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Campbeltowncowboy
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Bull Calves

Since the export ban was lifted after Foot and Mouth I have been told that since there is a glut of bull calves and the importers want to pay less for them, we have been offered £25-£35. What price are other producers getting and is anyone selling calves at auction marts?

5/9/2007, 18:07

MarkDay
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Re: Bull Calves

I had 3 away this week and only got £30 for them and two were nearly six weeks old.
Long term the problem is the price of milk powder so as long as we are getting high milk prices we will have to accept low calf prices.

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Bickleygate holsteins

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5/9/2007, 18:18

mootoyou
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Re: Bull Calves

In Lancashire we got about 15 away today for £35 head, but the guy that picks up out of the collection centre near Skipton is paying £40 and a premium for Real good Black and Whites

5/9/2007, 19:49

moneyhaw
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Bull Calves

I send six for export on monday morning and got £50 each no problem this is in N.I.so the haulage should be more expensive

7/9/2007, 14:50

FiringOnAllFour
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Re: Bull Calves

I got forty pound for five average calves this week.

7/9/2007, 15:46

Big Bird
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Re: Bull Calves

We had 2 that had missed the export due to the F&M restrictions. Just put them through Taunton because we were going anyway with beef calves. Princely sum of £6 each (mind, they would have made a size 0 model look fat).

8/9/2007, 13:14

broa
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Re: Bull Calves

at £40 for five calves you'd have to sell 27 calves to afford to spend one night at the London Marriot hotel Regents Park. emoticon

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8/9/2007, 19:04

alan a
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Re: Bull Calves

Yes, but London is a different currency to the rest of the UK. Whatever things cost in the 'normal world' will be double that price in London.

And that's before you try buying beer. emoticon

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Alan Armstrong
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8/9/2007, 20:15

Campbeltowncowboy
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…

We have now had bull calves away the last two weeks £20 per calf not great but better than feeding them or shooting them.
Are calves being taken from bluetongue areas , if so what do you get for them?

12/1/2008, 19:37

Charryman
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Re: …

quote:
Campbeltowncowboy wrote:

We have now had bull calves away the last two weeks £20 per calf not great but better than feeding them or shooting them.
Are calves being taken from bluetongue areas , if so what do you get for them?

How is £20 better than shooting them? They will be drinking more than £20 worth of milk in 2-3 weeks, that's without counting labour, tags & the extra disease challenge that having more calves around must bring.

Yes, they are supposed to be going from BT areas. We had a mailing the other day saying that the very "best" calves "might" get to £30!

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Anyone wants a good Charollais ram try www.lowerye.com

13/1/2008, 10:46

errolston
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…

I for one would take the £20 everytime. I hate having to put down bull calves.

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Errolston_Holsteins updated 27th October 2007.

13/1/2008, 14:14

Campbeltowncowboy
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Charryman I dont know if you are near kennels or a hunt but the fallen stock scheme down here charge £10 plus a membership fee so £20 is better than shooting them.
I dont know about anyone else but we feed the penicilin milk to bull calves.

13/1/2008, 20:13

SpringleazeHolsteins
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Bull Calves

Yes our Hunt charge £10 to shoot a bull calf. I feed them antibiotic milk or high cell count milk, doesn't cost much to tip a bucket of waste milk into a wydale feeder.

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13/1/2008, 21:35

Charryman
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Re: …

Our hunt charge a fiver (if they remember to write them all down) emoticon

We feed antibiotic milk to calves too, but since we started using Cephaguard DC tubes, we have much less of it (1 day withdrawl after calving). The replacements tend to use it all up fairly easily. The few high scc cows suckle the BB beef calves, where they can put some real value on.

Errolston, I hate the thought of killing perfectly healthy animals too, but harsh financial reality weaned me off it a couple of years back!

After saying all that, we have a couple of "better sorts" going to test the water.

Last edited by Charryman, 14/1/2008, 13:32

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Anyone wants a good Charollais ram try www.lowerye.com

14/1/2008, 13:29

smous
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Bull Calves

You guys are humane, there is an ex New Zealander here that clonks them on the pip with an iron pipe come calving season.

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WWS-SA

14/1/2008, 16:36

Campbeltowncowboy
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…

Any of you Tesco producers had any bull calves away yet?
What price are you getting?
emoticon

16/2/2008, 22:48

OLDWALLS
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Charryman- I dont think you should be putting milk in to the tank after one day, it is in all contracts that you should keep milk out for four days after calving!!

25/4/2008, 10:42

ExpectingRain
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Bull Calves

I thought the same thing, but was too polite to mention it...

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26/4/2008, 4:17

Big Bird
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Re: Bull Calves

We sent 2 pure Holstein bulls to Sedgemoor on Saturday. 3 weeks old, been sucking barren cows. Both over £130. They were good calves, but what a difference a year makes.

14/9/2009, 9:52

Charryman
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Re: Bull Calves

quote:
Big Bird wrote:

We sent 2 pure Holstein bulls to Sedgemoor on Saturday. 3 weeks old, been sucking barren cows. Both over £130. They were good calves, but what a difference a year makes.

Still the poor relations though, Blues have jumped even more. We had a BB bull calf at £420 the other week (5-6 weeks on cow), the first time since the early 90's!

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Anyone wants a good Charollais ram try www.lowerye.com

19/9/2009, 22:37

foxleigh
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Bull Calves

calf buyer told me calves have to be 65kg before they reach a $ a kg which is a pittance.he claims calf skins have dropped to $4 a piece.

in the meantime the holstein bull calves I reared in the autumn for $330 weaned have done so well that the buyer will take my spring drop too.

20/9/2009, 20:55

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