Comment

Comment by rebecca bailey on September 9, 2009 at 8:52am

It has recently come to my attention that this blog is being used by people who dont seem to be ag mates members to attack my personal integrity. Instead of being the snakes in the grass that you are if you perhaps confronted the situation in person, not that it would be any of your business, not hiding behind each other and solicitors and thriving on the b******* that seems to feed such small minded people as youselves you would have found a few home truths about who has the bad intentions. My words and actions mean that I can sleep a sound nights sleep and hold my head up high no matter how much my reputation is slandered by the likes of you. The result of what you have started festering will not at all be to your liking, wether im here or not. You have stepped on too many toes. Print that off and keep it for your records.

Comment by rebecca bailey on August 29, 2009 at 6:41pm

just like to appologise to everyone as well i have been incredibly busy creating my business plan for the NEIS scheme, and havent really had a chance to be on ag mates but thats to everyone for their support and hopefully ill be able to make some more time in my days lol.

Comment by rebecca bailey on August 29, 2009 at 6:39pm

Hi Olivia, feeding that amount of milk she wont have a developed rumen for at least 10-12 weeks of age and you need to get her rumen running to wean her, i would drop her to once a day and stay at the 3lt, she will complain but within the week she will be eating a lot more pellets. Another trick is to feed her straw instead of quality hay, she will eat more pellets that way.
the best way to wean is when she is 65kg or more and is eating 750gms of pellets a day she should do this in 2-3 weeks if you put her to once a day now. then just keep the pellets up till about 100kg or 12 weeks and she will be ready for the padock.

Comment by John Cartwright on August 29, 2009 at 2:30pm

Hi Olivia,
You should be able to put your calf on to once a day feeding now, and with the pellets and hay as soon as she is eating that should be able to be weaned from 7-8 weks

Comment by Olivia James on August 29, 2009 at 11:43am

I have a simple question - when raising poddy calves how old are they before you wean them and which is the best way. I have only one (!) calf that is currently 4 weeks old and is being fed on 3L of Palastart blue twice daily. Supplementary calf pellets and lucerne hay are being offered but she doesn't eat much of either. I have observed her to graze in the paddock though...
Any advice would be appreciated!

Comment by Deborah Willis on July 7, 2009 at 10:04pm

Hi Rebecca, just letting you know that your cost of rearing calves ( friesians) is spot on. That was my cost also. I was rearing them for export until the BJD issue surfaced, when accessing heifers became nearly impossible. Dairy farmers startedkeeping their heifers for replacements instead of trying to buy in heifers with the correct score. I was able back then to make 100% on my money within 5 to 6mths! The export market is now non existent. I am now doing vealers, trade steers and Forestry, and doing all the work running a property on my own!. All the best......and keep up the good work.

Comment by Wendy Agar on July 2, 2009 at 11:08pm

Hello Bec

You go girl! Great to read of someone getting out there and taking on a real challenge with such a wonderful attitude.

I just thought I'd let you know that there is some really great education available where you can learn how to make the best management decisions for you and your country. Two that I can recommend from personal experience are KLR Marketing (www.KLRmarketing.com.au), who teach a wonderful livestock marketing system, and RCS (www.RCS.au.com) who teach wholistic management. Both these companies have had a huge impact on the way we run our sheep and cattle operation.

On a personal note, I thought I'd let you know that I am currently running a wonderful series of 10 FREE webinars, that aim to get quality information to rural women (although there is often many men on them!). I understand the restrictions that children, distance to courses, cost, and travel time place on getting to top quality speakers and am passionate about getting on-going education to people in the bush. I am now up to call number 3 in the series, with the first three topics being: succession planning, a financial health check and goal setting. They are fabulous and well worth a listen. The links are currently available on my blog: www.OutbackGrowthClub.wordpress.com. If you are also interested in being part of the next 7 free calls, just go to www.OutbackGrowthClub.com and join up. The beauty of this technology is that if you miss the live call, the recording is still there to download and listen to whenever you like.

Hope that something here might be of use to you
Regards
Wendy Agar

Comment by rebecca bailey on July 1, 2009 at 2:02pm

Thanks Doug, I havent had a major disease problem yet, I do get Ecoli in calves from one farm and in general from saleyard calves. I feed 3 litres of cultured whole milk with 200gms of CMR and 1 litre of hot water once daily from day 10-wean, before this they get fed smaller amounts twice a day. CMR i use is from Murray Goulburn Milk factories is $60 per 20kg bag and seems to be ok, it clots in about 5 minutes at 35.C with rennet.
I am aware of disease build up and once i have some $$ accumulated im hoping to design and build a shed on ski's that can be towed and have fenced mini runs extending off the main shed but thats all a while in the future yet. When i started raising calves i had planned on buying fresian heifer calves and selling as replacements but found i wasnt able to source heifer calves AT ALL, the end of last season a fresian heifer bobby calf (yes i mean 5 day old) made the news as it sold for $500, thats how rare they have been, this year there have been more around and at much better prices but still not enough to be reliable and im not sure how to market them if i only had a few. Bulls have been easy to get and i can farm source the majority of them im just hoping i can find a market without having to grow them out.

Comment by Doug English on June 30, 2009 at 9:32pm

I'll help you if I can. I was born on a dairy farm in Malanda NQ, have raised and been involved with raising thousands of calves over the years; recently supervised my wife procuring about 50/60 2 day old calves a month over a three year period and rearing to about 18 mths for export pregnant to Asian Dairies. Have been a mixed practice vet since 1974. There are few problems when initially starting a greenfield facility, but these will develop when "bugs" accumulate over time. One of the biggest problems, apart from disease, will be if u attempt to source a cheaper milk starter - little calves don't tolerate milk substitutes like soy etc and you must use real dried cows milk.

Comment by rebecca bailey on June 30, 2009 at 11:24am

thats what im trying to work out steve, i need capital to expand my opperation so profit per calf needs to be greater now than if i could turn over significant numbers at less profit per head. i think these first 2 years i will be keeping calves to at least 12 months maybe longer, i hope to get to a point where i can sell calves on at 3-5 months and take less profit per animal but turn over more calves in less time. as for where i sell them... i have no idea, saleyards?