M ost profitable beef system...

bobk

Member
Location
stafford
Firstly sorry to everyone who have posted on this thread for my late reply..

Some very intresting comments/ systems..

I would be very intrested to hear about the difference in cost's to your two systems for the suckler cows in the above systems??

Tb is/has been the death knell for quality suckled calf beef production for sure!!

Havent got figures to hand but from memory the cost to keep a cow on my farm (( all cost's including labour etc ) is about £660/ head as for the fhinshing side.. on ad lib corn/ protein and silage/ straw it worked out about £2/head/ day for steers/ bull with an average liveweight gain of 1.7 kilos/ day..

In all honesty the returns from the game arent really good enough for the money/work tied up in it..

( Now a request : can any suckled calve producer that is thinking of selling their calves off the cow put a ring on its balls and NOT squeeze them when they get a few months old, went to a sale on Exmoor on mon and clear as night follows day that a lot of the males that were sold as steers it would be 50/50 if they were actually steers/ bulls... any that don't look 100 % steers will defo sell for less!!! )

That's interesting I'm totally the opposite , can't be doing with rubber rings please pinch them all the time .

I totally agree which is why im only running a handful currently, prob will be if we all think like this where will the store cattle come from??

I bought several store steers yesterday, average 10 months old, well grown for their ages and they averaged £553/ across the board!!

Very few people actually know their true costs of keeping a suckler cow all year.. and would be horrified if they did!!

They weren't expensive , mind you beef is 25p / kg down in this area at the mo, hopefully it will come back next month
 
Location
Devon
That's interesting I'm totally the opposite , can't be doing with rubber rings please pinch them all the time .



They weren't expensive , mind you beef is 25p / kg down in this area at the mo, hopefully it will come back next month

Prob with pinching them is so many farmers don't do it right and only catch one, if you ring them you know its done right and can see that when you buy them !!

They will be okay at that price, thou in all honesty they need to be £100/ head less with the cost of feed/ beef price at mo!!
 

exmoor dave

Member
Location
exmoor, uk
Firstly sorry to everyone who have posted on this thread for my late reply..

Some very intresting comments/ systems..

I would be very intrested to hear about the difference in cost's to your two systems for the suckler cows in the above systems??

Tb is/has been the death knell for quality suckled calf beef production for sure!!

Havent got figures to hand but from memory the cost to keep a cow on my farm (( all cost's including labour etc ) is about £660/ head as for the fhinshing side.. on ad lib corn/ protein and silage/ straw it worked out about £2/head/ day for steers/ bull with an average liveweight gain of 1.7 kilos/ day..

In all honesty the returns from the game arent really good enough for the money/work tied up in it..

( Now a request : can any suckled calve producer that is thinking of selling their calves off the cow put a ring on its balls and NOT squeeze them when they get a few months old, went to a sale on Exmoor on mon and clear as night follows day that a lot of the males that were sold as steers it would be 50/50 if they were actually steers/ bulls... any that don't look 100 % steers will defo sell for less!!! )


@gone up the hill
When I get to a computer I'll do a better explanation of our two herd systems. Can't help hugely with costs as the cattle are dad's (we run two separate businesses) and getting the figures won't be easy.


Was that cutcombe Monday you were at? Was it as expensive as usual?
Top quality exmoor stock! (y)
 

bazza3034

Member
Location
co.tyrone
I totally agree which is why im only running a handful currently, prob will be if we all think like this where will the store cattle come from??

I bought several store steers yesterday, average 10 months old, well grown for their ages and they averaged £553/ across the board!!

Very few people actually know their true costs of keeping a suckler cow all year.. and would be horrified if they did!!
I think about two pound per day they dont pay if you left anything on your own time you would cry
 

Riddle

Member
Location
North Devon, UK
100 mainly sim x sucklers but getting some aa x and hereford x's coming through now, put to mainly ch ai bulls with a bit of lim. late feb to the beginning of may calving (most march calving) out at grass ASAP, rotational grazed through the summer with creep introduced when the quality is going out of the grass(September last year)calves sold off cows in oct, nov. last years calves averaged just over 300kg/head and £750 a head. They do make money but not a massive amount. Hence all going this year and being replaced with spring calving crossbred dairy cows, 5000-5500l off a ton (or less, depending on the year) of cake on a very similar system as the beef but will calve a month earlier. even with a milk price of 25ppl it's still more profitable then the sucklers. Also in a high tb area have been free for the last 4years but is only a matter of time.
 
100 mainly sim x sucklers but getting some aa x and hereford x's coming through now, put to mainly ch ai bulls with a bit of lim. late feb to the beginning of may calving (most march calving) out at grass ASAP, rotational grazed through the summer with creep introduced when the quality is going out of the grass(September last year)calves sold off cows in oct, nov. last years calves averaged just over 300kg/head and £750 a head. They do make money but not a massive amount. Hence all going this year and being replaced with spring calving crossbred dairy cows, 5000-5500l off a ton (or less, depending on the year) of cake on a very similar system as the beef but will calve a month earlier. even with a milk price of 25ppl it's still more profitable then the sucklers. Also in a high tb area have been free for the last 4years but is only a matter of time.

I can see milk being less than 25pppl in 2-3 years! Think 18-20ppl.
 

Riddle

Member
Location
North Devon, UK
Very true but thats based on 100 cows (we have a potential grazing platform of 200acres, so not going to stay 100 cows for to long) we are also very lucky in that we can set up with no borrowings, as have a parlour, cubicles, slurry storage etc and have already sourced our dairy cows so we're going for a low risk strategy. Know of a lot of people going back in with well over a million pounds worth of borrowings.
 
'well, better get going. Milk goes off you know, except UHT, but there's no demand for that cos its shite'

aweblarney.files.wordpress.com_2014_03_25.jpg
 
100 mainly sim x sucklers but getting some aa x and hereford x's coming through now, put to mainly ch ai bulls with a bit of lim. late feb to the beginning of may calving (most march calving) out at grass ASAP, rotational grazed through the summer with creep introduced when the quality is going out of the grass(September last year)calves sold off cows in oct, nov. last years calves averaged just over 300kg/head and £750 a head. They do make money but not a massive amount. Hence all going this year and being replaced with spring calving crossbred dairy cows, 5000-5500l off a ton (or less, depending on the year) of cake on a very similar system as the beef but will calve a month earlier. even with a milk price of 25ppl it's still more profitable then the sucklers. Also in a high tb area have been free for the last 4years but is only a matter of time.

5000 litres at 25ppl = £1250
minus £220 for cake = £1030

so compared to £750 per calf you are £280 better off by milking cows but have to milk twice a day, more capital tied up, more labour etc.
 
Location
Devon
5000 litres at 25ppl = £1250
minus £220 for cake = £1030

so compared to £750 per calf you are £280 better off by milking cows but have to milk twice a day, more capital tied up, more labour etc.

Yea but don't forget this is a nightmare county for TB and the gain with milk is that even if you go down with TB you will still get a milk cheque each month.. image you have 200 sucklers, TB test the well grown 150 head 11 month old suckled calves to sell in OCT... one is a Reactor ( or IR if you have had TB in the last 3 years ) and that is that... your all but unable to sell the 150 cattle worth 110k, have no cashflow for at least 5 months and no shed space/ feed to house these cattle all winter... then what?? ( and this type of situ is very common here in the southwest )..

I agree about the milk price dropping thou and can see many farmers with borrowed money going bang come 2016/17...
 
Yea but don't forget this is a nightmare county for TB and the gain with milk is that even if you go down with TB you will still get a milk cheque each month.. image you have 200 sucklers, TB test the well grown 150 head 11 month old suckled calves to sell in OCT... one is a Reactor ( or IR if you have had TB in the last 3 years ) and that is that... your all but unable to sell the 150 cattle worth 110k, have no cashflow for at least 5 months and no shed space/ feed to house these cattle all winter... then what?? ( and this type of situ is very common here in the southwest )..

I agree about the milk price dropping thou and can see many farmers with borrowed money going bang come 2016/17...

many still do bull beef out of interest ?
 

franklin

New Member
Its interesting to read threads like these as an arable farmer. One way or another, I need some stock and some muck. But I'll be damned if I am going to tie up loads of dosh doing it. Surely the most profit is in the hands of those who are buying your finished stock, so how many here turn their 4-leggeg beefs into actual chunks of meat and sell at the market etc?

Would less intensity, perhaps shoving your land into whatever low input grassland environmental options come in the new schemes, less stock, but taking them to a finished product be more profitable even though it would involve dealing with the public? I've never read a thread here were you lot weren't proud of your stock, so surely would be equally proud of the end product?

I admit, I don't know enough about TB and the other issues to know if this would fit, but I do know that like the arable job the current system is not sustainable for very much longer. And iirc the old HLS scheme paid something like £500 each time you had a bunch of primary school children come and visit - well if that wasn't the best excuse to send each one home with a leaflet advertising locally produced mince / burgers etc to their parents then I don't know what is.
 

Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
Its interesting to read threads like these as an arable farmer. One way or another, I need some stock and some muck. But I'll be damned if I am going to tie up loads of dosh doing it. Surely the most profit is in the hands of those who are buying your finished stock, so how many here turn their 4-leggeg beefs into actual chunks of meat and sell at the market etc?

Would less intensity, perhaps shoving your land into whatever low input grassland environmental options come in the new schemes, less stock, but taking them to a finished product be more profitable even though it would involve dealing with the public? I've never read a thread here were you lot weren't proud of your stock, so surely would be equally proud of the end product?

I admit, I don't know enough about TB and the other issues to know if this would fit, but I do know that like the arable job the current system is not sustainable for very much longer. And iirc the old HLS scheme paid something like £500 each time you had a bunch of primary school children come and visit - well if that wasn't the best excuse to send each one home with a leaflet advertising locally produced mince / burgers etc to their parents then I don't know what is.
We have suckler cows and finish some ourselves and sell the rest as stores. I look at it like selling some grain on wheat futures and selling some on spot at harvest. It spreads your risk.

Think we should have sold more as stores this year......
 

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