Heifer costs.

[had e nuff]

What do you think it costs to rear a heifer to calving at 2 years old. Boss where i milk at been at a meeting this week and was saying tonight that they were told roughly about £1950. Seems alot, are they on ad lib feed all their lives.
Think it wad Kite who did the figures.

 

[I thats it]

You can make figures say what ever you want. If you included time and return on investment, then didn't calve till 30month plus I'm sure you could get to figures up that region

 

[More to life]

You can make figures say what ever you want. If you included time and return on investment, then didn't calve till 30month plus I'm sure you could get to figures up that region

I’ve seen figures that suggested it can cost anything from £800. -£3000 to rear a heifer totally depended on the farm.

 

[Princess Pooper]

It costs us about £1.8k, to calve at 23 months, that's because as a small farm we are very labour intensive. Overheads and age at first calving usually much more of an issue than feed.

 

[Princess Pooper]

You can make figures say what ever you want. If you included time and return on investment, then didn't calve till 30 month plus I'm sure you could get to figures up that region

How can you not include time?

 

[dinderleat]

£1.5 per day until point of calving plus the value of calf when born you could also add in the loss of a possible beef calf from you dairy bulls unless you use all sexed.
But very much depends on the farm and system.

 

[had e nuff]

So maybe £1950 isn't too far away. Still must be better than buying in foreign heifers.

 

[dinderleat]

Don’t forget the reduced disease risk in rearing your own which is probably priceless.

 

[had e nuff]

Don’t forget the reduced disease risk in rearing your own which is probably priceless.

We once bought some German heifers and not one of them out performed our home bred heifers.

 

[thewalrus]

Hard to compare this cost against the cost of buying as many costs are sunk costs. Eg If you’ve built a shed to house them it’s still there. Labour costs may not go down either especially if you’ve no paid staff.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

If it cost that to rear a heifer the beef job and forward stores are waaaay out.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

There are many different ways to cost things. Mine are on rented ground where sfp and hls more than pay the rent so no land cost?

Mine are spring born and outside at a few weeks old on a trailer feeder with minimal calf rearing facilities.

I rear 200 a year

Milk powder 2 bags £80
Cake in year one. Upto 400kg. £100
Depreciation of calf equipment. £10
Workers/vaccine. £20
First year grazing.
Feet and reseed cost. £50
100 days kale and bales
1 bale. £20
0.1 AC kale £20
Second year grazing rent free
Topping thistles fencing. 5k £25
60 days housing prior to calving
600kg DM silage at @£100/t. £60
Building maintenance. £25
Labour. 40k? £200


Total. £610

Round it up to £700 What have I missed?

 

[dinderleat]

If it cost that to rear a heifer the beef job and forward stores are waaaay out.

Do the sums there isn’t any money in forward stores or the beef job at the moment. If your rearing heifers it means you could be milking more cows but as I said depends on the farms situation.

 

[I thats it]

There are many different ways to cost things. Mine are on rented ground where sfp and hls more than pay the rent so no land cost?

Mine are spring born and outside at a few weeks old on a trailer feeder with minimal calf rearing facilities.

I rear 200 a year

Milk powder 2 bags £80
Cake in year one. Upto 400kg. £100
Depreciation of calf equipment. £10
Workers/vaccine. £20
First year grazing.
Feet and reseed cost. £50
100 days kale and bales
1 bale. £20
0.1 AC kale £20
Second year grazing rent free
Topping thistles fencing. 5k £25
60 days housing prior to calving
600kg DM silage at @£100/t. £60
Building maintenance. £25
Labour. 40k? £200


Total. £610

Round it up to £700 What have I missed?

What do you vaccinate your workers with? Some of mine look like they need vaccinating [emoji12]

 

[Cows 'n grass]

What do you vaccinate your workers with? Some of mine look like they need vaccinating [emoji12]

Blackleg £2 Lepto £2

 

[thewalrus]

There are many different ways to cost things. Mine are on rented ground where sfp and hls more than pay the rent so no land cost?

Mine are spring born and outside at a few weeks old on a trailer feeder with minimal calf rearing facilities.

I rear 200 a year

Milk powder 2 bags £80
Cake in year one. Upto 400kg. £100
Depreciation of calf equipment. £10
Workers/vaccine. £20
First year grazing.
Feet and reseed cost. £50
100 days kale and bales
1 bale. £20
0.1 AC kale £20
Second year grazing rent free
Topping thistles fencing. 5k £25
60 days housing prior to calving
600kg DM silage at @£100/t. £60
Building maintenance. £25
Labour. 40k? £200


Total. £610

Round it up to £700 What have I missed?

The value of the calf

 

[More to life]

The value of the calf

Also the cost of the dairy bull calf

 

[More to life]

There are many different ways to cost things. Mine are on rented ground where sfp and hls more than pay the rent so no land cost?

Mine are spring born and outside at a few weeks old on a trailer feeder with minimal calf rearing facilities.

I rear 200 a year

Milk powder 2 bags £80
Cake in year one. Upto 400kg. £100
Depreciation of calf equipment. £10
Workers/vaccine. £20
First year grazing.
Feet and reseed cost. £50
100 days kale and bales
1 bale. £20
0.1 AC kale £20
Second year grazing rent free
Topping thistles fencing. 5k £25
60 days housing prior to calving
600kg DM silage at @£100/t. £60
Building maintenance. £25
Labour. 40k? £200


Total. £610

Round it up to £700 What have I missed?

Fertility costs

 

[dairyrow]

christ a contract rearer by us is on £1 a day to rear a big spring calving herd heifers upto i think bulling size. sounded very happy on that money.

 

[Homesy]

The value of the calf

Yep but most of them produce a calf so most of that is cancelled out. if using sexed semen they can become almost self replacing.
The semen cost needs to be included mind.
Also most people have land which is unsuitable for cropping or grazing cows. If that's the case summer keep is fairly cheap. The same with labour. If you have spare time during the day, the labour costs are negligible. If you are paying someone just to rear the heifers then that's different. Most dairy farms have peak requirement at milking times and surplus during the rest of the day.
No one farm is the same.