@muckymanor
Like you we sit, talk and discuss plans, we compare cattle performance, feeding different breeds, suckler bred, dairy bred,
Hereford, Angus, calf to beef, buying weanlings, buying stores, we enjoy the beef game, we are small at it, make a small margin, for a relatively low work load, we like feeding cattle, finishing cattle, looking at good cattle and eating good steak.
We do things as best we can and we still make mistakes, there’s very little room for errors in finishing cattle.
There’s been beef cattle here all my life, I grew up with it, my father fed them, my uncle fed them, there’s not a day goes by I won’t be talking with someone about beef.
Everyone will have their own opinion, on how best to make money from beef, many of them are not making much money out of it, not much point in taking their advice, I’d be looking at what the best finishers are doing and why they are doing it.
You have a clear advantage with quality home bred stock, against those of us going out to buy store cattle, transport to and from the mart, mart commissions and loss of thrive, hard to put a figure on it, I’d suggest it could be €50 or more.
That will go a a long way towards balancing the higher feed costs you will have based on your location.
Im glad your trying something different and pushing yourself, now you need to decide if you will push the cattle harder and finish them to their full potential, going halfway, option 2 and option 3, you’d be as far on selling them as stores.
Id pay no heed to to what Agri media or advisors are saying about beef, very few of them are making a living out of it.
