Factory Prices General thread

Ah now Mucky, your bordering on being paranoid, no one is forcing anyone to buy dairy calves .
Surely anyone buying any type of stock can do their own sums.

I didn't mean offence to anyone by what I said. Its in teagasc strategic development plan that they provide demonstration farms for calf rearing to beef alongside the expansion of dairy herds. The idea of the green acre farms was to demonstrate how beef finishers can make profit from finishing dairy calves. Its not really going according to plan for teagasc. It might be going better for farmers who have lower costs.
 
In the booklet, it goes through the 14 teagasc green acre farms for 2018. Average Net Margin on the 14 of them was -€38 per per hectare with an average farm size of 53 hectares.
So one with the other, the average on farm losses was just over €2k. Highest loss was €1500 per hectare and the most profitable farm made €421 per hectare.

So instead of being called "sustainable grass based production", this project should be called the "unsustainable model" and the current slogan of "advancing knowledge for an evolving industry" should really be simplified to "what not to do"

I've the read the booklet today and a lot of it had me :scratchhead::scratchhead:

For example, slurry is only worth a euro more when applied with a trailing shoe, why are we investing so much money in gear then!!

All the costs mention fertilizer but it's all based on CAN and urea, no mention of P's and K's.

The carcass weights, are they buying the buttiest animals possible to get such low weights. Even the better quality calves are only killed at 330kgs which to me sounds quite light.

I was also very surprised to see horns have four times the weight of docility in the new beef index.
 
For example, slurry is only worth a euro more when applied with a trailing shoe, why are we investing so much money in gear then!!

.

From our own minimal experience, the low emission spreading has great benefits for how we farm.
First of all, I definitely think that we get better grass growth from it - but we don't have it long enough to put a value on it.
Secondly, for farmers like us, that graze rotationally, and 99% of the dairy farmers in the country, who do the same, band spreading keeps paddocks in rotation. If you spread with a splash plate, it's 6 weeks before you let cattle back on it and then, they will only half eat it and you will be left with a dirty sole. A lot of farmers end up trying to get a lot of their slurry onto ground before cattle get out, or after cattle go into the so they don't lose valuable ground for long periods of time. Band spread it and you never have to take the paddock out of the rotation.. Cattle will go back and graze between the lines a week or 10 days after you spread it. We are finding now that putting on slurry little and often as cattle graze paddocks is far better than trying to get it all out heavy in 1 go. The saving in fertilizer really adds up. Worm activity is also preserved by band spreading.
 
Screenshot_20190523-224018_Twitter.jpg
From our own minimal experience, the low emission spreading has great benefits for how we farm.
First of all, I definitely think that we get better grass growth from it - but we don't have it long enough to put a value on it.
Secondly, for farmers like us, that graze rotationally, and 99% of the dairy farmers in the country, who do the same, band spreading keeps paddocks in rotation. If you spread with a splash plate, it's 6 weeks before you let cattle back on it and then, they will only half eat it and you will be left with a dirty sole. A lot of farmers end up trying to get a lot of their slurry onto ground before cattle get out, or after cattle go into the so they don't lose valuable ground for long periods of time. Band spread it and you never have to take the paddock out of the rotation.. Cattle will go back and graze between the lines a week or 10 days after you spread it. We are finding now that putting on slurry little and often as cattle graze paddocks is far better than trying to get it all out heavy in 1 go. The saving in fertilizer really adds up. Worm activity is also preserved by band spreading.
 
That's a far cry from the pent up demand for finished or near finished cattle in the mart especially cows.
told today that they are saying they are booked out for 2 weeks :rolleyes2:, i will see how booked out my local boyos are when i have a load go elsewhere next week. they are going gun ho for cattle in the marts, easy see what they are up too
 
told today that they are saying they are booked out for 2 weeks :rolleyes2:, i will see how booked out my local boyos are when i have a load go elsewhere next week. they are going gun ho for cattle in the marts, easy see what they are up too
Would you not sell through the ring so?
 
There still getting lots of cattle by all accounts. Who's knows if it will continue. Grass cattle and cows will be appearing now.
 
The neighbour has been killing the 16 month bull I suppose over the last 3 weeks has 40 left rang up today il bring them in Tuesday...they nearly threw off the underpants wants them spread over three days...there flooded with cattle again
 
In the booklet, it goes through the 14 teagasc green acre farms for 2018. Average Net Margin on the 14 of them was -€38 per per hectare with an average farm size of 53 hectares.
So one with the other, the average on farm losses was just over €2k. Highest loss was €1500 per hectare and the most profitable farm made €421 per hectare.

So instead of being called "sustainable grass based production", this project should be called the "unsustainable model" and the current slogan of "advancing knowledge for an evolving industry" should really be simplified to "what not to do"

That's exactly what they want the take home message to be. There's obviously an agenda for Teagasc to show non-existent margins for every type of beef price. It's the same every year regardless of the price. If they showed lads how to make money they would be very unpopular with the IFA and most farmers as well.
  • Why do they always bring their figures to per hectare, figures for beef farming should always be per head as that is the only thing that makes sense to farmers and the only way to compare like with like.
  • Why only Fresian the only ones they looked at as bulls?
  • Under 16 month bulls get on the grid at the bullock base, makes a big difference to final price/kg compared to over 16 mths.
  • Realistic achievable averages would be 400kg for a 24mth continental bullock, 300kg for a 19mth HE heifer, 300kg for a Fresian bull, they don't seem to get that you need to feed the cattle before the finishing period as well.
  • I would question the value of grazing animals in the finishing period, especially bulls.
 
I've the read the booklet today and a lot of it had me :scratchhead::scratchhead:

For example, slurry is only worth a euro more when applied with a trailing shoe, why are we investing so much money in gear then!!

All the costs mention fertilizer but it's all based on CAN and urea, no mention of P's and K's.

The carcass weights, are they buying the buttiest animals possible to get such low weights. Even the better quality calves are only killed at 330kgs which to me sounds quite light.

I was also very surprised to see horns have four times the weight of docility in the new beef index.

The trailing shoe thing doesn't stack up economically at all. The tiny return is just not worth the cost. On a bare field there is no benefit. Why would you apply slurry to long grass anyway?
 
Can't see there being any move on prices. I was trying to get a few booked in for slaughter this week. I have spoken to the 2 closest factories this morning. The soonest I can get them in is a week from friday.
 
Can't see there being any move on prices. I was trying to get a few booked in for slaughter this week. I have spoken to the 2 closest factories this morning. The soonest I can get them in is a week from friday.

They are trying to pull them again and back up supply.

Given the reasonable spring, it's no surprise that grass cattle are coming out now.
 
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