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For the dairy farmer who finishes cattle, the typical output from a 100-cow herd using 50% dairy AI and 50% Hereford AI there is an output upside to club membership.
I estimate compared to a situation where there were no club benefits it is worth about €70 per head on finished stock at a base price of €3.75/kg.
This assumes little or no extra costs of membership and gathering up club premiums, protocol bonuses, breed and seasonality bonuses.
However, in reality at current calf prices the dairy farmer is better off selling the calves at three to four weeks old.
Doing this on a like-for-like basis the farmer will gather up about €9,000 in sales.
If the stock are kept to finish, the total margin after all costs, including a value on labour, for all finished stock after two years would be between €7,000 and €10,000 depending on a base price between €3.75 and €4/kg. In this margin we are assuming standard costs of production and a net margin for labour of €200 per head.
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