Why don't more people buy at this time of year? Keep them on a simple diet over winter, and then when they do hit grass in March, they should get a lot of compensatory growth.
You can't really blame farmers who are keeping weanlings over the winter and spring for feeding them. KG's = € with the right type of animal.
I can't predict the future, only tell about last year. We kept the 180kg to 240kg CH heifers over winter. There was about 12. We sold them 300kg+ in March. They would have been worth €650 to €750 this time last year and in March, none of them came in less than €900. Not expensive to keep and very little work. A bale of silage per week @€20 per bale. 2kg of rolled barley/wheat per day (€32/week). Dosing, Slurry, Vet etc €15/hd.
So for 16 weeks
Bales = €320 or €27 each
Feed = €512 or €43
Misc = € 15
Total Cost = €85/hd
On the other side, the bullocks of the same age that I kept in Galway got nothing but silage. Again, a bale per week. But it was poorer quality silage than at home as it had gotten no fertilizer, so to put a value of €20 on it would be brave. They looked raggedy coming out of the shed. They had been getting creep for August, September and October at home and were plump enough going into the shed (all 200 to 250kg). Coming out of the shed, they had shedded the plumpness, but their frames had grown. They turned inside out after a month outside on grass alone and they are 550kg+ right now.
Some lads that I know that factory cattle at this time of year in recent years have held off buying until spring in the hope that cattle will have dropped in price. I don't know if they win much that much of the time at it.
