Rearing Fresian Bull Calves

[gone up the hill]

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.

..................

How the hell did you manage to spend £35 on replacement tags for 3 calves/cattle??

So you haven't allowed anything for bedding??

And you never fed them any hay/silage/straw in the 30 months you had them? ( so basically they had no roughage in the diet )


No water/ light/ housing etc costs?


No machinery costs ( ie you never cleaned out the shed for example? )


Im assuming they were housed for the entire 30 months with no bedding and only fed cake from your costing's as nothing has been allowed for grazing costs...................


Or else you made a big loss on them in real terms as you have a lot of costs missing it appears!

Ref the vet costs, if you cant self treat with advice from the vet over the phone you are better just shooting them when they get ill! harsh but that's the economics of the job now!

And you need to look at the dehorning/ castrating costs!

 

[ollie989898]

Sounds like an interesting project.

 

[gone up the hill]

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?

Lets have a breakdown of your costing's because he kept his cattle for less than £0.73 head a day ( including calve rearing ) for their entire life including the wintering period which is far lower than the industry average according to the figures he supplied!

I don't think he has a problem with cost control given the very low figures he supplied.................

 

[Kiwi Pete]

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?

Yeah, I have read that in NZ, half a million fri bulls are reared each year but I'm unsure of the age of that report.
Check out "profitable calf rearing NZ" on Google and it gives the Poukawa research.

Basic costs:
$50-90 per 4 day old calf
$140 1.5 bags milk replacer/finisher powder
$40 .5 bag protein meal (we prefer lucerne or peas)
$15 (share of a peach teat, feeder)
$200 (1.5 hours of our labour)

cost: $450-480
sell @ 12weeks/110kg $450-480

the option exists to give your pay to the calf, but who's gonna be around in 10 years time?
Calf won't be, we might be if we pay ourselves first....
We roughly double our money inside 12 weeks, less any losses (lead poisoning is common in NZ).

I have some temporary shelters and we just rear outside, hang feeders on a triangle of prattley gates and tip the yoghurt and eggs in.
I mix up 400l of CMR at a time, and put an Easiyo yoghurt sachet in to keep each drum.

 

[X344chap]

..................

How the hell did you manage to spend £35 on replacement tags for 3 calves/cattle??

>> tags, pliers and delivery came to £35

So you haven't allowed anything for bedding??

>> 8 bales free straw in exchange for doing some tractor repair work for neighbour - its in a previous reply

And you never fed them any hay/silage/straw in the 30 months you had them? ( so basically they had no roughage in the diet )

>>They were outwintered but had a dry bedded shed to go into when they felt like it. They were never shut in. Didnt use a huge amount of bedding as a result.

>>Made 34 bales of silage and 20 bales of hay using the vintage fleet - its a hobby so didnt cost it. Was using old silage bags double wrapped.. I think the same drums of string have been in the round baler for the last 10 years.

No water/ light/ housing etc costs?

>>Nope - it was just actual costs i used - private water supply, no electric in the shed and no money spent on the shed.


No machinery costs ( ie you never cleaned out the shed for example? )

>> vintage hobby fleet - newest tractor is 1981, 1976, 1973, 1969, 1957 - all appreciating in value.

Im assuming they were housed for the entire 30 months with no bedding and only fed cake from your costing's as nothing has been allowed for grazing costs...................

>> Minimal bedding as above due to being outwintered.

>> Fields were free and doing nothing. Didn't apply any fertiliser either.


Or else you made a big loss on them in real terms as you have a lot of costs missing it appears!

>> If you add in depreciation and notional costs for labour etc then yes but i didnt set out to run this as a business to make a profit. I was interested in the economics of it and whether they could pay their way to keep the place maintained and the land in reasonable condition.

Ref the vet costs, if you cant self treat with advice from the vet over the phone you are better just shooting them when they get ill! harsh but that's the economics of the job now!

>>I couldnt diagnose vagal nerve damage without the vet in attendance. It was a medical emergency. Yes in retrospect euthanase would have been the better financial option - but it did get better for a while after treatment - unfortunately found dead one morning at 5 months.

And you need to look at the dehorning/ castrating costs!
>>Actual costs for this was £38 for a visit and £10 a head for castration & dehorning - plus vat making £93.60

 

[som farmer]

old chap here used to buy a few fr steers, and use them to keep the farm tidy, it used to amaze us, the size a 5 yr old fr steer could get to, and the money they came to.
But, he had another income, and used them to keep farm tidy, and miminal expense, wormer, hay about it.