All ours are sold privately with a premium to suck cows herds, as no holstein blood in our herd and we're mostly the same high farm as them so cows are fair hard.
xbred dairy bull calves
- Thread starter som farmer
- Start date
All ours are sold privately with a premium to suck cows herds, as no holstein blood in our herd and we're mostly the same high farm as them so cows are fair hard.
Hereford, Angus and blue. Blues on the real xbred cows.
Mine all went private, but a neighbour with very similar cows has made the highest price from Herefords compared to his blues and Angus
To be fair they were all out of heifers so not the biggest but run Angus bull with heifers as well and generally Angus crosses sold better at market than the Herefords.
happycows
Member
- Location
- North Devon Cornwall border
I don’t think so. Those I speak to who use Angus and Hereford are really pee’d off with low price’s far worse than mine.
jimmer
Member
- Location
- East Devon
I think I'd be more concerned if I were farming sucklers, we can absorb calf costs/losses, they go bust
Tin hat time
If the suckler job gets decimated even further than its current state it will bring demand back into play
Tin hat time
If the suckler job gets decimated even further than its current state it will bring demand back into play
Yes, put a lim on all your spare dairy cows now. Less meat on a bbx dead compared to a limx even if they were the same weight live
Milk job could blow up overnight same as everything else, millions of extra litres going to be produced in ireland next year.
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Fat trade for beef cattle is even worse!
Cracking calve you had @happycows a real credit to your breeding and rearing skills, sadly no where near enough dairy calves around of the depth of breeding/ rearing that your calves have.
@som farmer You will struggle to finish many of the grass rats off grass alone ( ref your post on cutting costs ) yep you can kill them but they wont be a 3/4 L fat class which is what they need to be!
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Oh and yep BBX cattle are rapidly falling out of favour with beef finishers.
All breeds come and go so its just a normal cycle.
A good beef cross off dairy cows is the Devon!
Natives will get more and more popular v the cont as the time goes on!
All breeds come and go so its just a normal cycle.
A good beef cross off dairy cows is the Devon!
Natives will get more and more popular v the cont as the time goes on!
You can't give away Devon cross calf, ours were £150 behind the limms which now probably need to stick a £50 note on their back to get anyone to take it, ours mostly ended up going on the rose veal job.
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Yep but your under TB currently?
( which will make a big difference v the open market )
Thou tbh Lim seems to the in- demand breed from both store and Finishers currently.
Sold calves bb in spring out of pure jersey the guy i sold them to fostered them on to cows which lost calves went to see them being sold last week they made 150 more than suckler bred angus and herefords at same weight
Ive noticed over the last number of years pedigree limousin bulls at shows getting very extreme muscle almost like blues its showing trough in the store sales now
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
And that will end up being the downfall of the Lim breed as well.
What finishers want is decent shaped cattle that crucially will put fat cover down easily and extreme muscled cattle don't achieve this regardless of breed!
Yes thats true but you cant beat a good muscled animal if your a seller also muscled cattle have an excellent kill out
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Yes I would agree with that!
And thus why the issue about what to do with the very poorly bred/ narrow grass rats is a much bigger problem than the dairy farmers who bred them realize!
Currently always under tb , but this was 3 years ago when we were last clear for a couple of months and was using Eastyard bulls so would be large Devons, heifers were fine but bulls were problem shifting.
buffalo_soldier
Member
- Location
- cumbria
Only had a couple of Hex hfrs to sell but they were £50 less than a blue female.
Only a handful of blues left now, been a poor do this year. Even with switching to sexed/beef, total calf income is down.
Only a handful of blues left now, been a poor do this year. Even with switching to sexed/beef, total calf income is down.
Dead Rabbits
Member
- Location
- 'Merica
Went to visit an acquaintance a couple days ago who milks a few cows. He had been looking to quit these past few years but cows weren’t worth anything and beef cows don’t pay mortgages. He had been breeding to beef for a couple years and keeping heifers.
Those half breed heifers started calving in an he milked the more dairy ones, either selling or putting calves on the high cell or too beefy ones.
Being burnt out on milking he put his spring herd on OAD in June and is milking his fall herd OAD all the way through.
This fall a buyer came through and picked a pot load of the most beef looking bred heifers and sent them to auction. They averaged 1350 compared to an average of 650-700 were they full dairy.
He said comparing his income over feed costs his OAD years are within a few cents of his Tad years.
Obviously this isn’t a solution for anyone but it’s very unique and interesting from my perspective. He is a first generation farmer that has bootstraped his way to 500 acres in less than 20 years with no family money and a divorce along the way.
Those half breed heifers started calving in an he milked the more dairy ones, either selling or putting calves on the high cell or too beefy ones.
Being burnt out on milking he put his spring herd on OAD in June and is milking his fall herd OAD all the way through.
This fall a buyer came through and picked a pot load of the most beef looking bred heifers and sent them to auction. They averaged 1350 compared to an average of 650-700 were they full dairy.
He said comparing his income over feed costs his OAD years are within a few cents of his Tad years.
Obviously this isn’t a solution for anyone but it’s very unique and interesting from my perspective. He is a first generation farmer that has bootstraped his way to 500 acres in less than 20 years with no family money and a divorce along the way.
pine_guy
Member
- Location
- North Cumbria
Thought this might be the place to bring this up. An email today from Red Tractor with regards a consultation about new standards coming in to disallow routine euthanasia of bull calves.
It’s already stipulated by my milk buyer from January, but the rest of the industry has it coming. I know this thread is more about trying to find the answer, but thought I’d put this up for those that have their head in the sand.
hope you can read it from the screen shot.
It’s already stipulated by my milk buyer from January, but the rest of the industry has it coming. I know this thread is more about trying to find the answer, but thought I’d put this up for those that have their head in the sand.
hope you can read it from the screen shot.