Suckler herds

[Swaley]

Hello all,
I would like to ask all of you what would you say would be the best way to start a suckler herd, what type of system for the calves e.g. finish, sell store. And to have pure or commercial types and what breed. Also autumn calving or spring calving.

Many Thanks all.

 

[serf]

Hereford x friesian heifers , if you can find them ... buy them reared or yearlings run them on , x to lim bull , conan type , to calves in march April at around 30 month old , if you are in bottom half of uk , but dont know where in uk you you are based ????

 

[Swaley]

Hereford x friesian heifers , if you can find them ... buy them reared or yearlings run them on , x to lim bull , conan type , to calves in march April at around 30 month old , if you are in bottom half of uk , but dont know where in uk you you are based ????

Cumbria, would you sell calves store.

 

[serf]

Yes, yearlings

 

[serf]

Then move onto more shapely bull when on 2nd ,3rd calving , others will have totally diff advice , but that would be mine

 

[livestock 1]

Hello all,
I would like to ask all of you what would you say would be the best way to start a suckler herd, what type of system for the calves e.g. finish, sell store. And to have pure or commercial types and what breed. Also autumn calving or spring calving.

Many Thanks all.

Don’t do it!!!

 

[Hummin-Cummins]

Buy a batch of weaned dairy x heifers. 300 odd quid will buy you something half decent to run around until they’re ready to bull. Its a long process before you get your first pay back so might be worth selling half as u go for cash flow.

 

[steveR]

Buy a batch of weaned dairy x heifers. 300 odd quid will buy you something half decent to run around until they’re ready to bull. Its a long process before you get your first pay back so might be worth selling half as u go for cash flow.

Yep, this method also gives the chance to have a 2nd go at choosing the heifers that you will take on to bulling.

 

[Sandpit Farm]

I guess it depends why you want sucklers. There has to be a better chance of return on milk calves or weaned dairy bred animals surely. You’d buy and sell in the same market and you’d spread your risk.

There are more dairy bred calves in Lancashire and Cumbria than you could shake a stick at.

 

[DrWazzock]

Sometimes you can buy some youngish cows in calf from somebody who is retiring or downsizing. I had my best results with some small youngish crossbred cows bought in calf. Sold the calves as stores in the autumn was better than trying to fatten. Pedigrees were a disaster as were big old cows with big udders or unproven heifers. Lesson learned.
If you have hay and straw I find its a hell of a lot easier selling it rather than putting it through a cows arse.

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

I guess it depends why you want sucklers. There has to be a better chance of return on milk calves or weaned dairy bred animals surely. You’d buy and sell in the same market and you’d spread your risk.

There are more dairy bred calves in Lancashire and Cumbria than you could shake a stick at.

Out of interest, anyone done some figures on sucklers vs dairy bred calves?

 

[Stw88]

Totally depends on your farm type for what cows you should have and shed set up for when you calve and bull the cows. No good getting dairy crossed or pure lims if you want them up on a hillside or rough moorland. The fancy ones which make the top prices aren’t the ones that make the most profit! We run first cross limmys out of Galloway‘s, great cows, easy calving, hardy, last a long time and do well on poorer pastures. It just so happens I have some spare heifers that will bull in the spring

 

[Hilly]

It all depends on everything , impossible to say really , do what your fancy takes you because you need to enjoy looking at the animals your keeping as you will be looking at them ALOT, no matter what you do if your passionate enough about it and like it you find away to make it pay .

 

[Nearly]

Out of interest, anyone done some figures on sucklers vs dairy bred calves?

Feeding 2 animals to just sell one. Not a difficult sum but the cow does most of the work for you.

 

[steveR]

It all depends on everything , impossible to say really , do what your fancy takes you because you need to enjoy looking at the animals your keeping as you will be looking at them ALOT, no matter what you do if your passionate enough about it and like it you find away to make it pay .

Agree.

Over the years since Sucklers came into our lives, there have been a number of justifications for them here. Under the SCP, I ran a large herd of commercial Dexters producing beef cattle for the customers purchased direct, and the sucklers fitted the bill perfectly with a large swathe of reversion grassland on the farm.

For the past 10 years after letting the Dexters go, around 08/9 we have Hex cows mostly... Why? Cos we enjoy having them around and yes, I freely admit it, they are as much a hobby, in that what can be nicer than a walk around a bunch of quiet cows and calves on a Summers evening. Profitable....Hmmmm!

However, the increase in cattle numbers here in the coming couple of years will not be sucklers, rather it will be bought in weanlings, to keep through summer on the herbal and grass pastures...

 

[Gulli]

Out of interest, anyone done some figures on sucklers vs dairy bred calves?

It's about the same for us. I don't have the figures to hand but there's not a great deal in it. Costs to keep a cow but the calves make more as stores and they are usually gone earlier than dairy bred calves.

 

[Sandpit Farm]

Out of interest, anyone done some figures on sucklers vs dairy bred calves?

Yes I did some a while ago so I will have to have a look and see what I can find. Others have said about lifestyle etc - which is a fair point. If you like keeping cows and it can be a hobby then that is great. Equally, if you can keep them more cheaply, e.g. Galloways on a hillside etc, that may be the way to do it. It struck home to me when I saw a Stocktake report (AHDB I think) that said that only 9% of suckler farmers were really making profit from that enterprise after BPS etc.

My worry would be, what market are we likely to have for cull cows going forward? The Dutch have always been keen on taking manufacturing beef from the UK and it keeps the demand strong and the price high. Will this still be the case after Brexit? If a cow still costs us the same to keep (say £500/yr), the calf owes you that when it hits the floor minus all the variable costs it has to get it weaned or to a small store. If you rear 100 calves from 100 cows (which is rare) you have a chance but any losses put a lot of pressure on any margin you could make.

I look at animals like Dairy x Angus heifers and think there is a massive opportunity there for someone who knows what they are doing. You can easily get it wrong mind you as they will ay down fat if you push them too hard. However, you can pick them up cheaply as people want steers, there's an incentive for dairy farmers to produce them to minimise dairy bull calves and you can still take them from milk calf to finished relatively quickly.

 

[Hilly]

Agree.

Over the years since Sucklers came into our lives, there have been a number of justifications for them here. Under the SCP, I ran a large herd of commercial Dexters producing beef cattle for the customers purchased direct, and the sucklers fitted the bill perfectly with a large swathe of reversion grassland on the farm.

For the past 10 years after letting the Dexters go, around 08/9 we have Hex cows mostly... Why? Cos we enjoy having them around and yes, I freely admit it, they are as much a hobby, in that what can be nicer than a walk around cows and calves on a Summers evening. Profitable....Hmmmm! However, the increase in cattle numbers here in the coming couple of years will not be sucklers, rather it will be bought in weanlings, to keep through summer on the herbal and grass pastures...

Adaptable farmers always thrive .

 

[Hilly]

Agree.

Over the years since Sucklers came into our lives, there have been a number of justifications for them here. Under the SCP, I ran a large herd of commercial Dexters producing beef cattle for the customers purchased direct, and the sucklers fitted the bill perfectly with a large swathe of reversion grassland on the farm.

For the past 10 years after letting the Dexters go, around 08/9 we have Hex cows mostly... Why? Cos we enjoy having them around and yes, I freely admit it, they are as much a hobby, in that what can be nicer than a walk around cows and calves on a Summers evening. Profitable....Hmmmm! However, the increase in cattle numbers here in the coming couple of years will not be sucklers, rather it will be bought in weanlings, to keep through summer on the herbal and grass pastures...

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

The reason for asking the question was that we have suckler cows, but recently bought a small batch of 10 dairy cross heifers to rear as replacements. It got me thinking whether it might be viable to get some more of these, keep what we want as replacements and run the rest on with the option of selling them as stores, bulling heifers or even in calf as an alternative to more cows which are very dear at the moment.