Heifer rearing

AYF

AYF

Well-Known Member
What's the ins and outs of contract rearing dairy heifers?
Lots of farms going into milk in a big way here so just wondering on the posabilities.

How does it usually work?
A set £/head once they reach the age on target? Or is it done on an agree'd margin on costs?
 
Round here it was on a head/day basis,a neighbour got caught up in a tb disaster where he ended up selling some of his heifers to the chap keeping them,the chap keeping them ended up milking again because of this.:no:

It sort of put us all off sending heifers to be reared in the locality,were a tb 4 parish and it never crossed our minds that this would happen.

An acquaintance had a go at sellin heifer calves for £200 to a chap with a buy back deal at calving for £1200,was a good idea but they fell out.
 
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scoffcruddle said:
Round here it was on a head/day basis,a neighbour got caught up in a tb disaster where he ended up selling some of his heifers to the chap keeping them,the chap keeping them ended up milking again because of this.:no:

It sort of put us all off sending heifers to be reared in the locality,were a tb 4 parish and it never crossed our minds that this would happen.

An acquaintance had a go at sellin heifer calves for £200 to a chap with a buy back deal at calving for £1200,was a good idea but they fell out.
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Tb would be the sticking point alright! Could be very messy really.
 
If I was going to do it,I'd only take the stock from one herd this means you'd have far less hassle.

Well if you didn't have your own stock it would.

Anyone in lancs want 200 heifers to rear for me? Exclusively !
 
I think exclusively or nothing.

Could suit well with your sheep, ye don't keep cows on the beef side do you? All bought in?
 
Is there many on here getting there heifers contract reared or any on here actually doing the rearing of them (heifer rearers) ?..
 
podge 23 said:
Is there many on here getting there heifers contract reared or any on here actually doing the rearing of them (heifer rearers) ?..
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I minded heifers and calves for about 5 years. Lots of positives in it. I am considering returning to milk but if a good heifer rearing contract came up I would seriously consider it before I make the investment in cows, parlour etc.

Because I come from a dairying background I can see how a dairy farmer might see it as being expensive. It really works for a dairy farmer if it allows him/her to cut back on labour costs on the dairy farm and uses the contract rearer as extra/casual help. It also benefits the rearer if they get work on the dairy farm for example in the spring time, slurry, silage, relief milking etc. That is of course if the distance to travel is not too great.

One thing I learned when I was doing it was that the dairy farm and the rearer farm should not think of themselves as being 2 separate farms but rather as being one farm because the dairy farmer can help the rearer be more efficient and vice versa.
 
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What are you in at the moment blue power beef ?
Is the there a good income out of the heifer rearing ?
 
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podge 23 said:
What are you in at the moment blue power beef ?
Is the there a good income out of the heifer rearing ?
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This year I leased out the land for silage and end of year grazing.

There is a good income but that is really is down to the number of animals you are rearing plus how efficient you are with costs and your time. I say time because this is important if you can manage to just even work off farm for the summer to increase your annual income.

Even though they were someone else's animals I enjoyed minding them from calves to the in-calf heifer stage. These picture would have been taken in early September.heifers 1.jpgheifers 2.jpg heifers 3.jpg
 
podge 23 said:
Is there many on here getting there heifers contract reared or any on here actually doing the rearing of them (heifer rearers) ?..
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Started it this year podge with just the maidens.
Very very happy with how it's gone, we've ended up with the best bunch of incalf heifers we've ever had and we always did a good job on them, or so we thought.
Looking forward to milking them, they should become super cows
 
podge 23 said:
Fine looking stock looks like you did a good job ! Is it just the 1 farmers stock you had ?
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Yes, all stock from one farmer. Main advantage of this is you will have no more than 3 groups of cattle i.e heifers, heavier calves and lighter calves. Maybe 4 groups when the bulls are taken away from the heifers. The more groups you have the more work you have to do.

You might have to change the infrastructure of the farm to suit heifet rearing. For example double wire for calves. All the gaps from my paddocks were in the direction of the parlour but this was not ideal if you were moving cattle in the other direction so I had to place gaps more strategically to allow me to move them on my own.
 
So would it work like this?
Animal arrives. Instructions are X weight by bulling at 12 months age. Then x weight by home time say one month pree due date.
Then figure out a cost per day to keep them on your ground for basics. Eg:
Grazing. Silage and straw for winter + labour (extra for winter housing)

Regular weigh-ins. If owner wants extra feed, they supply + small cost for the storage and feeding or extra cost for TMR. They also give instruction on amounts so no one can be under doing it.

Then if owner want medical jobs or scanning etc. Use of yard and crush in the price somehow?

I like what @Blue Power says about not being two seperate farms.

TB is still a stickler. Is there some allowances for sending heifers home on welfare grounds as they need milking?
 
AYF said:
So would it work like this?
Animal arrives. Instructions are X weight by bulling at 12 months age. Then x weight by home time say one month pree due date.
Then figure out a cost per day to keep them on your ground for basics. Eg:
Grazing. Silage and straw for winter + labour (extra for winter housing)

Regular weigh-ins. If owner wants extra feed, they supply + small cost for the storage and feeding or extra cost for TMR. They also give instruction on amounts so no one can be under doing it.

Then if owner want medical jobs or scanning etc. Use of yard and crush in the price somehow?

I like what @Blue Power says about not being two seperate farms.

TB is still a stickler. Is there some allowances for sending heifers home on welfare grounds as they need milking?
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Due to Tb I wouldn’t want heifers back on welfare grounds.

I’ve been selling heifer calves this year and a few beef lads have been buying them as they say there’s more profit in them.
 
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I was half thinking of going into the the contract rearing of heifers instead of milking cows would this be a wise move ? ..
 
podge 23 said:
I was half thinking of going into the the contract rearing of heifers instead of milking cows would this be a wise move ? ..
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If you could find a near neighbour that would exclusively send you their stock,it would work,also you could do a few milking for them,so everyone was a winner.
 
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What is the price of getting heifers contracted reared now ?
So I have a question I want to throw out there,we have 45 acres rented next door to us where we keep the maiden heifers and take silage of it as well which is handy but the other side of it then is we are very tight for head space in the winter so I was wondering if I dropped rented land and got heifers contract reared this would free up some head space for me it’s either that or have to spend more money in the yard .
 
podge 23 said:
What is the price of getting heifers contracted reared now ?
So I have a question I want to throw out there,we have 45 acres rented next door to us where we keep the maiden heifers and take silage of it as well which is handy but the other side of it then is we are very tight for head space in the winter so I was wondering if I dropped rented land and got heifers contract reared this would free up some head space for me it’s either that or have to spend more money in the yard .
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Between €1 and €1.50 per hd per day and the rate varies as it depends on The AI dosing if needed and who pays for it, how many winters they are kept and at what dates they come home to calve etc.
Personally I’d be keeping the land as you need it for nitrates and maybe BPS.
Throw up a few open top cubicles it will get you out of a hole for a few years until you can find a roof if the budget is tight.
 
podge 23 said:
What is the price of getting heifers contracted reared now ?
So I have a question I want to throw out there,we have 45 acres rented next door to us where we keep the maiden heifers and take silage of it as well which is handy but the other side of it then is we are very tight for head space in the winter so I was wondering if I dropped rented land and got heifers contract reared this would free up some head space for me it’s either that or have to spend more money in the yard .
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The price is pretty much as Blackwater Boy said above but there's a bonus for heifers returning heavier than the agreed weight as well.

One thing I'd say is most lads are doing it to simplify their work so they would only have one animal group on the farm and can replace the young stock with milking cows. The extra cows should more than cover the cost of rearing the young stock or in your case, get them reared for less than the cost of the rented ground + rearing costs.

But TB appearing on either farm would make the whole deal very messy indeed.
 
The heat has gone out of heifer rearing around here. Back 3 or 4 years ago there was a big push on it from the local Teagasc office but it didn't work out as well as predicted for some. One lad got scalded and didn't get paid. Another had a TB issue causing him to have to hold on to and calve down some heifers. For most, they underestimated the work that would be needed to reach target weights. Things were grand when lads kept a suckler cow that could be mob grazed and she would eat almost everything giving a conversion into milk and producing a good suckler calf that a lad could have €200 out of. To hit target weights, dairy heifers need to rotational grazing on good quality grass. It's hard to explain that to some lads who may have only seen €€€€ signs when deciding to change from suckler cows to contract rearing. The reality is that you had to be a good suckler farmer to have the skills to make money from contract rearing. Many that took it on didn't have the skills or the set up. I'd estimate that 40% of those that were contract rearing around here 3 to 4 years ago are no longer in the game with more to follow next year.
 
Though it was going well for them.few around us at it and one even cutting back on his award winning sheep enterprise to focus more on heifer rearing...
Was it c.s. not to far from you got burned.
did hear the group in general was having problems getting stock and they were been given teagasc stock to rear
 
A potential TB issue makes the whole thing very precarious for all parties really. It takes the good out of it to an extent. Know of one setup local to me between two best friends that was going well but TB made a mess of it and they had to decide to go their separate ways for a finish, nothing really could be done about it. As stated above, you need good set up and good grassland management skills to make it successful and profitable. Don't think there is as much work involved as there is in suckler cows mind you.
 
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