[ho !sheep!]

With our acreage expanding we are looking at adding a small heard of cattle to complement our sheep grazing rotation setting with 4-6 cows we have housing and handling equipment in place.

Just looking at costs please the idea is our girls would raise 2 calfs we can get dairy boys for £5 deliver from the heard 2 villages away from April through June most weeks.
Looking at dexters at the moment and renting a mini jersey or mini Heroferd bull basing the dairy to 6mth fro rose veal the restaurant next door is interested in taking veal if we do this.

Just what sort of additional costs are we looking at over sheep keeping my thoughts..

Cattle nuts pre and post calfing and as bribes ( how much to beget for per cow please?)
Crush we have one
Sprouted barely and brasicas, same as sheep
Good hay/haylage/silage in manageable sized bales (how much a day per cow on small bales?)
Bedding
TB testing cost per cow?
Vaccinations?
Worming

[Scotsdumpy]

We have 3 cows that, at the moment are raising 3 calves per year. I don't keep a bull and would advise you not to either. I don't think your bull would have enough work to keep him happy. He would break through your fences looking for a bit on the side. We aa our cows and have a good success rate - we use aberdeen angus semen as cross calves are easy to sell at the mart. I wouldn't say that keeping cows the way we do makes any money. You can use your cows ( or their milk) to raise more calves plus their own, try and get hold of tim tynes book about small farming. He raises calves, uses their milk for home consumption etc. You could look to raise your calves to eventually sell as beef but you would need a market for this. Good luck in your quest!

[twizzel]

TB costs- depends on what frequency your area is on testing but your compulsory test is covered by the ministry but any pre movement tests covered by yourself (only needed if sending to market in store ring or selling live to another farm, not needed for fat ring or direct to slaughter). Vaccinations unless you have a problem you probably don't need to vaccinate- we vaccinated one year for rotavirus as had problems with it. Buying in calves though comes with risks associated with herd health- johnes, ibr, crypto, bvd, all big issues that can be brought in with calves. Probably go on 1 cow eating a small bale of hay per day if in but obviously this depends on the size of cow too. Worming also depends on fluke risk area, but be aware that wormers and pour ons come in large quantities so maybe best to find a neighbour that you can share with. Dairy bull calves are cheap for a reason and take a long time to finish, you would be better off buying a beef x breed in my opinion or even just sticking with 1 cow rearing 1 good calf.

[farmers wife]

impossible to gauge we work on £500 overheads a year and thats under ever though we are grass fed and low input.  The general figure is min £400 - £700 per cow raising a calf as a rule of thumb.


Hence the last yearling AA calves we sold for £650/£700 at market means we made a profit of £150pa very poor seeing paying some tradesmen to do some work here want £200 cash per day!


Like anything, have a go first before committing to supplying anyone and beleive me the overheads of supplying meat is high. You first of all need to find a first class butcher! There is a lot of talk in restaurants wanting meat but when you start talking figures they wont commit.

[Backinwellies]

Further to the supply comments .... most restaurants want a constant supply too ... impossible to achieve!

No idea what you mean by 'mini' Jersey bull .....   but do not buy/borrow/hire or even rear a dairy type bull .... they are mostly very temperamental at best and lethal at worst!

Also 'mini' (if they exist)  does not mean easier.... easiest bull I ever worked with was HUGE Suffolk.  Our smallish Dexter cows are  far livelier than our larger Shetlands

[ho !sheep!]

I ment we rent in a bull for the short time we need him, I have the option on renting mini jersey bull he's remarkable tame and sweet though I now bulls are a hazard . I was put off AI as my sisters 2 jerseys had 6 courses each and only one in calf this year! Her heroferd bull Partisan  is very lady back but you just don't take risks with the boys,
Not brother about profit just would need them to cover there costs as far as possible.

[twizzel]

Keep in mind if you rent or hire a bull it will need a pre movement tb test before it leaves your holding- and if the worst happens and you get tb then he will have to stay. That alone would put me off hiring a bull. Tame bulls are the most dangerous too, you can get too complacent with them.

[SallyintNorth]

I struggled to get my Jersey in calf to AI at first, but then realised that the dairy types are very sensitive to stress, and are stressed by changes in routine.  So now I only AI when I know I can keep changes in routine to a minimum for 6 weeks after service, and have not had any further problems.

[landroverroy]

Firstly I couldn't agree more with the advice not to get/use a dairy bull. Not only are dairy bulls potentially unpredictable and therefore dangerous, but why reduce the value of a calf that's going to be eaten by putting dairy blood into it when you should be aiming for something that's beefy and well built?
However whether you use a bull or AI, really depends on personal preference and your facilities.   
You've already got housing and handling equipment so nothing to stop you getting a bull. Many years ago when we started off with 2 hereford heifers, I got fed up with the AI man returning several times and also with the constant need to watch the cattle for "the right time" and tying up AI visits with my job.
So we bought a young bull, kept him a while till he'd done his job and grown on a bit, and sold him on at a profit.
I've now done that for the last 30+ years. The bull has never missed, and we've always made extra money on his sale. 
If you're looking at dexters then you can use a native bull such an Angus or Hereford and  get a decent calf. You certainly don't want to be using a Jersey bull and devaluing your calves by producing something with the conformation of a geyhound!

[ho !sheep!]

Thank for the input about bull types just concerned snort overly big calfs potentially, yes would have no issues with selling a bull on. We aren't brother about milk for the house as It's to much with the sheep and outher things on the farm, we have all the land work contracted until just after harvest when the new fencing will by going up and the gass and hedges planted for us to take over. So we won't be stocking much until next summer