Feeding Sucker Calves

[wellingtonfarmer]

Neighbour has 40 - 50 spring calves in a shed , weaned off there mothers a month ago ad lib on a blend ...... 6t a week @ £227 blown & he's had some delivered in tote bags

I'm talking about whilst they are on there mothers. I have a shed full of Bulls that are on ablib, but the food isn't costing £227

 

[gone up the hill]

I'm talking about whilst they are on there mothers. I have a shed full of Bulls that are on ablib, but the food isn't costing £227

How much a ton is it costing you?

 

[wellingtonfarmer]

How much a ton is it costing you?

£150ish

 

[Hilti]

I'm talking about whilst they are on there mothers. I have a shed full of Bulls that are on ablib, but the food isn't costing £227

he went through twice as much , nearer 15t before being spanned
Different part of the country , different ways .

 

[gone up the hill]

£150ish

Wow...

Must have a lot if filler then this year..??

As barley is £130t before its milled, added on £15t for that and protein/ minerals then you are easily around the £180t mark if not more!

 

[had e nuff]

Ours are getting about 2 kgs of 16% rearer nuts in the creep a day. Still plenty of grass for them and mum. Will wean them when they come in later in Nov and put them on 3kgs of blend and good quality pit silage. Sell as stores in the spring at 12/14 months.

 

[wellingtonfarmer]

Didn't realise barley was that much? I was putting it in at £120 feed oats £115, wheat distillers £183 molale £146

65.5% barley
16% oats
11.5% wheat distillers
5% molale
2% limestone/minerals

 

[wellingtonfarmer]

It never costs 15t to roll either. A tractor and man £30/ hour loadall £10 it's only working half the time. Roller mill £3/tonne depreciation. 10tonne hour is £7 tonne

 

[Wishful Thinker]

Neighbour has 40 - 50 spring calves in a shed , weaned off there mothers a month ago ad lib on a blend ...... 6t a week @ £227 blown & he's had some delivered in tote bags

Sorry sounds like a story to me, physically not possible for them calves to eat that much.

 

[Sharpy]

Sorry sounds like a story to me, physically not possible for them calves to eat that much.

Thats nearly 20kg per head per day assuming 45 head. No chance.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

this is why some folk are getting £900 for a suckled calf take £240 off for the creep,

What you feeding them.....saffron

 

[Bossfarmer]

what value do you put on the silage fed to suckled calves over the winter? to compare to an arable crop on the same land.

I'm one of the guys you talk of shoving nearly 2t of grain into a suckled calf but I'm selling fat at 12-15month £1250 as a rough average, yes I get the odd heifer goes a touch fat so sold under weight (500kg ish) but I will have a few bullocks get over 600 LWT so averages out. Lim and Blue X calves out of a mix of cows BSH

I have always viewed it as keeping the beast longer would result in more bedding/housing costs or grazing so isn't necessarily cheaper feeding a lower price feed/day for longer gets you to the same end point but added bedding etc. there is probably a balance which I may be a touch over but adlib feeding has a lot of time benefits so I can afford to over feed (slightly) to offset the reduced workload.

I have 1 neighbour that talks of free grazing for his yearlings he just sees grain as a cost rather than an investment. I'm quite fortunate in that near all of my land could be ploughed for barley/wheat I do like to reseed grass the only reason some doesn't get a brake is it would be painful combining 5 acre paddocks dotted all-over.

surely if theyre fat you should be achieving £1500?? im getting near that price for my biggest stores? the way i see in in my system is ive got the ground and im near my limit for grain storage/dryer labour etc so dont really want to grow any more, nor do i need the work of calving more so i just keep them, feed minimal barley and chuck them to grass

 

[Bossfarmer]

my plan when I get the farm stocked enough is to sell store but for now I'm shoving the grass hard with cows the arable hard and feeding the grain is giving a better return than selling it (ignoring the extra work aspect <goes against my earlier comment!)

I feed the stores 1ce every 3 weeks with grain 4 ton in a beef hopper in front of 25 then its only a good hour per day and everything is fed and looked over.

with the beef hopper theyll be ad lib though so eating more barley than they need?

 

[Bossfarmer]

I put the creep out the first days of August and depending on season they will eat about 140 kg of feed per head between then and the end of October . This is on an ad-lib basis so how anyone can manage to get them to eat a ton of feed is a puzzle to me .

if they were weaned at 10 months old they could

 

[Bossfarmer]

Neighbour has 40 - 50 spring calves in a shed , weaned off there mothers a month ago ad lib on a blend ...... 6t a week @ £227 blown & he's had some delivered in tote bags

that cant be right thats near 20g a head per day? u sure you dont mean per month?

 

[hendrebc]

True, and not all dairy farmers calve their heifers at 24mths. There'll be several in this area that calve at 30-36mths.

I think a lot of calving

surely if theyre fat you should be achieving £1500?? im getting near that price for my biggest stores? the way i see in in my system is ive got the ground and im near my limit for grain storage/dryer labour etc so dont really want to grow any more, nor do i need the work of calving more so i just keep them, feed minimal barley and chuck them to grass

Theres nothing wrong with selling them earlier keep the grain the same and sit in the house some more over winter instead of feeding cattle if that pays better.

 

[Henarar]

At the end of the day it don't matter how many cows you keep how much you feed them when you wean them or how much they make its the difference in what you pay out to what you get back that counts

 

[Top Tip.]

At the end of the day it don't matter how many cows you keep how much you feed them when you wean them or how much they make its the difference in what you pay out to what you get back that counts

Best post on this thread

 

[dannewhouse]

with the beef hopper theyll be ad lib though so eating more barley than they need?

I agree I could be better feeding so much per day (it is a ration rather than straight barley) but say I feed 6kgs? and they are eating 8 if left adlib is the saving in feed enough to warrant me spending some time every day just feeding grain? I aren't set up too well for it so I don't have a pile to dig off with tractor bucket

I view it as perhaps a very easy/lazy? way of farming but as long as it returns a profit I will remain this way unless I review the system and find feeding daily would warrant the extra work.

 

[dannewhouse]

surely if theyre fat you should be achieving £1500?? im getting near that price for my biggest stores? the way i see in in my system is ive got the ground and im near my limit for grain storage/dryer labour etc so dont really want to grow any more, nor do i need the work of calving more so i just keep them, feed minimal barley and chuck them to grass

the better ones do its very easy to tell everyone your best price but unfortunately its the average what pays the bill not the best?

It is all well and good C sectioning the odd bb calf out which are worth a fortune but with added losses and added costs I doesn't pay the bills but looks good topping the market? (not saying any of you are doing this)