Video: How much will it cost to finish bullocks this winter?

One of the main factors affecting decision-making on the economics of winter-beef finishing is how much it will cost to finish cattle in the shed.

Farmers who have housed forward-type cattle for the winter will now be considering if it is best to push these cattle on for a shed finish over the winter, or to retain these cattle as ‘stores’ over the winter.

Speaking on the Teagasc DairyBeef 500 Winter Herd Management webinar which took place in conjunction with Agriland, on Thursday, October 26, Teagasc’s DairyBeef 500 Programme Co-Ordinator Alan Dillon advised farmers to calculate their winter-finishing costs before making a decision on the best course of action.

He said: “If we look at the economics of finishing dairy-beef steers over the winter, I would say that the costs have remained very high and one of the main problems we’re seeing this year is that cattle are coming in a lot lighter than we expected given the wet summer.”

He explained that cattle that would be expected to come in at 500-520kg off grass are probably coming in “at somewhere between 450 and 480kg, they’ve lost about 50kg. We put that down to two things, the late turnout in the spring, and the wet summer resulting in low grass dry matters”.

“This weight gain will have to be made up inside at a cost of €4.00-4.50/day in big cattle or €1.50-2.00/day in weanlings versus achieving that weight gain in a good grazing season at probably €1/day for stronger cattle or 50-60c/day for a calf or weanling.”

The table below includes sample costings for a 100-day winter finish for a 500kg Friesian steer.

In the table above, silage was costed at €40/t and meal was costed at €350/t. The target live weight gain/day was 1kg.

The Teagasc advisor advised farmers to use costings relevant to their own farm when calculating what it will cost to finish cattle over the winter but said costs will be from €4.00-4.50/day on most farms.