- Location
- Yorkshire
Think he means buying in fresh Calvers but may mean in calf rather than paying someone else to rear his own heifer calves off farm till there due to calve
Contract Rearing Dairy Heifers
- Thread starter Thick Farmer
- Start date
[emoji23] yeah did realise after reading following posts. But on a general note can they bought at a month old or as yearlings from Holland or Germany?
- Location
- Acton Scott, South Shropshire
One major concern I would have with buying from continent would be the way johnes is tested/recorded. Our vets advise that you could be importing yourself serious issues.
happycows
Member
- Location
- North Devon Cornwall border
In calf heifers a month or two from calving.
Fleckvieh x Holstein
Would you agree the Germans and Dutch are ahead of the uk in terms of breeding?
happycows
Member
- Location
- North Devon Cornwall border
I know i could never find the selection of Fleckvieh X’s in this country of the quality out there, combined with the fact you can select what you like and walk away from anything you don’t fancy without obligation.
That’s not to say there aren’t quality crosses here but you’d struggle to find them.
There are a lot of very good farmers on the continent who have had a focus on quality milk longer than many over here.
On the health front i’ve found them spot on.
- Location
- somerset
Europe was ahead of us, for payment on solids, I think we went, white water, while they concentrated on solids more.
We estimate our cost of rearing a hfr to calving, circa £12-1300, mortality rate, can quickly, and seriously, push that up.
However, that's not the whole equation, if you reckon nearly a third of your own hfrs calving in, have a 'problem', whether that is 3/4, low yield, bad calving, slow, or even plain evil, some batches better, some worse. Age of calving, even replacement rate, has to be factored in. The result, if you go and buy, a bunch of fresh calved hfrs, you eliminate all those problems, straight away, and get a hfr you want. Personally, I like to rear my own hfrs, and have had 2/3 yrs of high hfr-bull ratio, without using sexed, the end result, having to many hfrs about ! But, always sellable.
I would think, if you took, a 2yr loan, and bought the hfrs in, count the cost of beef calves in, that would be considerably cheaper, than rearing your own. The 2 bugbears, are TB, and disease, a third, because of the rise in sexed semen, farmers may only breed enough, for themselves, leaving a shortage, of UK hfrs.
We estimate our cost of rearing a hfr to calving, circa £12-1300, mortality rate, can quickly, and seriously, push that up.
However, that's not the whole equation, if you reckon nearly a third of your own hfrs calving in, have a 'problem', whether that is 3/4, low yield, bad calving, slow, or even plain evil, some batches better, some worse. Age of calving, even replacement rate, has to be factored in. The result, if you go and buy, a bunch of fresh calved hfrs, you eliminate all those problems, straight away, and get a hfr you want. Personally, I like to rear my own hfrs, and have had 2/3 yrs of high hfr-bull ratio, without using sexed, the end result, having to many hfrs about ! But, always sellable.
I would think, if you took, a 2yr loan, and bought the hfrs in, count the cost of beef calves in, that would be considerably cheaper, than rearing your own. The 2 bugbears, are TB, and disease, a third, because of the rise in sexed semen, farmers may only breed enough, for themselves, leaving a shortage, of UK hfrs.
- Tags
- dairy