How much for the bull?

Autumn bull sale season has already started across the water, which means the Irish breed society sales will soon be on their way. While figures will vary depending on farm, it’s good for breeders to know their absolute bottom line when selling a bull and for commercial buyers to know this too.

No matter how many people might think it, the pedigree breeder can’t work for nothing.

How much does it cost to produce a pedigree bull at a society sale?

This is a question often debated among pedigree breeders and can sometimes have many different suggested answers. Pedigree breeding is a difficult business to make money in and breeders try time and time again to breed that special animal that will hit the headlines or attain the highest price at a premier sale.

Income

While some pedigree breeders treat breeding pedigree animals as a pastime or hobby, there are equally as many who depend on sales of bulls and heifers each year to pay bills and generate a family farm income. The costs outlined below will vary from farm to farm and will depend on the location of the farm, length of winter, amount of summer shows attended, etc. It is also worth noting that no labour charge or profit margin has been added to the figures below.

Bottom line

If a farmer thinks that they should be able to generate a €500 margin from each pedigree cow on the farm, then this figure needs to be added in at the bottom.

There is also no provision for fixed costs included in the analysis and these could vary from €100-€300/cow from farm to farm.

We split the costs up into cow costs to take the calf to weaning stage and then the costs to take a bull from weaning at 10 months to sale at 15 months.

One of the biggest costs associated with keeping any suckler cow is feed costs and a pedigree suckler cow is no different. With silage costing €30/t fresh-weight and a cow housed for approximately six months, the average pedigree 750kg cow will consume 8t of silage over the winter months. Grazing for approximately another six months adds €156 and feeding 2kg of concentrates from calving to turnout adds another €50 on to this. Obviously, these costs will vary throughout the country and will depend on calving date, etc, but they give a good overview.

If we take some standard costings and apply them to the suckler cow, Table 2 gives an outline of costs associated with the pedigree cow in terms of annual veterinary expenses. This is similar to commercial suckling expenses and follows the same model.

Table 3 shows costs associated with the calf from birth to weaning at 10 months. Items such as calf registration and linear scoring are included alongside creep feeding, dosing and vaccinations. The creep feeding costs are calculated at €108 based on a male calf consuming 3kg/concentrates per head per day for 120 days (August/September/October) and concentrates priced at €300/t.

Breeding costs are based on using two straws of semen and paying an operator to inseminate the cow twice. Semen costs can range from €20 to €200/straw and will vary depending on what genetics is being used. If a stock bull is being used and is purchased at €5,000 and sires 100 calves over four years, the cost per cow would be €58/cow annually.

The replacement costs of keeping a suckler cow is often forgotten when calculating the cost of operating the system. In a pedigree system, this cost can be a substantial one depending on the value of the maiden heifers which are being brought into the farm or home-reared as replacements. This cost is calculated as the difference between the value of a replacement and a cull cow divided by the replacement rate. The replacement rate used for the above scenario is 20%. Cull cows are taken at €1,200 and replacements are calculated at €2,500. Again, this will vary greatly from farm to farm.

Table 6 outlines the costs involved to take a weanling pedigree bull to a sale at approximately 15 months. The feed costs make up the largest expense and this is comprised of the animal consuming 1.25t of concentrate costed at €300/t. Other expenses are outlined and some farm’s items such as summer shows could be omitted.

The above calculations demonstrate the cost of producing pedigree bulls for sale. While some of the costs included could be argued it’s very simple for a farmer to omit or add any costs to generate a specific cost for their own farming system. The cost of €2,170 does not include any margin or any labour costs and farmers should decide what they need to be paid for their time and also what margin per bull is required. This will then give you your selling price required. It outlines how important it is to keep quality as high as possible and cull hard to avoid pedigree cows making a loss on your farm.