New to cattle

[ollie989898]

Why not simply sell your labour/shed and let the owner of the cattle provide the straw and feed as you do with the pigs? Your risk is then minimised?

 

[thorpe]

You are effectively running a feedlot with no home-grown feed? And taking a risk that you will not get a bonus for reaching a quite decent weight gain of 1.2kg per day, so they need to be decent continentals. And having to get rid of a lot of muck and slurry?
Cattle need dry matter of 2% body weight daily for maintenance. Average 350kg needs 7kg dry matter daily. You can start to do sums on where you get that dry matter from but with no silage it will be expensive.
Why not but 10 yourself and take all the risk -and profit?
Good luck.

i think he will need some luck if buying every thing in, 1.2 kg dlwg wont be any good imho

 

[crashbox]

Why would you and someone else do this, as opposed you purchasing store cattle?

I appreciate the advantages (i.e. less risk and easier cash flow for you) but margins in the beef finishing game would suggest there isn't enough margin in it for you to share with someone else and guarantee yourself an income. I hope I'm wrong.

For info, brewers grains availability can be unreliable and price is volatile.

 

[ollie989898]

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking this- brewers grains are a PITA to secure supply of. The supply is controlled by a couple of players who are more interested in mixing them with other products to add margin than simply selling them direct.

 

[Full of bull(s)]

Brewers grains aren’t as cheap as they look either, wet loads 20% runs down the drain within 5 days. If they aren’t bulls I struggle to see any margin without them being grazed for a season. Feeding high levels of forage inside is just an expensive time consuming method of grazing as is feeding a low starch blend full of filler ingredients like PK and hulls. When you take all the costs into consideration any method inside that isn’t achieving an average of 1.5kg/day weight gain is losing you money, unless you are wintering solely for compensatory growth at grass in Spring

 

[Wilksy]

Would it be worth contacting Harbro at Howden?

 

[TheRanger]

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking this- brewers grains are a PITA to secure supply of. The supply is controlled by a couple of players who are more interested in mixing them with other products to add margin than simply selling them direct.

If you want them year round, they're easy enough to get a hold of. If you just want them in the winter when everyone else does you'll struggle to secure a consistent supply.

We have 10T delivered every 2 weeks year round, and have only ever struggled to get it on time when there are distilleries off for maintenance. Usually happens once a year and it comes 2 or 3 days late, but they give us enough warning that we can spin what we've got out over the extra days.

A fantastic feed

 

[Jonny_2]

Have sent you a DM…

 

[Bobthebuilder]

Surely you would've costed all this up before agreeing to it better off finding someone who needs a shed but will supply the feeding and bedding

 

[Monty 72]

Hello, new to this site. wanted to get an idea of what might be the going rate for keeping stores for b&b on slats. Might have the chance of a shed and trying to see if it would be something that would be of interest to someone. Scottish Borders. Thanks

 

[NorthumbrianFarmer]

Hello, new to this site. wanted to get an idea of what might be the going rate for keeping stores for b&b on slats. Might have the chance of a shed and trying to see if it would be something that would be of interest to someone. Scottish Borders. Thanks

Are you providing silage/haylage or just the shed and work?

 

[Monty 72]

Would be providing forage, water and labour. Do they operated much like pigs where the owner of the animals provide any hard feed, veterinary costs and transportation?

 

[NorthumbrianFarmer]

Would be providing forage, water and labour. Do they operated much like pigs where the owner of the animals provide any hard feed, veterinary costs and transportation?

Yeah, usually the owners supplies concentrates, vet bills, transport. I’d of thought depending on age size and breed anywhere from £1 to £1.50 an animal

 

[Monty 72]

Yeah, usually the owners supplies concentrates, vet bills, transport. I’d of thought depending on age size and breed anywhere from £1 to £1.50 an animal

Thank you for this

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I used to mix all my feed for 400 bulls against a shed wall with the loadal bucket ,hate diet feeders , tipped it all in add lib bunckers ,had my own crimped barley and bought the rest on least cost options

 

[ollie989898]

I used to mix all my feed for 400 bulls against a shed wall with the loadal bucket ,hate diet feeders , tipped it all in add lib bunckers ,had my own crimped barley and bought the rest on least cost options

That is very similar to how we reared bull beef on the unit I worked on years ago. I'm not sure it would be economic these days. We used to feed them low spec barley plus some bits and pieces so they were very much a by-product of the arable we grew, all fed ab-lib basically.

I've often wondered if you could do it with some rolled barley and home grown spring beans rolled and thrown in with minerals. Used to throw the odd round bale of straw in for them, they kept themselves clean and tidy by beating the straw up.

 

[Davy_g]

Would the OP have any interest in this? https://wagyufarmers.co.uk/

Might be a different option with a bit more back up and advice on feeding etc to assist their move to keeping and feeding stock. Grower stage might suit best??