Yesterday this couple came to get some square bales for their horses, and told me about this "deal" they ran across. They have some friends...or aquaintances ,,, that have one of those boutiqe dairy farms that are getting popular around the Atlanta suburbs. Last 3 generations it was a dairy, now the great-grandsons have turned it into one of those places where you can buy free-range chickens and turkeys, grass-fed beef and mutton, ( but gonna stop the beef, which is how this situation developed) yard-eggs, and raw milk.,.kinda-sorta. In Ga you can't sell raw milk, but you can drink it yourself...give it to friends, etc. So some of these places have come up with a deal to sell you a cow, or shares in a cow, and they board it for you and milk it for you, for a fee.
So they tell me this place has stared doing a pumpkin patch, corn maze, sunflower field for sunflower festivals, and have planted vines to start a winery, taking up pastures they used to run grass fed beef on. They told me this place has about 20 cows they milk..Jeresy, Brown Swiss, Guernsey, a couple of milking shorthorns and something by friends called "Shires) . Shire is a draft horse, so I am guessing these are Ayrshire. Basically, any milk breed tother than Holstein. Now that so much pasture is gone for the tourist things, , they will AI these cows to a sire of the same breed to freshen them. They used to breed the heifers to an Angus back when they sold grass-fed beef. Now, they don't have the room to raise their heifers or raise steers to slaughter. They usually wean the calves at 2 months or so,, I guess when they get them eating calf feed good.
So here is what they want to offer my friends: When the calves get weaned, 2 or 3 mos old, they want to take them to my friends' place. Gonna give them the all-dairy bull calves, and they want my buddies to raise the heifers to breeding age then my friends can breed them to a beef bull, keep them to right before they calve, then give them back to the dairy folks. They will birth out my friends' calves and give them back to them at 2 months or so at weaning. The dairy owners will send them a months supply of the calf feed they have weaned them to. My buddies can buy more from them, or use that month's supply to mix with whatever feed they wanna use. They remembered back in the 2010's I was getting in these 4 x4 x8 Alfalfa bales and wanted to see if I could still get them, to feed these calves with. And they said they wanted to breed them with a Brahma bull, or maybe Brangus, and wanted to know if Iwould I find them one when the time came.
I dunno..what do y'all think? Get these 2-3 month old heifers, feed them for a year til it is time to breed them, then feed them 9 more months before they calve That is 2 years before you get a calf off of them, that you gonna have to feed for 4-5 months til you sell it or it gets old enough to live off hay and pasture?!! If they decide to keep the crossbred heifers, then it is another 2 years before they get a calf off of it to sell. The dairy is going to take care of all vet costs like vaccinations, etc, and will have banded these full dairy bull calves they gonna give you. First thing that I thought of, was the dairy can screw them by using sexed semen, too.
Dunno what those dairy steers will sell for at about 500 lbs..I am sure well less than beef steer would. Right now, 1/2 Brahma and 1/2 Jeresy or Brown Swiss heifers will bring $1200-$1500. Dunno about the 1/2 Guernsey, Shorthorn or Aryshires will bring. If he uses Brangus bulls, his steers would bring what black steers do now..more than 1/2 Brahma steers would, but the 1/2 Brangus heifers would probably bring less than 1/2 Brahmas. This dairy calves year round, so he won't have 20 of their purebred calves, or the 20 1/2 breds they will get back, at the same age at the same time.
Sounds like a better deal for that dairy than for my buddies. What do y'all think?
So they tell me this place has stared doing a pumpkin patch, corn maze, sunflower field for sunflower festivals, and have planted vines to start a winery, taking up pastures they used to run grass fed beef on. They told me this place has about 20 cows they milk..Jeresy, Brown Swiss, Guernsey, a couple of milking shorthorns and something by friends called "Shires) . Shire is a draft horse, so I am guessing these are Ayrshire. Basically, any milk breed tother than Holstein. Now that so much pasture is gone for the tourist things, , they will AI these cows to a sire of the same breed to freshen them. They used to breed the heifers to an Angus back when they sold grass-fed beef. Now, they don't have the room to raise their heifers or raise steers to slaughter. They usually wean the calves at 2 months or so,, I guess when they get them eating calf feed good.
So here is what they want to offer my friends: When the calves get weaned, 2 or 3 mos old, they want to take them to my friends' place. Gonna give them the all-dairy bull calves, and they want my buddies to raise the heifers to breeding age then my friends can breed them to a beef bull, keep them to right before they calve, then give them back to the dairy folks. They will birth out my friends' calves and give them back to them at 2 months or so at weaning. The dairy owners will send them a months supply of the calf feed they have weaned them to. My buddies can buy more from them, or use that month's supply to mix with whatever feed they wanna use. They remembered back in the 2010's I was getting in these 4 x4 x8 Alfalfa bales and wanted to see if I could still get them, to feed these calves with. And they said they wanted to breed them with a Brahma bull, or maybe Brangus, and wanted to know if Iwould I find them one when the time came.
I dunno..what do y'all think? Get these 2-3 month old heifers, feed them for a year til it is time to breed them, then feed them 9 more months before they calve That is 2 years before you get a calf off of them, that you gonna have to feed for 4-5 months til you sell it or it gets old enough to live off hay and pasture?!! If they decide to keep the crossbred heifers, then it is another 2 years before they get a calf off of it to sell. The dairy is going to take care of all vet costs like vaccinations, etc, and will have banded these full dairy bull calves they gonna give you. First thing that I thought of, was the dairy can screw them by using sexed semen, too.
Dunno what those dairy steers will sell for at about 500 lbs..I am sure well less than beef steer would. Right now, 1/2 Brahma and 1/2 Jeresy or Brown Swiss heifers will bring $1200-$1500. Dunno about the 1/2 Guernsey, Shorthorn or Aryshires will bring. If he uses Brangus bulls, his steers would bring what black steers do now..more than 1/2 Brahma steers would, but the 1/2 Brangus heifers would probably bring less than 1/2 Brahmas. This dairy calves year round, so he won't have 20 of their purebred calves, or the 20 1/2 breds they will get back, at the same age at the same time.
Sounds like a better deal for that dairy than for my buddies. What do y'all think?
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