Dairy farming

I think with jersey bulls it's either kill at birth or don't breed them.

They are not economically viable to rear for beef.

I don't think lads are going to able to get away with killing them for much longer judging by the rumblings In the journal and by the various dairy companies.

It's no worse imo than exporting them but the consumer is the one that will decide.
 
I think with jersey bulls it's either kill at birth or don't breed them.

They are not economically viable to rear for beef.

I don't think lads are going to able to get away with killing them for much longer judging by the rumblings In the journal and by the various dairy companies.

It's no worse imo than exporting them but the consumer is the one that will decide.
Read that too and had to laugh, the consumer doesn't want to pay a proper price for food but want to keep adding more regulations to the farmers. Also the coop and governments can't leave this all up to the farmers its an easy cop out, they have all profited handsomely form dairy expansion. Its time governments stood up to these animal rights people and twitter vegans are they going to shape food policy from now on? I'm dead against animals being treated badly and never put a calf down here but if these consumers like their food nice and cheap there are consequences to that agenda.
 
I think with jersey bulls it's either kill at birth or don't breed them.

Its no worse imo than exporting them but the consumer is the one that will decide.

Couldn't agree more. They don't go off to Tir Na Nog on that boat, it's a short trip for them too.

All of the rumblings I am hearing about bull calves in the Spring is from farmers who think they have beefier calves than others. They should be ashamed of themselves.
 
that's the point though. A good calf will sell. What will be done with the rest of them?
I presume you are talking about x breeds? Those lads walked themselves freely into that position. Dont buy them at the ring is what i say but i bet thwy will be bid on. I don't like the way the journal and rhe like seem to be putting all bull calfs in the one boat though
 
the fr calves selling in may june and july were sold and they weren,t any better quality than the other ones , the difference is the others were born in a 6 week window leading to a glut of calves , not enough boats to take them ,not enough calf sheds to house them , not enough labour to rear them, the problem is compact calving and when the milk price is adjusted to penalise milk at peak the problem will be solved
 
Imo all calves are going to go for nothing at peak this spring, where last spring it was the poorer calves.
The problem is where do the poorer quality calves go, jex, small friesans etc.
Calves were always going for too much any way, beef price is the issue. When that lifts things will improve but that's unlikely to happen this spring
We've stopped breeding jex here more so because we felt we had gotten as much as we could from them and gone towards the friesan route
 
Imo all calves are going to go for nothing at peak this spring, where last spring it was the poorer calves.
The problem is where do the poorer quality calves go, jex, small friesans etc.
Calves were always going for too much any way, beef price is the issue. When that lifts things will improve but that's unlikely to happen this spring
We've stopped breeding jex here more so because we felt we had gotten as much as we could from them and gone towards the friesan route

Sensible post.

Farm manager here worked on a farm in New Zealand for a year before he came to us. On that farm they were being paid for JEX calves, not sure what happened the calves from there, but there was no CAP support for it anyway so it had to be profitable.
 
I think we need to be careful about Tir na nOg too. There's more changes coming to the shipping regulations which will make things more difficult.

Another issue we had in spring was bad weather leading to a back up in lairages and given the time of the year, nothing to say it won't happen again.
 
No, we ain't, but they are making money from Jersey Cross bull calves.
They were being sold for €40 each at 2 weeks of age here a few years ago and the next man was making money. The price of beef hasn't changed on the shelves so what's the difference.....supply exceeding demand and retailers/processors cashing in on this.
Using more beef genetics and semen sexing machines would only worsen this situation. We might be looking at more beef animals, but that means we would be looking at more beef to sell on an already flooded market. I don't have the right answer to solve this here, but the status quo is far better than using more beef genetics and sexing semen. We need to reverse that trend.

This graph tells the truth of cow numbers in Ireland and doesn't get mentioned
Long-term-trend-in-cow-numbers-1-800x518.jpg
Dairy cow numbers will probably be on par with where they were in 1984 next Spring.
http://capreform.eu/why-funding-a-suckler-cow-reduction-scheme-in-ireland-makes-sense/
 
No, we ain't, but they are making money from Jersey Cross bull calves.
They were being sold for €40 each at 2 weeks of age here a few years ago and the next man was making money. The price of beef hasn't changed on the shelves so what's the difference.....supply exceeding demand and retailers/processors cashing in on this.
Using more beef genetics and semen sexing machines would only worsen this situation. We might be looking at more beef animals, but that means we would be looking at more beef to sell on an already flooded market. I don't have the right answer to solve this here, but the status quo is far better than using more beef genetics and sexing semen. We need to reverse that trend.

This graph tells the truth of cow numbers in Ireland and doesn't get mentioned
View attachment 71052
Dairy cow numbers will probably be on par with where they were in 1984 next Spring.
http://capreform.eu/why-funding-a-suckler-cow-reduction-scheme-in-ireland-makes-sense/
I think the beef industry are missing a trick The more calves that are slaughtered and exported the better the trade will be for their produce.
If suggestions from ifa meetings carry through ,there will be an extra 250k animals to be killed in the system
Better quality calves and sexed semen is not the answer.
If we used all limousin or charolais straws in the cows ,there will still be an over supply of calves going forward.
 
I think the beef industry are missing a trick The more calves that are slaughtered and exported the better the trade will be for their produce.
If suggestions from ifa meetings carry through ,there will be an extra 250k animals to be killed in the system
Better quality calves and sexed semen is not the answer.
If we used all limousin or charolais straws in the cows ,there will still be an over supply of calves going forward.

That would be my take on it also.
 
That would be my take on it also.
So where is it heading ?
Will the dairy farmer have a "social responsibility " to rear his bull calves to beef if no one will buy them?
On numbers I guess unless there is a huge reduction In sucklers we are seriously dependent on shipping or slaughter.
25000 calves slaughtered here last spring I believe.
Tom Phelan chairman of ifa dairy committee has been on about a potential pr catastrophe coming down the line on calf slaughter for a good while now.
I cant see a dairy farmer paying a beef farmer to take his calves no matter what.
The icmsa had a recent proposal about beef farmer getting 2x75 euro payments on a bull calf but didn't say where the money was coming from
 
So where is it heading ?
Will the dairy farmer have a "social responsibility " to rear his bull calves to beef if no one will buy them?
On numbers I guess unless there is a huge reduction In sucklers we are seriously dependent on shipping or slaughter.
25000 calves slaughtered here last spring I believe.
Tom Phelan chairman of ifa dairy committee has been on about a potential pr catastrophe coming down the line on calf slaughter for a good while now.
I cant see a dairy farmer paying a beef farmer to take his calves no matter what.
The icmsa had a recent proposal about beef farmer getting 2x75 euro payments on a bull calf but didn't say where the money was coming from

Yea, it ain't a rosey picture. I see on the New Zealand farmers twitter page this week a NZ farmer who rears his bull calves to 100-150 kgs and sells them for $550, (approx €320). Why are we not able to pay dairy farmers for calves here? The meat probably ends up in the same market.
 
It is bad enough calf trade is on the floor but at the moment weanlings trade was never worse ,local butcher bought the finest aa heifers last week 380kg for €560 and these are since hanging .Where the fuk is this going to end up .Even if lads rear fr bulls up to 6 months there will still be no one to buy them probably
 
I know we are talking about animals here and the vast vast majority treat them even better than they do themselves but there is little point in talking ourselves into a crisis.

It's about time someone got a few liathroidi and came up with pragmatic solutions.
 
There are certain measures we can use ourselves but at the end of the day food prices are unbelievablely out of balance with energy prices and labour. But it's a race to the bottom a lot of the lads on here want. They refuse to see the need to ask for more and only see the need to do with even less.
 
There is no problem asking for more but who is going to give it for the majority of our products which we export?????
Our price is dictated by the market we sell to not our own.
Food is cheap from our point of view,housewives may not agree.
Retailers profit handsomely but unless we can change this world wide and or adjust government policies we are powerless
 
There is no problem asking for more but who is going to give it for the majority of our products which we export?????
Our price is dictated by the market we sell to not our own.
Food is cheap from our point of view,housewives may not agree.
Retailers profit handsomely but unless we can change this world wide and or adjust government policies we are powerless
The lowest earners spend 35% on food, highest earners spend 8%, the average household spends around 15% on food.
In comparison the average household spends over 30% of income on miscellaneous good and services, that's the even nearly 10% higher than on rent or mortgage.
I've said it before there is a balance to be struck, if people don't have money to throw around them then they don't buy the crap that they are employed to make and market, but at the same time its devaluing food too much that its not profitable to produce.
 
That's certainly the problem.
But what is the solution?????
That is realistically achievable??
People consider progress to be having miscellaneous shit that they don't actually need. Food isnt deemed important, more something taken for granted
 
I dont know where things are going to end up there is alot of uncertainty out there in both dairy and beef farming at the moment. As for what is the right breed of cow to be breeding you have 2 scenarios the lads with the pure holstein fresian and the lads with the Jersey cross,the 1st one lads would need less of them because they produce more milk and not bad solids only hard to get them back in calf . The 2nd are more fertile but give less milk so should a falla be looking down the high yielding route and having less of them ( more from less like )...???
 
I dont know where things are going to end up there is alot of uncertainty out there in both dairy and beef farming at the moment. As for what is the right breed of cow to be breeding you have 2 scenarios the lads with the pure holstein fresian and the lads with the Jersey cross,the 1st one lads would need less of them because they produce more milk and not bad solids only hard to get them back in calf . The 2nd are more fertile but give less milk so should a falla be looking down the high yielding route and having less of them ( more from less like )...???

It sounds like you are justifying an answer as opposed to asking a question!!
Look a bit deeper than that though.....input costs, cost of replacements, lifetime production, labour etc.etc.
 
I dont know where things are going to end up there is alot of uncertainty out there in both dairy and beef farming at the moment. As for what is the right breed of cow to be breeding you have 2 scenarios the lads with the pure holstein fresian and the lads with the Jersey cross,the 1st one lads would need less of them because they produce more milk and not bad solids only hard to get them back in calf . The 2nd are more fertile but give less milk so should a falla be looking down the high yielding route and having less of them ( more from less like )...???
What about a middle of the road cow that has reasonable yield and produces a good reasonably square calf that you can actually sell. It strikes me as an outsider that running to the extremes is what is causing issues in dairying at the moment, the high yielders are massively labour intensive and struggling to go back in calf leading to inefficiency and high cost and an extreme Holstein calf is not what ppl want, the jersey cross has well publicised ssue with calves, while a middle of the road smaller squared cow is not fashionable is it more sustainable as in easier managed and a better calf market? I don't know much about dairying interested in ppls opinions.
 
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