Feed heaps here, as get dead calves from ecoli pretty quickly, but you would think with the prices of calves people would happily get them a good heap of it.a bit of colostrum would be a good start.
Feed heaps here, as get dead calves from ecoli pretty quickly, but you would think with the prices of calves people would happily get them a good heap of it.a bit of colostrum would be a good start.
when we bought calves to rear, simx were not popular, around here, there were to many simx bulls, or very badly bred, bulls running with herds, and calves were definitely not the best, hopefully that has changed.perhaps my view of simms is a selfish one!
asked that question on here months ago, the answer came back as charolais.Think going forward, as dairy farmers we need to know what the beef guys want and need to make their business work better too.
I've used mainly Simmental bulls on beef heifers calving at 22-24 months for a long time and they are fine, calves sub 40kg that come out looking almost premature.Sims too heavy boned for easy calving, may make better beast to finish, but not at expense of the cow, had someone else ring up today for more Hereford heifers.
AI company's have very poor choices of lesser common breeds, and from our own experience of sims of longer gestation bigger calves, their not even on the list of breeds to use, Ai rep talked me out of trying speckle park this year as, he's finding the to be to hard a calving.I've used mainly Simmental bulls on beef heifers calving at 22-24 months for a long time and they are fine, calves sub 40kg that come out looking almost premature.
I've also sold bulls born from these heifers to dairy farmers to run with heifers who became return customers.
Anyone who is prepared to do some homework on any breed will soon find easy calving lines if they want them.
I spoke to a dairy farming mate who told me he'd switched from BB and Her AI to Sim over the past two or three years.doing the homework, is exactly what a lot don't do.
I've rarely ever bought Simmental semen from a commercial UK AI company.AI company's have very poor choices of lesser common breeds, and from our own experience of sims of longer gestation bigger calves, their not even on the list of breeds to use, Ai rep talked me out of trying speckle park this year as, he's finding the to be to hard a calving.
Probably why the Main Ai don't bother and dairy farmer don't end up using them, until recently most beef straw where a couple of quid as a add on for your dairy straws, is changing slightly, but most is brought on price only, I'm looking at birth weights and gestation length firstly and not so much on the finished beast as most of ours are going as calves, have used the same Hereford bulls for several years now and would be reluctant to change away from him.I've rarely ever bought Simmental semen from a commercial UK AI company.
For most dairy farmers I think the Sim never came back from the late 80s early 90s. Back then a lot of dairy farmers wanted pale colours to define the Simmental from a Hereford and a lot selected mainly for colour and in doing so forgot a lot of traits.Probably why the Main Ai don't bother and dairy farmer don't end up using them, until recently most beef straw where a couple of quid as a add on for your dairy straws, is changing slightly, but most is brought on price only, I'm looking at birth weights and gestation length firstly and not so much on the finished beast as most of ours are going as calves, have used the same Hereford bulls for several years now and would be reluctant to change away from him.
Bit of a sweeping statement but I imagine the majority of the people who don’t care what chicken tastes like as long as its cheap aren’t the ones buying many joints of beef. Probably just mince. Beef gets treated as more of a luxury for many & would be disappointed if it was poor quality.GP dont know nor care
It is for the anti-meat agenda - why make it easy for them to score pointsIts utter madness. Basically forcing them to grow as fast as possible by pushing as much concentrate into them as possible. Beef will end up going the same way as chicken, bland tasteless rubbish. But apparently thats progress
That's the National Feedlot Association and their advisor and acolytes pushing that oneHorses for courses , its alright for mince but i agree an older beast grown slower must taste better. I think we were all amazed that lowering the slaughter age was talked about as the future when it looked far more likely extensive beef ticked the enviro boxes
but chicken isn't a cheap meat, you don't use much more than 45%, the rest is bones, water, skin etc, whereas with mince, you use virtually all of it.Bit of a sweeping statement but I imagine the majority of the people who don’t care what chicken tastes like as long as its cheap aren’t the ones buying many joints of beef. Probably just mince. Beef gets treated as more of a luxury for many & would be disappointed if it was poor quality.
bought a beef shorthorn hfr calf, looks exactly like a fr hfr calf,What’s a beef shorthorn like on dairy cows never hear anything about them. Probably for a reason.
Basically that's what we do, without the Angus.For selling calves, blues seem to have the value.
For rearing onto stores on poorer permanent pasture, Herefords flesh out well with fewer inputs e.g. grass only.
Angus seem a half way house IME.
Use Angus bulls on heifers and Herefords to sweep up cows due to calving reputation.
Have you seen the price of chicken? You don’t get much beef for the money.but chicken isn't a cheap meat, you don't use much more than 45%, the rest is bones, water, skin etc, whereas with mince, you use virtually all of it.