forced to stop milking, advice on making suckle herd from dairy

[GenuineRisk]

I guess if you are strict with your selectivity re what you keep from your Hereford crosses, then using a Blue bull would make soemsense. As you say, sometimes it’s more than just straight £££ - temperament, health issues, etc etc all have to be factored in. Blue x Hereford is a proven cross and works well. If you’re not keeping a large herd, then AI has to be your friend here - use a good Lim or maybe Saler on your heifers, Blue thereafter. I do agree with many of the above posters, though - suckler herds are already having a rough time and it’s only going to get worse.

Dairy trade was flying at Sedgemoor on Saturday - I think I’d want to sell and have a good think about how to reinvest.

 

[michael N123]

Get some sheep to

 

[neilo]

Get some sheep to

To complete the transition from wealthy dairy farmer to dust scratting peasant?

 

[milkloss]

To complete the transition from wealthy dairy farmer to dust scratting peasant?

Yep, there’s definitely something masochistic about that

 

[milkloss]

Hybrid vigour is free why not grab it with both hands?

Ya, but you can still get hybrid vigour without involving Holstein genetics

 

[BELOWAVERAGE]

To complete the transition from wealthy dairy farmer to dust scratting peasant?

Yearning for the days gone by ?

 

[Jonny B88]

Ya, but you can still get hybrid vigour without involving Holstein genetics

Couldn’t agree more!

 

[unlacedgecko]

To complete the transition from wealthy dairy farmer to dust scratting peasant?

#ShitKickerLife

 

[Derrick Hughes]

From my experience you will never make any money out of livestock farming if you finish with milk , sheep or beef , and that was through the glory years when you got £200/head sub

 

[Mc115reed]

Just putting it out there....
put a big monster of a shed up, 24:48 parlour, keep cows in all year.. ram feed and concentrates into them like it’s going out of fashion.. rent every patch of ground possible in a 50 mile radius .. milk 1500 cows 3 times a day and your milk supplier will come collect the milk happily ??

 

[milkloss]

Just putting it out there....
put a big monster of a shed up, 24:48 parlour, keep cows in all year.. ram feed and concentrates into them like it’s going out of fashion.. rent every patch of ground possible in a 50 mile radius .. milk 1500 cows 3 times a day and your milk supplier will come collect the milk happily ??

I know you jest but I haven’t heard a cow boy complaining lately, have you?

 

[escapedfromunderthecow]

we came out of milk, kept the favourite old girls, got a north devon bull and some pedigree cows, it has been hard going, had to buy in cheap calves to use the surplus milk til the old girls had calves, now running 90 sucklers, love the lifestyle but store prices are killing us this year. Nothing would get me to milk a cow again , a monthly milk cheque is only good if it covers costs and leaves a profit. Keep a simple system, no hard to calve breeds, no holsteins and no concentrate!

 

[Nearly]

we came out of milk, kept the favourite old girls, got a north devon bull and some pedigree cows, it has been hard going, had to buy in cheap calves to use the surplus milk til the old girls had calves, now running 90 sucklers, love the lifestyle but store prices are killing us this year. Nothing would get me to milk a cow again , a monthly milk cheque is only good if it covers costs and leaves a profit. Keep a simple system, no hard to calve breeds, no holsteins and no concentrate!

+polled bull.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Imagine yourself in the middle of the Atlantic, force 10 , you have a hole in you canoe, no bucket to chuck the water out and you lose you paddle over board, that is what sheep farming is like having been a dairy farmer all your life , you cant swim either

 

[ADHDan]

so many repsonses! thankyou all. i'll try and answer as many of the questions here in 1 reply
farm is on the doorstep of newark livestock market, TB4yearly, i realise we might find more buyers for the milk but in the next couple years we need a new milking parlour, ideally a new cow house as well all rolled into one big building, massive investment when your not sure how long the next guy is going to be taking your milk for.... i wont miss milking.
dairy had a big turnover but when you deduct the bills ... ..for us anyway. the workload didnt match the reward.

we are going to sell some in calf dairy heifers as we already have them, if theres a market we might retain some cows for it, in terms of beef, i figured we have the shed space for 100 cows and another 100 smaller stock, last year we had too many and overwintered some herefordX outside and they did very well.
i dont know whats best in the area, finishing or store, i'll have a look at newark market sales i guess and see what people are buying and when and aim for stock to fit in with that,
we've got the scope to retain and finish if we think its best, i do like the idea of spring calving and selling them as 7month weaners no idea if its the way to go, it just sounds good to let the grass do the work!

holstein is with us as we have lots of herefordX and BBx coming through (heifers hopefully), the long term plan was to see what calves we got, add in new genetics along the way to improve.

we have agri as well, the dairy wasnt the only income, it just took up 99% of the workload

 

[goodevans]

i grew up with dairy herd, 3 generations have houses on farm site which just wouldnt be the same if the fields around us arent grass with shitters on them, as long as a suckler herd will pay for it self then i want cows to remain, were on sand/gravel, we need the muck anyway

You need a quarry

 

[le bon paysan]

so many repsonses! thankyou all. i'll try and answer as many of the questions here in 1 reply
farm is on the doorstep of newark livestock market, TB4yearly, i realise we might find more buyers for the milk but in the next couple years we need a new milking parlour, ideally a new cow house as well all rolled into one big building, massive investment when your not sure how long the next guy is going to be taking your milk for.... i wont miss milking.
dairy had a big turnover but when you deduct the bills ... ..for us anyway. the workload didnt match the reward.

we are going to sell some in calf dairy heifers as we already have them, if theres a market we might retain some cows for it, in terms of beef, i figured we have the shed space for 100 cows and another 100 smaller stock, last year we had too many and overwintered some herefordX outside and they did very well.
i dont know whats best in the area, finishing or store, i'll have a look at newark market sales i guess and see what people are buying and when and aim for stock to fit in with that,
we've got the scope to retain and finish if we think its best, i do like the idea of spring calving and selling them as 7month weaners no idea if its the way to go, it just sounds good to let the grass do the work!

holstein is with us as we have lots of herefordX and BBx coming through (heifers hopefully), the long term plan was to see what calves we got, add in new genetics along the way to improve.

we have agri as well, the dairy wasnt the only income, it just took up 99% of the workload

What about breeding dairy replacements?
You calve the heifer and parlour train her. Sell her full in milk ,ready to go.
Put your best cows to dairy and the others to beef.
Sell beef stores / finish them.
And because your not selling milk, spending hours a day in the pit, you don't have to re invest in a new parlour .
Always trade for a full in milk, fresh calved , parlour trained animal. Money straight in the tank!
Edit, and no dairy inspections? Just a farm assured?

 

[ollie989898]

I can't be the only one right? Let's have a sanity check here.

Reads read of forum- beef job is dead apparently.

Reads new post on forum. Going out of dairy, into beef we come?!

#chasetherainbow?

 

[digger64]

so many repsonses! thankyou all. i'll try and answer as many of the questions here in 1 reply
farm is on the doorstep of newark livestock market, TB4yearly, i realise we might find more buyers for the milk but in the next couple years we need a new milking parlour, ideally a new cow house as well all rolled into one big building, massive investment when your not sure how long the next guy is going to be taking your milk for.... i wont miss milking.
dairy had a big turnover but when you deduct the bills ... ..for us anyway. the workload didnt match the reward.

we are going to sell some in calf dairy heifers as we already have them, if theres a market we might retain some cows for it, in terms of beef, i figured we have the shed space for 100 cows and another 100 smaller stock, last year we had too many and overwintered some herefordX outside and they did very well.
i dont know whats best in the area, finishing or store, i'll have a look at newark market sales i guess and see what people are buying and when and aim for stock to fit in with that,
we've got the scope to retain and finish if we think its best, i do like the idea of spring calving and selling them as 7month weaners no idea if its the way to go, it just sounds good to let the grass do the work!

holstein is with us as we have lots of herefordX and BBx coming through (heifers hopefully), the long term plan was to see what calves we got, add in new genetics along the way to improve.

we have agri as well, the dairy wasnt the only income, it just took up 99% of the workload

are you saying that you are virtually on the A1 and they don't want to collect the milk ?

 

[Whitepeak]

I can't be the only one right? Let's have a sanity check here.

Reads read of forum- beef job is dead apparently.

Reads new post on forum. Going out of dairy, into beef we come?!

#chasetherainbow?

Was just about to comment that over on the dairy forums that there is atleast 3 new threads about going from sucklers to dairy...