Jersey cross/ purebreds, costs, outputs?

[organicguy]

Costing up a slight change in policy and feel confident some figures from the collective will be more accurate than books!
Please can you put some figures on my ? below.
Value pure Jersey bull calf, JxF, JxBB
Jersey cull cow? x cull cow?
Jersey output, autumn block, 1t cake?
Some idea of milk quality, yield , feed rate per litre?

Just trying to get my head around changing to PWAB milk where we are paid on quality and balancing increasing cow numbers, reducing beef, using J or JxF to improve milk quality.
Need to cost in the implications of being shut down with TB if trying to sell calves as well!

Many thanks for your help.
OG

 

[Manney]

Ok I will have a go but sure others are better qualified to answer.

Jr and jrx bull calves have next to no value. I find all buyers wary of anything with even a sniff of jr in it.

Cull value £350 jr, £450 for a jrx?

5000l at 10% solids off a 1ton cake maybe achievable?

The gains are made on the milk price if you have a good solids based contract.

Very efficient little cows that eat less then a fr so probably have a higher stocking rate.

 

[organicguy]

Thank you, I am obviously a Friesian fan but very aware that Jerseys are more efficient and think that the 50/50 bred to stay 50/50 is probably the most profitable cow to run on a grass based system, hence the look see.

 

[farmboy]

Surely you wouldn’t want to cross a lovely herd like yours??

 

[organicguy]

I can find a few screws!
(But that won,t work as I found out years ago using Reds on the worst third, they are still the worst third!)

 

[Llmmm]

Costing up a slight change in policy and feel confident some figures from the collective will be more accurate than books!
Please can you put some figures on my ? below.
Value pure Jersey bull calf, JxF, JxBB
Jersey cull cow? x cull cow?
Jersey output, autumn block, 1t cake?
Some idea of milk quality, yield , feed rate per litre?

Just trying to get my head around changing to PWAB milk where we are paid on quality and balancing increasing cow numbers, reducing beef, using J or JxF to improve milk quality.
Need to cost in the implications of being shut down with TB if trying to sell calves as well!

Many thanks for your help.
OG

The first cross will be great then youl think its the way forward then your backcrosses will come in to the herd and they will be your worst cows.Seen alot of big herds in south of ireland using kiwi cross after the first cross ive used some but they wont milk till next year they do look the part but scc feet and poor udders maybe an issue when they get older.Just remember youl end up with some almost pure jersey cows as each year they will be your only option to use on your maidens.

 

[Jdunn55]

Costing up a slight change in policy and feel confident some figures from the collective will be more accurate than books!
Please can you put some figures on my ? below.
Value pure Jersey bull calf, JxF, JxBB
Jersey cull cow? x cull cow?
Jersey output, autumn block, 1t cake?
Some idea of milk quality, yield , feed rate per litre?

Just trying to get my head around changing to PWAB milk where we are paid on quality and balancing increasing cow numbers, reducing beef, using J or JxF to improve milk quality.
Need to cost in the implications of being shut down with TB if trying to sell calves as well!

Many thanks for your help.
OG

Why???
Friesians graze just as well as jerseys and no one can convince me otherwise, yes jerseys will need less acres than a friesian but the friesian will reward you with extra milk and whatever you gain in ccomponents from the jersey you'll lose in cull and calf value, and imo, there wont be a contract in the country that will let you shoot crap calves within the next 10 years, which make me think friesians are the better choice as you dont get crap calves...

 

[Manney]

We have a handful of pure jrs in our herd of british fr's. They are great little cows but I'm not sure I would want a whole herd of them.

I culled a few jrx's this year and the best made £450. Best fr made £1050. That's a fair gap.

Fr calves I always manage to sell but anything with jr in them is a nightmare.

I wouldnt cross a herd of fr's but not wrong with having a few jrs in the herd.

 

[organicguy]

Rest assured I am not crossing breeding my herd, it is a potential expansion, (vanity project?) for someone who may be helping me in the future. It has to stack up financially for them and me. If I have some accurate costs from people with Jerseys/crosses I can work out the finances and pitfalls.
Extra cows would replace beef cattle, but calves would then need to be sold. At present nothing leaves the farm until it goes to the abattoir
which makes us reasonably TB proof.

 

[Llmmm]

Rest assured I am not crossing breeding my herd, it is a potential expansion, (vanity project?) for someone who may be helping me in the future. It has to stack up financially for them and me. If I have some accurate costs from people with Jerseys/crosses I can work out the finances and pitfalls.
Extra cows would replace beef cattle, but calves would then need to be sold. At present nothing leaves the farm until it goes to the abattoir
which makes us reasonably TB proof.

It would make alot of sense if instead of beef u used jersey and kept the first cross then breed them to blue which is a saleable calf id recommend american jersey bull pilgrim he will add milk and improve udders

 

[Barmyfarmer]

It would make alot of sense if instead of beef u used jersey and kept the first cross then breed them to blue which is a saleable calf id recommend american jersey bull pilgrim he will add milk and improve udders

I tried to get pilgrim this time but he was sold out so I used Dalton p? Putting on to Holsteins as a bit of a trial

 

[Cows 'n grass]

It would make alot of sense if instead of beef u used jersey and kept the first cross then breed them to blue which is a saleable calf id recommend american jersey bull pilgrim he will add milk and improve udders

Unfortunately there already won't be any sexed pilgrim available for May this year.

 

[Llmmm]

Unfortunately there already won't be any sexed pilgrim available for May this year.

Will there be any normal non sexed available its always the case good bulls they always run out im convinced people buy large quantities for future use.

 

[LTH]

i personally wouldn’t cross a pedigree herd of Friesians with jersey, onto commercial Holsteins makes a bit more sense to produce a smaller grazing animal but Friesian can produce nearly as good a solids off grass and provides other outlets of income which will be import once payments go that people have other outlets of income for when the milk price is sh!t. Possible something like Swedish/Scandinavian red to maintain Carcass be better?

 

[organicguy]

This is only, at the moment a costing project!
@Cows 'n grass and @jerseycowsman I was hoping I might get you to give me some figures. You generally seem to talk sense!

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Costing up a slight change in policy and feel confident some figures from the collective will be more accurate than books!
Please can you put some figures on my ? below.
Value pure Jersey bull calf, JxF, JxBB
Jersey cull cow? x cull cow?
Jersey output, autumn block, 1t cake?
Some idea of milk quality, yield , feed rate per litre?

Just trying to get my head around changing to PWAB milk where we are paid on quality and balancing increasing cow numbers, reducing beef, using J or JxF to improve milk quality.
Need to cost in the implications of being shut down with TB if trying to sell calves as well!

Many thanks for your help.
OG

Once the herd is established 5500 to 6000 at 6 and 4 off 1.4t should be quite achievable.

All bull calves are a cost. I'll be rearing mine to 56 days before taking them to market this year and I expect to get £10.

My blues would have averaged £80 - 100 at three weeks the last few years.

8 culls straight out of the parlour last week averaged £240.

My breeding policy at the moment is to maintain a nucleus of pure jerseys and breed HF x F1 replacements from the jerseys. The F1 J x HF will all go to BB.
As an expansion the same (in reverse) could work for you?

 

[jerseycowsman]

Once the herd is established 5500 to 6000 at 6 and 4 off 1.4t should be quite achievable.

All bull calves are a cost. I'll be rearing mine to 56 days before taking them to market this year and I expect to get £10.

My blues would have averaged £80 - 100 at three weeks the last few years.

8 culls straight out of the parlour last week averaged £240.

My breeding policy at the moment is to maintain a nucleus of pure jerseys and breed HF x F1 replacements from the jerseys. The F1 J x HF will all go to BB.
As an expansion the same (in reverse) could work for you?

Similar here, except I expect to get £50 for my 8 week old bull calves.
Average milk price of 37ppl this last 12 months!

 

[ImLost]

Once the herd is established 5500 to 6000 at 6 and 4 off 1.4t should be quite achievable.

All bull calves are a cost. I'll be rearing mine to 56 days before taking them to market this year and I expect to get £10.

My blues would have averaged £80 - 100 at three weeks the last few years.

8 culls straight out of the parlour last week averaged £240.

My breeding policy at the moment is to maintain a nucleus of pure jerseys and breed HF x F1 replacements from the jerseys. The F1 J x HF will all go to BB.
As an expansion the same (in reverse) could work for you?

Would it not be better to pay someone a couple of quid to take them at a few days, rather than lose a few more quid by rearing them to 56 days and only getting a tenner?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Would it not be better to pay someone a couple of quid to take them at a few days, rather than lose a few more quid by rearing them to 56 days and only getting a tenner?

I've got no idea what they'll make really but I also don't know anyone locally who would take them onto rear even if I paid them to take them. They might get £50. I've used all sexed semen so hopefully it will only be a handful of bull calves.

 

[Bald Rick]

Once the herd is established 5500 to 6000 at 6 and 4 off 1.4t should be quite achievable.

All bull calves are a cost. I'll be rearing mine to 56 days before taking them to market this year and I expect to get £10.

My blues would have averaged £80 - 100 at three weeks the last few years.

8 culls straight out of the parlour last week averaged £240.

My breeding policy at the moment is to maintain a nucleus of pure jerseys and breed HF x F1 replacements from the jerseys. The F1 J x HF will all go to BB.
As an expansion the same (in reverse) could work for you?

Yes about bang on but if organic, a lower average yield, if housed/intensive then 1500-2000 litres/lactation more
Jersey bulls are worthless. Angus crosses make £20 - 40 but can be more. Potential problems with larger beef breeds. We have the odd trouble with Hereford as the calf head is large (& it doesn't attract a premium over AA but our bull is quiet). We are currently trialling using Lim

Culls depend on country of origin. EU tagged cows make less than UK ones in our experience but budget cull value from £180-300

Basically, the value is in the milk hence why we are moving to a mongrel herd on the same lines as @Cows 'n grass to get a better calf price, better cull price and to be more flexible in the milk market

Having said that, Jersey cows are easy to work with and we intend to retain a strong nucleus