Claas Grass
Well-Known Member
Mostly tillage here but we have always had stock, changed from sucklers to buying 60 or so FR bull calves 8 years ago. I'm not really that into stock but as others have said if you could split your buying between autumn/spring that would be ideal, that's what we did up until last year, we bought the calves off two local lads who both got out of winter milk so now it's all spring calves. The autumn calves were always a bit better than spring, it split the work of rearing, better mix of cattle grazing, they were good to graze ground in the spring as they had an appetite and were light and it helped with cash flow going to the factory at different times of year. Now we are all spring it has changed grass demand, more younger grass needed, more silage required and end up taking out more strong paddocks. We strip graze everything, it's more work but the big lads clean out paddocks better and the calves don't be bawling as they are getting fresh grass every day. We finish everything as others said you are kind of married to a FR, once quality goes out of grass in September they are given access to the shed and silage then moved on to a ration and beet to finish. They have left a few pound after themselves, tried a few Angus this spring and I don't know if I'll buy again, you are getting later calves into April, just pushes the work out and they don't look that impressive going into the winter for the extra money. We pen in 6's so I might try pick up 18 autumn calves if I find a few this year and go back to a mix of autumn/spring again
