[bloomer]

Am after some info on the economics and logistics of raising 2 smaller beef animals from weaning to slaughter at 30 months ideally Shetlands but other options considered depending on comments.

How much grazing?
How much additional feed is require?
Do they over winter outside with a shelter OK?
What do weaned beef (small size) animals cost, what about slaughter and butchery costs?
What else do I need to think about?

[marka]

Bloomer,

Lots to think about with this but bear in mind that any cattle kept outside will cause damage to your land unless you are stocking at a really low density - thats one thing that we didnt realise when we got our cattle even though they are hardy dexters who will overwinter outside quite happily.
That said there are opportunities to add value still. We put a dexter to the butcher just before Christmas and the cost for transport, slaughter and butchery was about £250 from memory for about 145kilos of meat and after factoring in the initial purchase cost, there is still some money to be made if you can find a market for the finished product.
Happy to chat in more details if you wish - just drop me a pm!

Regards
Mark

[bloomer]

My interest is definitely fill the freezer rather than make a profit, I'm talking 2 animals sharing 10 acres with 10 sheep rotating fields as needed...

[marka]

 145 kilos quickly fills a freezer all right !!!

[Factotum]

We keep Shetlands - we have 31 at the moment - and 17 of those are going to beef over the next few years.

Shetland steers will over-winter outside - provided they have some shelter from the extremes of the weather. For the past 2 years we've kept our older (1year+) steers outside. The weather has not been too bad - not too cold, not thick snow etc.
Our younger calves and the breeding cows and heifers have open access to our cattle shed - but most of the time they choose to stay outside.

Poaching of the ground around hay-rings and water troughs can be a problem - our ground is fairly boggy being next to a grouse moor, and the ground does get churned even by our Shetlands.

Feed - our Shetlands get hay over-winter. The adults eat about 5 large round bales each, that's feeding from end Nov to end May.

Grazing -we have 47 acres, with 26 set aside for haymaking and the rest left for grazing. The cattle are let into the hay fields after harvest, and get to graze on the aftermath. For our numbers, the amount of grass & hay we produce is about right & we don't buy in any feed.

Slaughter costs - up here( NE Scotland) - are around £105 for UTM. Our local abattoir doesn't do butchery, so we have a local butcher process for us - this costs around £400. Seems expensive, but they do an excellent job, and they're one of the few butchers around that will hang for 3 weeks. Also they have an existing mail-order business, so can send our beef boxes via their courier. This makes it possible for us to sell outwith the local area.

Cost of weaned steer - for a Shetland around £350-400
Meat  - a well grown, well butchered Shetland will give about 180kgs of meat in the freezer.
If you're going to eat that yourself you'll need a very large chest freezer or 2 - plus the space to keep them. Note if you're going to keep your freezers in an outbuilding they need to be rated for that.

Hope this gives an indication of costs - please ask if you have any questions.

Sue

[bloomer]

That's awesome for getting my head round what is along term plan :-)

[twizzel]

Also think about handling facilities for when they need TB testing or if one of them needs the vet.

[Cowgirl]

We're still novices ourselves really but I think excellent advice so far - particularly about poaching of land in winter if it is very wet. If you could have a shed available it would give peace of mind, although straw adds to the costs involved. There is nothing worse in my opinion than seeing miserable cattle constantly up to their hocks in mud.
Also unless Shetlands are incredibly cheap, I would be wary of saying you could buy a weaned store for £400 - most store cattle at present are fetching over £2.20/ kg liveweight and I would expect our fairly small Traditional Herefords to weigh at least 250 kg or even 300 kg at weaning. Even dairy x beef calves at a few weeks old are often £350 - £400 at our local market.
If you buy a native breed you should only need to feed them hay or silage with a mineral bucket.

[Factotum]

Shetlands don't get good prices at the mart - they're the wrong shape for people who are used to buying continental breeds who are looking at the rear ends, and  the breed is not well known enough to have come to the attention of the buyers. Shame because the beef is superb.

I don't think Shetland breeders usually sell steers at the mart, so you won't see them in the ring. More likely to be sold via private sale as livestock. We've sold a few cows with steer calf at foot - gives the new owner a head start towards eating their own beef.

Sue.

[bloomer]

If I ever pull it off it will be a year or two currently trying to work out if it's achievable and it might be!!!

Id buy privately every time, it's a good excuse to meet people ?

[Anke]

You will also need a cattle trailer, rather than just a sheep one and a 4x4 to tow it. Don't know what you have, you may be sorted for that.

[Backinwellies]

The most important thing is the handling system for TB test .... most of the rest can be 'got round'.   We decided on a 'calving gate' which allows for the varying size of our cattle (small Dexters and FAT Shetlands) ... if you have a place to put it then a crush is ideal ... but cant be moved by hand!

Cattle trailer ... we found an 8' one on Ebay ... small enough for sheep but big enough for small cattle.

[oor wullie]

We have had our Shetlands for a year now but are still beginners.
We wintered them outdoors but I built them a small 3 sided shelter so they could get out of the wind and rain.  I moved the ring feeder regularly but the ground by the water trough and shelter did get pretty muddy.

Our 3 cows and a steer calf ate 32 bales of hay through the winter but we are in a pretty high, windy and cold place and I wonder how much of it just blew away.

Some kind of handling gear is needed.  4 or 5 cattle hurdles to make a pen is what we have managed with so far but a crush would be much better.

[Small Plot Big Ideas]

In my recent experience you can't do too much planning and then with the help of hindsight you'll kick yourself later on for all the things you didn't think of first or weren't told about.


This is all still very raw for me as we only had our first cattle (2 Dexters, 3 years old) delivered on Friday and they immediately cleared 2 dry stone walls and headed off into our neighbours fields! No one told me in advance but apparently a 4ft high cow can easily clear walls as well as 5 field bar gates and most other things too when it really has to go somewhere else 


We even visited the breeder ahead of time and saw the herd looking peaceful and quiet but they're haven't been halter trained or handled much. Also the delivery day must have been extremely stressful for them as well as it included the Vet pd'ing them before departure.


Two days later and we've managed to get them both in the same field so they can calm down. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for moving them back onto our land later this week but only after the fencing man does his magic to create a more secure first home for them.