Rearing Fresian Bull Calves

Just finished my 30 month experiment with 4 Friesian calves.
Bought at £65 each - 3 went away as bullocks averaging 708kg and made 101ppk. Lost one despite vets best efforts.

Broke even

Lessons learned - beef varieties were making 235ppk at same sale
Dont purchase bagged feed - buy straights and home mill. Posh calf mixes and beef nuts are expensive when bruised barley would have done
Economies of scale - could have kept a lot more with a minimal increase in effort and that would have increased profit
Vet - Big vets bills didnt help.
You're bang on, bagged calf feed is ridiculous money.
 

alex04w

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Co Antrim
So 4 calves cost £260

The 3 that lived sold for £2,145

And you only broke even? I think your problem is with cost control and not the type / breed of calf that you bought.

Can you give us a greater breakdown of how you arrived at a conclusion that you broke even?
 

beefandsleep

Member
Location
Staffordshire
“Only broke even”???
He made a loss even if the one died the day it came on the farm. They were kept 30 months if I read the OP right. If you can rear a calf and keep it 2 and a half years and feed it to finish for £700 then it’s your costs I’d like to see a breakdown of.
 

X344chap

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Central Scotland
So 4 calves cost £260

The 3 that lived sold for £2,145

And you only broke even? I think your problem is with cost control and not the type / breed of calf that you bought.

Can you give us a greater breakdown of how you arrived at a conclusion that you broke even?


OK
Carrs - £615 milk powder and calf mix - plus odds and sods feed bucket, stomach tube etc
Harbro- £278 - Beef nuts
Bulk Calf mix - £192
Bulk Barley Straights - £102
Vet - £414 - Dehorn, Castrate, plus 3 visits to the one that died including meds
Deadstock uplift - £54
Cost of calves - £260
Calf jackets - £144 - bought 6
Replacement tags - £35

Total - £2094 -
Sale Price - less commission and vat £2026

I've still got the calf jackets - so conclusion is break even.
 

alex04w

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Co Antrim
OK
Carrs - £615 milk powder and calf mix - plus odds and sods feed bucket, stomach tube etc
Harbro- £278 - Beef nuts
Bulk Calf mix - £192
Bulk Barley Straights - £102
Vet - £414 - Dehorn, Castrate, plus 3 visits to the one that died including meds
Deadstock uplift - £54
Cost of calves - £260
Calf jackets - £144 - bought 6
Replacement tags - £35

Total - £2094 -
Sale Price - less commission and vat £2026

I've still got the calf jackets - so conclusion is break even.

Thanks for that.

I have recently bought the most recent batch of Fresian bull calves. 3 months old and £50 each. Bought directly from a neighbouring dairy farmer, so I know how they started off.

Three months old, so no milk powder needed. They are at grass with a small amount of meal. They might get some meal to finish them, or they might go to market for some one else to finish. We will see how the prices go at the relevant time.

They do far better than break even!
 

beefandsleep

Member
Location
Staffordshire
Great respect to you for putting up your costs but there are many things you haven’t included such as bedding costs, water, grazing, haulage. That’s just the variables, where are your fixed costs?
 
Last edited:
Thanks for that.

I have recently bought the most recent batch of Fresian bull calves. 3 months old and £50 each. Bought directly from a neighbouring dairy farmer, so I know how they started off.

Three months old, so no milk powder needed. They are at grass with a small amount of meal. They might get some meal to finish them, or they might go to market for some one else to finish. We will see how the prices go at the relevant time.

They do far better than break even!

Very interesting - how long have you been doing this? Any costings?
 

X344chap

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Central Scotland
Thanks for that.

I have recently bought the most recent batch of Fresian bull calves. 3 months old and £50 each. Bought directly from a neighbouring dairy farmer, so I know how they started off.

Three months old, so no milk powder needed. They are at grass with a small amount of meal. They might get some meal to finish them, or they might go to market for some one else to finish. We will see how the prices go at the relevant time.

They do far better than break even!
What sort of size are the batches? Much better to get direct and past milk as well is a bonus - i had to purchase at the market at 2 weeks old
 

X344chap

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Central Scotland
Great respect to you for putting up your costs but there are many things you haven’t included such as bedding costs, water, grazing, haulage. That’s just the variables, where are your fixed costs?

This was a hobby project on a small holding - bedding was 8 bales straw from a neighbour in exchange for doing some tractor repairs, Water is from a private supply, grazing was foc as the land is owned by the family and was getting overgrown and going back to wild. Haulage was own transport, the market is 30 mins away. The idea was to keep the land in good heart, provide some exercise before and after work and hopefully realise some profit to go to the upkeep of the the buildings and antique tractor fleet...
 

HarryB97

Member
Mixed Farmer
We used to rear Angus & Hereford X calves but have recently reared 2 batches of dairy bulls, 80 calves in total. Rearing an AA or Her X to finish or sell as store will pay well as long as they are gaining 1KG+ a day. Fresians on the other hand are a waste ot time selling as store you will only get £1.30 per KG liveweight at best ( the P grades will ruin this) A native with a named sire sold privatley as a store will normally get you £1.70+ quite easily except at the minute... With AA or Her if they get ill and you treat them that is job done we find with pure dairy bulls they repeatably get ill and you will end up with a more uneven batch. Normally we work on 1 death per batch of 40 so 2.5% but with dairy bulls with the exact same treatment we normally have a mortaility of 7.5% and more runts etc. We have now gone back to natives!
 

caveman

Member
Location
East Sussex.
Could one keep them stuffed full of milk and feed to keep the calf bloom on them and kill them at about twelve months, for say, a 200 Kg carcass, then punt them out around the parish as baby beef for a profit?

Don't the Kiwis rear a lot on grass as bulls?
Maybe @Kiwi Pete will be along to enlighten?
 
Last edited:

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Lost one despite vets best efforts

Vet - Big vets bills didnt help.

I don't know how old the dead one was, but could a lesson be that if they don't get cured after one visit then they don't get a second?

Vets best efforts have rewarded vet in repeat visits. I suspect that with a couple of hundred you may castrate and dehorn yourself.

And while breaking even, you have gained the jackets and experience.
 

X344chap

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Central Scotland
I don't know how old the dead one was, but could a lesson be that if they don't get cured after one visit then they don't get a second?

Vets best efforts have rewarded vet in repeat visits. I suspect that with a couple of hundred you may castrate and dehorn yourself.

And while breaking even, you have gained the jackets and experience.


We made the decision that animal welfare had to be high - hence calling out the vet when required - but yes there is a commercial decision point that is reached.

Calves were too old to be legally ringed and we didnt have any experience with the burdizzos which you can only use up to 8 weeks.

Fields are now better managed and there's a load of manure to be spread for next year.

We enjoyed having the boys and i can honestly say that they were well looked after.

Its not the same without them so - we are going to have another go !

It would be a shame to waste the jackets.
 
Last edited:
We made the decision that animal welfare had to be high - hence calling out the vet when required - but yes there is a commercial decision point that is reached.

Calves were too old to be legally ringed and we didnt have any experience with the burdizzos which you can only use up to 8 weeks.

Fields are now better managed and there's a load of manure to be spread for next year.

We enjoyed having the boys and i can honestly say that they were well looked after.

Its not the same without them so - we are going to have another go !

It would be a shame to waste the jackets.
We had a similar experience with three AA/Her x heifers we reared last winter as the kids were keen. Didn't make a fortune but we all enjoyed it and we now have three very quiet heifers that we need to bull next summer.
 

X344chap

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Central Scotland
We had a similar experience with three AA/Her x heifers we reared last winter as the kids were keen. Didn't make a fortune but we all enjoyed it and we now have three very quiet heifers that we need to bull next summer.

We just called them with their bag of nuts and they just walked onto the trailer. One was 820kg and it stood looking over the tops of the pens at the market.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,292
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top