Help updating our cattle system please!

[Poorbuthappy]

Hardly seems worth the hassle. Have you considered rearing dairy heifers? There are plenty of farms around here that would love to have their heifers reared in a TB free environment and will pay £1.30 per head per day.

1.30x365 = £474.50

Assume costs per animal is the same at £355 a head

474.50-355 = £119.50 a head

119.50 x 80 = £9560 total profit

Money tied up = £28400.

That would give a 33% profit margin compared to the 13% you have currently.

Yes but I suspect by the time you factor in higher beef price than last year, and lower barley prices, the beef profit will be comparable to the contract dairy heifers.
Though I grant you outlay will be higher.

 

[-chris-]

My intention was to highlight how little we earnt but it was argued that we don't pay the rent, make the hay/silage ourselves, the barley does not cost us £150/t and he didn't have anything else to do with his time haha.

 

[DRC]

My intention was to highlight how little we earnt but it was argued that we don't pay the rent, make the hay/silage ourselves, the barley does not cost us £150/t and he didn't have anything else to do with his time haha.

You could have sold the barley for £150 though!.
Your figures show that most of your expense, and time, is during the winter.
You would make as much buying in the spring and selling in the autumn, even if you only put £100/ head on them over summer.
convert the old buildings into business units if you don't want people living there 24/7.

 

[Walterp]

How would sheep reach a centre pass for cattle? Think it would be more than changing feed barriers.

Standard design in this region is a 12' passage, on same level as the rest of the shed (sometimes with a small lip of 2", which is what we've got) with 100mm square posts every 15' (in 15' bays) with timber-skirted hinged feed barriers hanging off each post.

This means that you can draw cattle out of any pen, into the passage and then (depending on the location of the handling sysytem) into the crush. This means you can - as a one-man operation - simply pull an animal out of a pen, attend to it in the crush, and put it back without any delay or help. All under cover.

It's important to hinge the barriers, and to have the skirts so they swing either forward into the passage or back into the pen. They can be replaced with sheep barriers just by unhooking 'em and hanging new ones.

I'll try to dig out a photo I've got somewhere.

 

[Flossie]

Hardly seems worth the hassle. Have you considered rearing dairy heifers? There are plenty of farms around here that would love to have their heifers reared in a TB free environment and will pay £1.30 per head per day.

1.30x365 = £474.50

Assume costs per animal is the same at £355 a head

474.50-355 = £119.50 a head

119.50 x 80 = £9560 total profit

Money tied up = £28400.

That would give a 33% profit margin compared to the 13% you have currently.

Next to no dairy over on the east side

Sorry, just re read it. You're on about sending them over

 

[Walterp]

Best photos I could get, which shows most of the design points:

 

[Chae1]

Ok, see what you mean. We tip barley in ours at harvest. So extra depth important. Saves mucking so often also.

 

[KennyO]

For this year can you try and get them onto some sort of ad lib diet. Maybe silage and straw for he young ones and then barley/meal plus maybe beet for the older ones.

Just need to get a door hopper for the meal and some sort of bunker for silage. Simplest design I have seen is a two posts same width as door but say 12 feet back then put barriers or even two rails from door edge to posts and between posts to give a three sided bunker to tip silage in.

Simplest grain hopper was a 24 inch steel pipe which had been halved and a top rail added. This sat in the door way of an old barn to ad lib Holstein bulls.

Longer term new shed if you want to stick at the beef job.

 

[S J H]

Those cattle don't seem like poor types, I can't understand why they're scouring if there on adlib. Personally I wouldn't adlib feed but twice a day. You could buy in a compound rather than mill. Don't buy a straw chopper to use in those buildings, Tip a bale over the gate and roll it out.

 

[Matt]

I think if you want to stick at the cattle you need to make it more user friendly. Instead of putting up one big shed straight off, put a decent size shed up something like 45 ft wide and 75 long. But have it high enough to be able to put a lean to on at some point. You could house your most resource intrnsive stock there. Giving you more space in the old sheds which you might possibly be able to shut them on one side or gate it to shut them into a half. At least with less stock in there you could go to doing some feeding and bedding every other day. Then you can see how it goes with not having your dad about so much, gives you chance to save some more for further sheds. Of you do put a shed up have it set out so you can put a shed up along side in a row. I would feed down outside under canopy then do a mirror shed in future. It's what we are slowly doing. Hope to be far better than having horse and cart sheds. What ever you do try and design it one man set up. Not easy but something to work toward.

 

[jade35]

Yes you are right, weight is our biggest issue this year. Last week we easily fitted 5 cattle in the trailer for the 20 mile trip. My feeling is that we should buy/rear quality and feed with a measured ration.

Where do you sell the cattle? market or abbatoir? and what weights and grades are you achieving?

Local contractor keeps continental crosses and holstein friesian steers, the continentals he finishes at under 18 months iirc and the hf steers he runs as cheaply and extensively as possible until almost 2 years and then finishes them well. He feels that until two years they are still growing and it is more expensive to fatten them.
He does have an abbatoir that will take heavier cattle with no penalty which makes it a sensible option.

Are some of the cattle native breeds and native crosses? The idea of a farm shop or similar enterprise is not a bad idea for this type of cattle, or find an abbatoir or dealer who is looking for traditional type cattle finished well to supply to local butchers.

 

[C.J]

Barley and fodder beet will add plenty of energy to your silage and will be O.K for fattening,But growing cattle will need more protein.

Is your silage from new leys or P.P that you can't crop?

A mobile mill and mix can add protein to balance your silage.

Several people have suggested you need to finish quicker.Its a long time since I've looked at maintenance/growth tables but from what I remember even at respectable LWG Half your energy is lost in maintenance activity.

If you could fatten your cattle at grass with rolled barley supplement, your could sell fat in the autumn at 2 Y.O giving you to keep more space through the winter to keep more yearlings.

This would also improve cash flow.

Do you have a weigh crush ?

 

[-chris-]

Cattle are going to smt, a couple of the worst could be 210kg -O2 but we have some at 274kg 0+4l. This year the stores were more expensive but some are making £1200 fat

 

[jade35]

Cattle are going to smt, a couple of the worst could be 210kg -O2 but we have some at 274kg 0+4l. This year the stores were more expensive but some are making £1200 fat

Which breeds are making the best grades/weights? and the worst grades/weights? If SMT are like Jaspers at Launceston they penalise for light carcase weights. iirc between 270kg? and 400kg there is no penalty but go any lower and the loss is cumulative because they pay less per kg and you have less carcase weight. Les Vanstone of Jaspers reminds me every so often that weight is king and the increase in weight generally improves the grades as well.

Agree with C.J the younger ones need to put on the frame the first winter which means a higher protein diet. Once they have the frame everything else becomes easier.