Buying milk calves...

[buttercup]

Been offered some milk calves from a local dairy herd, hereford & bb x, at £120, I quite keen, to talk over missus> What everyone thinking.
Working on £3 of milk power a day - does seem right....

 

[Tim G]

I've a 20kg bag of milk powder here that makes 160 litres of milk. Cost was £54 I think, which I make 34p/litre (plus water and heat). It says on the bag 2x 3litre feeds per day, which is £2.04 per day.

 

[Guiggs]

Our milk powder costs about 29p a litre, feeding 2 feeds of 3 litres a day.

 

[TheRanger]

Depends on the cows they’re out of. Big strong HFs and it sounds like a good deal, jersey or jersey X and probably on the dear side.

 

[gone up the hill]

Been offered some milk calves from a local dairy herd, hereford & bb x, at £120, I quite keen, to talk over missus> What everyone thinking.
Working on £3 of milk power a day - does seem right....

£120 is too much at current values ( esp ex farm )

Need to be more like £90/100 if 10/20 days old !

Milk powder will be about 1,5 bags per calve.

Of course milk powder is only one cost!

Will easily cost anything from £160-90 head in milk/cake/ meds/ straw/ elec/ losses etc to get them to weaning at 11/12 weeks old.

 

[Zippy768]

£120 is too much at current values ( esp ex farm )

Need to be more like £90/100 if 10/20 days old !

Milk powder will be about 1,5 bags per calve.

Of course milk powder is only one cost!

Will easily cost anything from £160-90 head in milk/cake/ meds/ straw/ elec/ losses etc to get them to weaning at 11/12 weeks old.

You reckon 120 too much....even for bull?

We put through a fair number of calves and stopped bringing anything at all in for the last 6 weeks. Demand for cattle is - unsurprisingly - v low

 

[gone up the hill]

You reckon 120 too much....even for bull?

We put through a fair number of calves and stopped bringing anything at all in for the last 6 weeks. Demand for cattle is - unsurprisingly - v low

Of course it depends on the calve as one with really good shape/ size for its age would be worth more but as a general average then no, esp ex farm as there is no comm to pay!

O grade hereford heifers, 12 months old, not the biggest for their age but would grow could be bought yesterday for £290 head...

Last week really smart O grade angus heifers could be bought for £350 at 6/8 months old, at these values no one including the calve rearer dealers can pay much for calves with such high costs as we currently have.

 

[Zippy768]

Of course it depends on the calve as one with really good shape/ size for its age would be worth more but as a general average then no, esp ex farm as there is no comm to pay!

O grade hereford heifers, 12 months old, not the biggest for their age but would grow could be bought yesterday for £290 head...

Last week really smart O grade angus heifers could be bought for £350 at 6/8 months old, at these values no one including the calve rearer dealers can pay much for calves with such high costs as we currently have.

Got a backlog of reared animals here that are only getting more expensive to keep.

Delivering some this week with very little margin (even doing haulage at cost to help the deal)

 

[Sid]

Been offered some milk calves from a local dairy herd, hereford & bb x, at £120, I quite keen, to talk over missus> What everyone thinking.
Working on £3 of milk power a day - does seem right....

Get them bought they'll look cheap in 12 months time!

 

[Guiggs]

I'd happily pay £120 for anything that isn't a dairy bull or looking like dying!

 

[HarryB97]

£120 is a good price especially for BBs and if they’re bulls in the mix then it’s very keen. It’s strong for Hereford’s at the minute but as an average for both breeds it’s quite fair. £3 a day on powder is about right, ours go through two bags at about £57 each over 50 days through a Holme & Laue machine.

 

[gone up the hill]

Got a backlog of reared animals here that are only getting more expensive to keep.

Delivering some this week with very little margin (even doing haulage at cost to help the deal)

Problem with these young animals is we are going into winter and feed costs/ forage shortage etc means no one wants the young stuff currently.

Come Feb/March onwards these young weaned cattle/ stirks will jump in price and anything bought now will look sensible money by then even with such high costs feeding them the next 6 months.

 

[Sid]

The only certainty is the uncertainty!

Isn't the best plan to do the opposite to what everyone else is doing?

Do dear calves make cheap beef?

 

[Zippy768]

Problem with these young animals is we are going into winter and feed costs/ forage shortage etc means no one wants the young stuff currently.

Come Feb/March onwards these young weaned cattle/ stirks will jump in price and anything bought now will look sensible money by then even with such high costs feeding them the next 6 months.

Absolutely.
We usually struggle to move animals in Aug and Sept as grass slows and people try to eek it out.
Often once we get into autumn, people have empty barns and forage stocks, demand picks up.......not this year tho!

Will start to restock end of October/November ready for the spring.

 

[buttercup]

Only buying heifers in, herford and bbx, got plenty of forage\straw and room. Forage costs are what it is cost me ( dear i terms of diesel and time) or cheap to buy on the market....

 

[Rossymons]

To me that £120 seems quite strong as they're probably expecting you to take everything at that price - good, bad or indifferent. Whilst you will have some bargains in there it's the losses that could suck your money.

It's not everyone's taste but I do prefer going to market and selecting and paying for the calves I want. Some weeks I do well, others I've come home empty handed. I have a budget - less than your average - and stick to it.

We'll soon be heading into the time where block calvers will flood the market with beef calves. They won't all be out of grazing cows and I fancy my chances.

 

[som farmer]

age of calf is influencing price, at the moment, depending on which mkt, you buy/sell through, older well grown calves make more money, than fresh young ones. Buyers are looking to save on the powder cost, and can't blame them for that.

Interesting to see powder amounts, when we used to rear several 100 a year, we costed out at 1 bag per calf, but being all bought in, they were all over 2 weeks old, some a lot more, which brought powder use down. The most important part of rearing calves is to get as much quality food into them, as they can physically eat, you will never get the same growth rates again.

And what cross the calves are out of, big difference in value, and calf.

as an average, £120/head looks dear for now, but ex farm calves, can be worth a premium, if 'properly' looked after from birth.

 

[Keithy1394]

We do about 40 - 50 a year and at the moment id rather pay abit more for a 6 week old calf that a 2 week old calf. It also depends what area your buying in tb4 calves up north with be more expensive than tb1 calves down south

 

[Samcowman]

£3 per day for powder seems on the strong side to me. Ours get 750g/ day when fully on milk. Our price/ tonne for powder will be on the low side buying multiple tonnes at a time

 

[Rossymons]

Mines coming in at 1.65/day. So call it £2/day inc some electric and make the maths simpler.