What costs is it to take hefiers to cows

[t murrr]

I am looking to increase my herd and add new blood to it would I be better buying bulling hefiers or calves - weanlings. Quality hefiers are big big money .I know of fleveich cross simmental heifers calves for sale

 

[Al R]

Not sure on costs as not milking but I know quite a few big herds that buy all their cows from Holland/Belgium as it’s cheaper than rearing their own once they’ve costed it in fully, they’ve been doing this 10+ years too so not just a one off. Some do rear quite a lot themselves and then if they are short of replacements or expand just buy in

 

[t murrr]

Sorry should have said not milking either suckling here

 

[Hfd Cattle]

In my view .....I always buy in heifers with calves at foot . You know they will do the job and you have something to sell!
They may seem a lot of money but buy right and you will get a good return .

 

[Werzle]

Cattle are a longterm investment, buy a hfr and calf for £1600 , an incalver for £1100 or a buller for £950 its still two years before you see the slightest profit with there calves averaging about £850 at 9-10mths old. Thats without calving losses. At least with sheep the turnaround on your money is in months not years

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Buy maiden heifers and get them blood tested for everything

 

[Sandpit Farm]

£2.14/day

 

[z.man]

£2.14/day

Your good to them Finishing cattle maybe, dairy heifers maybe but surely not running suckler heifers to bull, some hay/silage till spring then grass until in calf, then roughed until this time next year then a bit better until they calve back out to grass job done......can’t be £800 to do that can it

 

[Jdunn55]

If you bought them at say 12 months ish you would be paying around £800-1000 for anything half decent.
From then on:
- 1kg cake/day until 18months = 0.25t at £240/t = £60
- straw = half a tonne per heifer per winter = £50 or £100 depending on number of winters and assuming a price of £100/t
- rent for grazing = half an acre per heifer minimum = £60
- Rent for silage assuming 0.7tdm for first winter (6kg dry matter plus cake), then 1.5t for second winter (12kgdmi) assuming you can grow 4t of dm per acre you would be needing either 1/5th of an acre or half an acre (again depending on number of winters you need to feed them for) therefore cost for silage rent = either £25 or £60
- Fertiliser for land assuming 1/3 of a tonne per acre at a cost of £300/t = £70-120 again depending on the number of winters you have them for.
- silage cost of production would be roughly £40-160 depending on quantity needed and method used
- veterinary would be £50/heifer as an average I would guess
Then whatever labour, fuel etc is to you!
Looking at between £305-£610 to rear them with the number of winters being the main thing driving cost up
And then £800-1000 to buy them at 12 months on top.
That's not including amy labour or fuel, fencing, reseeding, lime, insurance etc

 

[Cowslip]

We breed our own replacements, know exactly what your getting no blood tests, tb costs and transport costs, everything is grazed so limited feed costs.

 

[Werzle]

We breed our own replacements, know exactly what your getting no blood tests, tb costs and transport costs, everything is grazed so limited feed costs.

But it still costs because you havent had the money from the sale of the hfrs you have kept. Grass is king i agree, anything over 12mths shouldnt need cake if its being kept for breeding

 

[Cowslip]

You are correct, the idea was to sell the surplus heifers but we keep being offered more grazing so have kept them all so far. Definately a long process but the herd are all the better for it. Calving problems are right down, no more big teats, no temperament issues and repeat buyers for the stores which are always topping the market and only grass fed hitting the same weights as creep fed calves I'm happy we are going in the right direction.

But it still costs because you havent had the money from the sale of the hfrs you have kept. Grass is king i agree, anything over 12mths shouldnt need cake if its being kept for breeding

 

[puppet]

We breed our own replacements, know exactly what your getting no blood tests, tb costs and transport costs, everything is grazed so limited feed costs.

Rearing your own always going to be cheapest. You need to look at your herd more like a pedigree situation which most will do anyway at least informally. Pick the heifers of cows who calve easily, plenty milk and who have the best calves at weaning. No disease issues and you know the history.
There will be a slight dip in cash flow as you keep more the first year. Only you can judge what you can afford. The alternative is to sell stores at £800 and buy replacements at £950. When you buy something you are paying somebody else to have reared it.
£50 vet costs look high. We have 110 cows and followers, 220 ewes and costs never over £3000 a year.
Get a good bull and get them calving at 24-26 months. You will have an extra suckled calf to sell a year later.

 

[livestock 1]

Used to breed all my own. Now buy most of them in as incalf calves at foot bullers or cows.
Once store cattle lifted I couldn’t see any sense in doing it any other way.
There was a costing done by one of the robbing type bodies on replacement costs and their findings were that buying a heifer and calf was actually cheapest way to do it in the end as it’s the fastest way to get into production. They said that it was the worst way as far as cash flow goes though. I tend to agree. Maybe it depends what system you are in and personal situation. If you have lumps of money laid about buy heifers and calves. If not buy and rear calves up. It will still cost you just a trickle of money instead of a big lump at once.
I know one thing I often think in the spring I would like to be in the bulling heifer situation where I had some coming in every year. Keep buying a few more each year to try to get there and keep a few of our own but not cracked it yet.
If you are starting up if it’s anything like I found all the cheap bargains looking rubbishy cows paid the way for the better types

 

[Sandpit Farm]

Your good to them Finishing cattle maybe, dairy heifers maybe but surely not running suckler heifers to bull, some hay/silage till spring then grass until in calf, then roughed until this time next year then a bit better until they calve back out to grass job done......can’t be £800 to do that can it

Yeah sorry, I was talking dairy heifers for bulling at 13 months to average age at first calving of 24 months. It includes labour time. If it was Spring calvers with smaller stature I'd probably cost it lower.

 

[icanshootwell]

For the last 4 years i have bred my own replacements, main reason was TB, in the past a lot of stock bought in would fail the TB test, it seemed to have worked cause i been tb free for 4 years now.
Cost wise, it works out cheaper to breed your own, but we do produce everything on the farm, corn, straw, grazing etc. Winter housing is important to keep grass lays in good condition, then hopefully early turn out.
One thing i am guilty of is keeping breeding cows to long, had a bad few years with casualty cows, this can soon have effect on gross margin if not managed well.

 

[Hfd Cattle]

For the last 4 years i have bred my own replacements, main reason was TB, in the past a lot of stock bought in would fail the TB test, it seemed to have worked cause i been tb free for 4 years now.
Cost wise, it works out cheaper to breed your own, but we do produce everything on the farm, corn, straw, grazing etc. Winter housing is important to keep grass lays in good condition, then hopefully early turn out.
One thing i am guilty of is keeping breeding cows to long, had a bad few years with casualty cows, this can soon have effect on gross margin if not managed well.

A lesson learnt here ....don't calves down old cows . We have reduced ours down to nothing older than 7 yrs and only buy first or second calvers.

 

[Jdunn55]

A lesson learnt here ....don't calves down old cows . We have reduced ours down to nothing older than 7 yrs and only buy first or second calvers.

I think our average age was 13 for us up until a few years ago when I kept extra heifers to increase the size of the herd thus reducing average age down... Personally I get more problems with heifers calving than I do with cows. Fertility is obviously worse in older cows but only by a bit, anything that doesn't get in-calf goes but I have no issue calving cows that are closer to 20 than 10. My oldest cow to calve this year was 18 with her 18th calf (2 sets of twins) but she wont be calved again now as shes gone too frail. In my cull pen are 3 cows that are all 17