Keeping my calves as bull

[NorthumbrianFarmer]

Grandad used to have all sim x dairy sucklers when I was a little kid. That was what he swapped for the natives. When I came to swap back, same problem as you! Decent cow making types are nigh on impossible to source!

I’ve been told
To go to Carlisle’s calve ring but I’m not set up to rear calves on milk. Tried asking dairy farmers to put sims into the cows for me and non of them seem keen for some reason

 

[Anymulewilldo]

My suckler replacements all come as milk calves so we can grow them as we want them ready to bull at 14m. I’ve gone off heifers from the market a bit after too many not making the cut at 11/12m old. Prefer to get them direct from spots that keep the right kind of cows. But that’s no use if they don’t use the semen that you want

 

[NorthumbrianFarmer]

My suckler replacements all come as milk calves so we can grow them as we want them ready to bull at 14m. I’ve gone off heifers from the market a bit after too many not making the cut at 11/12m old. Prefer to get them direct from spots that keep the right kind of cows. But that’s no use if they don’t use the semen that you want

What do you reckon it costs to rear calve on milk till weaning? Last lot of simx I bought all turned out to be free martens which isn’t ideal for a making a cow

 

[Anymulewilldo]

What do you reckon it costs to rear calve on milk till weaning? Last lot of simx I bought all turned out to be free martens which isn’t ideal for a making a cow

Bloody hell that’s unfortunate!!!

 

[tr250]

I started out with black hfds and now got bbx fri and lim x fri, my first creep feeders are in the scrap pile and i cant believe how small they are compared to my modern ones. Stock frame/size has grown over the years without really realising it. Im due to start calving from the 11th Jan , only way to keep the cows correct in bag and wean oct/nov is to calve early. Been down the route of keeping back hfrs for cows but usually only get problems , mostly too wild and /or not milky enough.

We got fed up with mastitis and low swinging bags and the culling rate of dairy crosses was ok when the dairy cows were nice compact friesians but they are too extreme now. I think what we’ve lost on quantity of milk is gained by quality and we’re in control of our breeding and a closed herd now

 

[Anymulewilldo]

To get a calf from month old to proper weaned and growing at 12 weeks I think you’d struggle to do it below £150? Anyone got thoughts on that?

 

[Anymulewilldo]

We got fed up with mastitis and low swinging bags and the culling rate of dairy crosses was ok when the dairy cows were nice compact friesians but they are too extreme now. I think what we’ve lost on quantity of milk is gained by quality and we’re in control of our breeding and a closed herd now

I saw a bunch of pure Hereford heifers a couple of month back with month old calves at foot in the market. They’d already got bags like 10 year old cows and tits a calf would struggle to grab in the first day. and that was pure! So imagine what horrors that bull would throw on a dairy

 

[Werzle]

We got fed up with mastitis and low swinging bags and the culling rate of dairy crosses was ok when the dairy cows were nice compact friesians but they are too extreme now. I think what we’ve lost on quantity of milk is gained by quality and we’re in control of our breeding and a closed herd now

Yeah i could never calve them out on grass in May like the beef bred suckler cows, calve them jan /feb and have control over feeding to control the milk and then have a good sized calf to turn out in april that can cope with the spring flush of milk is my system.

 

[Werzle]

To get a calf from month old to proper weaned and growing at 12 weeks I think you’d struggle to do it below £150? Anyone got thoughts on that?

Milk powder £75-£100 and 100kgs of pellets is £30 +, plus time ,straw electric and a few problems/injections you wouldnt be far off

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Yeah i could never calve them out on grass in May like the beef bred suckler cows, calve them jan /feb and have control over feeding to control the milk and then have a good sized calf to turn out in april that can cope with the spring flush of milk is my system.

And there’s no creep that can compete with that flush of spring milk when a calf is 2 month old and ready to drink

 

[cows r us]

Bull beef is good when the abattoirs are short. However if they aren't too desperate it's the first to see price drops. Fat grades can be a problem, they will finish faster but in my experience will also eat more(in cash terms). More health issues on a hotter ration as they really do need pushing hard. Need creeping to get enough frame early on. We have actually recently gone the other way and are steering most now.

 

[tr250]

And there’s no creep that can compete with that flush of spring milk when a calf is 2 month old and ready to drink

That’s when they get bare arses.

 

[tr250]

Bull beef is good when the abattoirs are short. However if they aren't too desperate it's the first to see price drops. Fat grades can be a problem, they will finish faster but in my experience will also eat more(in cash terms). More health issues on a hotter ration as they really do need pushing hard. Need creeping to get enough frame early on. We have actually recently gone the other way and are steering most now.

In their lives or per kg of carcase. The biggest thing with us it if we steered all our bulls which does come with a bit of work which people can forget we would need another 100 acres of grassland to turn them out on and they would still need feeding to fat

 

[cows r us]

In their lives or per kg of carcase. The biggest thing with us it if we steered all our bulls which does come with a bit of work which people can forget we would need another 100 acres of grassland to turn them out on and they would still need feeding to fat

We only turn the smallest steers back out. The bigger ones we push to get finished earlier.

 

[tr250]

We only turn the smallest steers back out. The bigger ones we push to get finished earlier.

When do you calve?

 

[cows r us]

Feb to April mainly but will start in January and have a few going late due to ai work ect.

 

[tr250]

Bit earlier than us we start 17th March mainly done by end of April but get a few stragglers in may. I think we would probably have to turn steers out or we would be feeding cattle inside in harvest. We try and only have a handful of bulls left when we are combining or we get a bit short of tractors as soon as we done harvest we bring some heifers in to Finnish as well then they are gone by lambing time so we can lamb in the sheds turn the sheep out and start calving is the plan

 

[Guiggs]

To get a calf from month old to proper weaned and growing at 12 weeks I think you’d struggle to do it below £150? Anyone got thoughts on that?

I worked it out at £120 from 3-4 weeks old to weaning. That didn't include electricity for the water heater or any labour for me.
It was only half an hour- hour each end of the day depending on if they were being bedded up or not.

 

[M-J-G]

I started out with black hfds and now got bbx fri and lim x fri, my first creep feeders are in the scrap pile and i cant believe how small they are compared to my modern ones. Stock frame/size has grown over the years without really realising it. Im due to start calving from the 11th Jan , only way to keep the cows correct in bag and wean oct/nov is to calve early. Been down the route of keeping back hfrs for cows but usually only get problems , mostly too wild and /or not milky enough.

The dairy breeding won't help the mastitis situation, even the beef cross daughters seem to be of that disposition.

 

[M-J-G]

I saw a bunch of pure Hereford heifers a couple of month back with month old calves at foot in the market. They’d already got bags like 10 year old cows and tits a calf would struggle to grab in the first day. and that was pure! So imagine what horrors that bull would throw on a dairy

There are a lot of very poor bulls of all breeds used on dairy herds.