Calf rearing costs..

[Aspiring Peasants]

the 6 week weaning, came with the proviso, had to be eating 2 kg of conc, so really, if they are eating 2kg, they should be ok to wean. And to be fair, OM always weaned at 42 days, and the calves always did ok. But then hfrs calved at 3yrs, not 2.

Back in the day, I thought it was 2lbs of concentrate rather than 2kgs?

 

[som farmer]

Back in the day, I thought it was 2lbs of concentrate rather than 2kgs?

2kg, of quality food. That is why we reduce volume of milk, to encourage clean water, and starter pellet intake, asap.

if they have a gut full of milk, they are slow to get started, literally no desire to look for anything else. Reducing volume, doesn't mean reducing powder, just making your milk 'stronger'.

on lb v kg, an uncle of mine kept his bulling hfrs, wintered on straw, and 4lb of cake, and make them clear up, all the straw. Then wondered why his hfrs wouldn't be big enough to calve at 24 months. Nor would listen, when told stems of the straw, had no nutritional value, and it wasn't 4 lbs, it was 4kg's.

on straw, l assume a third wastage. We do feed more hay, or haylage, earlier now. The problem with hay, its to variable in quality. Always used to feed the best soft hay, that smelt lovely.
today, feeding a 'rougher' ryegrass hay, gives roughage, and a more consistent diet.

 

[Suka]

Two bags of powder is about £120 but they have to have 1 bag anyway so it’s an extra £60 quid which for the bloom it gives them isn’t the end of the world I think he’d easily get that back when he sells them . When you squeeze a cows tit milk comes out not nuts

You are so right. A cow's udder is big and that's your clue for what calves need - milk, and plenty of it.

 

[som farmer]

as l said before, buying straight off farm, is great, but trust is needed.

bought a big bunch off 1 farm, pre-warned there could be 'problems', so only paid a large deposit, as requested.

calves duly arrived, less 7 strong lim calves, and plus 5 new born AAx. And problems with haulier loading. We will simply knock the price of 7 strong calves off, add a much smaller amount for new born's, which were calves we never looked at, we had a list of calves for sale, priced from that list, as in age, sex and breed.

and deduct a figure, for the hauliers waiting time, they knew his arrival time, he left 3.5 hours after that.

if we get asked to buy again, next spring, it will be eyes very open, or no thankyou.

pity, really good calves, paid a very fair price, and being flexible over dates etc, then you get shat on, really not on. Trust needs to be on both sides.

 

[jackrussell101]

How much cake would a 6 month old stirk have consumed from birth? Fed ab lib and weaned off milk powder at approx 8-9 weeks old

 

[TheRanger]

How much cake would a 6 month old stirk have consumed from birth? Fed ab lib and weaned off milk powder at approx 8-9 weeks old

I’m feeding 4kg from weaning until 6 months, and they’re cleaning it up so could probably do more.

That’s 500kg from 8-26 weeks
Probably 100kg pre weaning too?

 

[Samcowman]

How much cake would a 6 month old stirk have consumed from birth? Fed ab lib and weaned off milk powder at approx 8-9 weeks old

Would they be having anything else whilst being on ad lib cake from 4-6 months? If just on ad lib cake up to 4 months is roughly 200kg another 2 months I haven’t done but wouldn’t surprise me if it was getting on for half a tonne

 

[Werzle]

How much cake would a 6 month old stirk have consumed from birth? Fed ab lib and weaned off milk powder at approx 8-9 weeks old

Why would a steer or hfr want adlib cake until they 6mths old would be my first question.

 

[Lincs]

How much cake would a 6 month old stirk have consumed from birth? Fed ab lib and weaned off milk powder at approx 8-9 weeks old

A kilo per month of age at 3/4/5months. So 5kgs per day at 5 months etc is what Ive found.
Up to 120d id feed about 170kgs
150d 290kgs
180d 440kgs

 

[AndrewM]

Calves bought at 4 weeks, weaned at 10weeks adlib cake till 12-15weeks, silage slowly introduced untill a batch of 30 is ready to move out of rearing pens to shed. Then restricted cake untill 6 months. Probably 3-4kg to start, gradually stepping down 0.5kg, untill 1kg for last month when out at grass.

Total cake was 430kg last year per head £130.

If i left them on adlib for any longer they would eat a huge amount.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

You are so right. A cow's udder is big and that's your clue for what calves need - milk, and plenty of it.

Correct.

The farm we're on is part of Dairy Holdings which has approx 55,000 cows, stats indicate farms which feed replacement heifers concentrates have on average 3kg lower liveweight than those who feed milk and pasture only. Also the conc. fed group have lower condition score going into and coming out of first winter.

TLDR: Calves need milk and grass to thrive, merchants need grain sales to survive

 

[ringi]

If wishing to use own milk, how many dairy cows would be needed for each brought in calf assumung once a day milking and no real effort to maximise milk output?

 

[Gulli]

If wishing to use own milk, how many dairy cows would be needed for each brought in calf assumung once a day milking and no real effort to maximise milk output?

Half a cow depends on a large amount of factors though.
Also why f about milking once a day when the calves can drink straight from the cow?
In a revolutionary new practice you could even get the cow to give birth to her own calf

 

[som farmer]

Would they be having anything else whilst being on ad lib cake from 4-6 months? If just on ad lib cake up to 4 months is roughly 200kg another 2 months I haven’t done but wouldn’t surprise me if it was getting on for half a tonne

we work on 5/600 kg, and feed adlib.

Why would a steer or hfr want adlib cake until they 6mths old would be my first question.

easy answer
growth rates for both, are the same till puberty. Then ration.

If wishing to use own milk, how many dairy cows would be needed for each brought in calf assumung once a day milking and no real effort to maximise milk output?

we store our colostrum, so with some waste milk, we don't need to much powder.

we only feed 4 litres of milk, if calves are really big, 5. Clean water from day one, and creep from day 2. By restricting milk intake, colostrum is 'strong', we can get the calves eating cake earlier, this allows earlier development of the rumen, which means transitioning from weak milk to solids, no check, calves are clearing 2kg+ when weaned, 8 weeks.

@ringi a word of warning. We sold our dairy in 99, and started rearing 100's of calves, 2007, our contracted powder price, finished, early so new price was substantially higher. So had the idea of milking a few cows, instead of buying powder. One thing led to another, and we rebuilt a parlour, and restarted milking proper, took about 5 weeks from 'think' to milking ! Peaked at 270 cows, back down to 120 now.

 

[ringi]

Half a cow depends on a large amount of factors though.
Also why f about milking once a day when the calves can drink straight from the cow?
In a revolutionary new practice you could even get the cow to give birth to her own calf

Need to overwinter many less cows and each cow can freed a few pairs of calfs before drying up. Eg many more calfs for a small farms but needing much higher time input, so converts a small farm into a fulltime income.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Need to overwinter many less cows and each cow can freed a few pairs of calfs before drying up. Eg many more calfs for a small farms but needing much higher time input, so converts a small farm into a fulltime income.

When I started out it was with cull/nurse cows, best would rear 12 and most would rear 10 calves. You just don't wean them at 800kgs like the beef farmers over there seem to like to do

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Half a cow depends on a large amount of factors though.
Also why f about milking once a day when the calves can drink straight from the cow?
In a revolutionary new practice you could even get the cow to give birth to her own calf

Surely there needs to be a visit from Mr Vink and some rubberware and detergents to reduce profitability

 

[som farmer]

Half a cow depends on a large amount of factors though.
Also why f about milking once a day when the calves can drink straight from the cow?
In a revolutionary new practice you could even get the cow to give birth to her own calf

cow could easily rear a dozen calves, by just letting groups of 4 suckle her.

milking her out, a cow giving 24 litres/day, could feed 6 calves.

one thing a dairy cow wont do, is get back in calf easily, if she suckles calves.

when the price of milkers plummeted, BSE, used to have loads of 'cheap' cows, £275 av, from dispersals, and set calves on them. If you wanted them to last, you had to feed them like a proper dairy ration. It worked, but you knackered the cows, milked some of them when we started milking again.

think how you would feed a dairy cow, giving 25litres, then think of the same cow suckling 2 or 3 or more calves, and how you would feed her............... then wonder why it knackered them.