money, take them home to calve them, then put them out on finance to all the 'clever' dairy farmers that thought they were getting cheap finance. In those days of calf exports, a decent beef calf would be a few hundred quid at a month old, then a fresh calved dairy cow to sell/put out on finance.

Usually cull for a reason of course, but some would just be because they didn't seem in calf, would be dry too long, etc.

Knocking a calf is an art and the cow has to be heavy-ish incalf, place fist on cows belly and thrust in and out to feel if the bouncing calf bumps (knocks) against your fist. I cant do it but ive heard of old boys that could. I have heard tales of a few of them being pole axed in the market pens by a kicker

 

[som farmer]

Used to be a dealer from Cheshire in Banbury market every week who would spend ages walking down the race as they were sorting the barren cows, 'knocking' them to feel/listen for a calf. If they were in calf (quite a few were) and half decent, he would buy them for killing money, take them home to calve them, then put them out on finance to all the 'clever' dairy farmers that thought they were getting cheap finance. In those days of calf exports, a decent beef calf would be a few hundred quid at a month old, then a fresh calved dairy cow to sell/put out on finance.

Usually cull for a reason of course, but some would just be because they didn't seem in calf, would be dry too long, etc.

usually one at most mkts, we had an i/c cow, got bigger and bigger, knock her, yes i/c, but she wasn't, took her into yeovil mkt, said dealer, knocked, and bid, i pushed the bidding, he'd go and knock again, he had her, at well over barren price. Revenge, he'd talked dad, into buying a fresh calver, 1st time in the parlour, herringbone, went straight over 4 cows, and the end gate, never went in again. I usually knock the cows at drying off, last chance, anything not sure, gets checked by vet.
Lad round here, bought all the 'tidy' jersey/guernsey cows, in the barren ring, to get a herd started, he reckoned good half were i/c, some he bulled, the rest fattened, not a recommended policy, but it worked for him

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Knocking a calf is an art and the cow has to be heavy-ish incalf, place fist on cows belly and thrust in and out to feel if the bouncing calf bumps (knocks) against your fist. I cant do it but ive heard of old boys that could. I have heard tales of a few of them being pole axed in the market pens by a kicker

The old fella can knock a cow. I’ve watched him for years, tried and tried and I just can’t make any sense of it!! Gives him something too rib us “young know it alls” about!
One of his very good friends made a good living for years after he packed up milking out of cull cows. He had plenty of waste spuds etc though for them. He was an artist at picking in calf cows out of the culls. Take home, turn out calve down leave on the cow till 5/6 weeks old bounce it into Chelford then dry off and fatten the cow. He was making a bloody good living until BSE. But he says now that you really have to know what you’re doing when buying. Some people’s lean cows will grow like mushrooms. But other people’s just die. It’s like fattening cull ewes but with a lot more money at risk!

 

[Sid]

Knocking a calf is an art and the cow has to be heavy-ish incalf, place fist on cows belly and thrust in and out to feel if the bouncing calf bumps (knocks) against your fist. I cant do it but ive heard of old boys that could. I have heard tales of a few of them being pole axed in the market pens by a kicker

Mum used to lift ewes gut to see if there was still a lamb in the ewe

 

[Sid]

Best way to fatten a female is to get them pregnant......not right on welfare grounds now I would say.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Best way to fatten a female is to get them pregnant......not right on welfare grounds now I would say.

It’s true. I’ve started picking culls out before they get too the bull now and running them with the heifers for the summer. Too often we’ve got too back end and the cow that should have been culled is well in calf so she stays “to get the calf” 4 years later she’s still here.

 

[Swaley]

Could you buy a cull straight out the parlour and buy a calf to suckler on her before she drys off, just a thought.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Could you buy a cull straight out the parlour and buy a calf to suckler on her before she drys off, just a thought.

I know a fella down the road, if he has a cow drop dead and leave him a good calf he goes and finds a cull cow with a high SCC so no use in the tank and bobs the calf straight on. He’s into proper beef calves and I’ve seen him wean an 8 month old bullock onto a milk cow too keep it growing for the show season!!

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Could you buy a cull straight out the parlour and buy a calf to suckler on her before she drys off, just a thought.

It’s a good few years ago now but I took a lorry load of ewes out on wintering. Dairy man I went too had an old fresian cow in a loose box with her blonde bull calf at foot. He was playing hell that she had a SCC of over 250, not over sure how that compares but I gathered it was a bad thing. After a while I pulled my wallet out and offered him £700 cash for the outfit as long as I could have another blonde bull to go with it. He nearly snapped my fingers off!! Them 2 blondes went at 12.5 month fat not quite a grand a piece and I kept her another 2 calvings too my Limousin, bulls every time!

Then she dropped dead just before Christmas while in calf for another. I figured she didn’t owe me much.

 

[Werzle]

Best way to fatten a female is to get them pregnant......not right on welfare grounds now I would say.

Stops the check in weight gain if they arent bulling , foetus is only abit of jelly for first 2 months.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Stops the check in weight gain if they arent bulling , foetus is only abit of jelly for first 2 months.

But that piece of jelly might be a cont x bull calf...

 

[som farmer]

Could you buy a cull straight out the parlour and buy a calf to suckler on her before she drys off, just a thought.

Yes, i have done it a lot, before, we went back into milk, farm sales were the best, always some left over.
But, it's not easy to set calves on, and you have to feed them well, you will lose some, e'coli/stress etc. Very hard to get them back i/c. You are buying the bottom end, anything else, is to dear. To buy, out the ring, to fatten, is risky, again mastitus, you really have to know, what you are doing, auctioneers can tell you a story or two.