Updated Prices Of Bulls Ready For Slaughter

[roni]

Hi everyone.

As fas as I know the price for a Brahman bull is 47 baht per kilo and a Brahman Charolais mix is 60 baht per Kilo.

Am I right? and also are the prices the same at all regions?

Thanks in advance.

I am new to the whole cattle business, actually to all farming related work. I lived in a city all my life (31 years old) and I live in Bangkok for the last 8 years. On my trips to Isaan I fell in love with the village atmosphere and for a while wish to be able to move there permanently. At the moment I am doing this business with remote control (My finance is there) and A LOT of commute (go there every week or so). I really feel living on a farm would be a better environment for my future family but I am still afraid to leave my current job (comfortable pay) and house that I already bought here in Bangkok.

All help would be GREATLY appreciated especially from all you cattle farmers. (MF??)

Roni.

[teletiger]

I think you'll find that Maize farmer is a dairy farmer. If you look back on previous posts, you'll be hard pushed to find a positive one on raising Brahman bulls. As for getting more for hybrids, "With their skin off, they look the same" as was said to me many moons ago. Unless you can get into contract farming, bull raising is very hard. Raising dairy calves might be worth looking into....and then look away fast.

I can't agree more about living on a farm environment. Try something less frustrating. Frogs, fish, crickets... It's supposed to be fun.

Regards.

[carnac]

I'm not a cattle farmer but I play one on TV.

[IsaanAussie]

Roni,

Welcome to the world of farming. I would like to back up Teletiger's comment about cattle. Too slow, no return. I was offered three beautiful beasts by a friend last year. He had paid out big time for the bull and cow which he was attempting to sell, with the resultant calf, for under the price paid for his "Prize" bull.

Try pigs, 64 baht per Kg, 100 Kgs plus at 6 months, ten to a litter and over 2 litters per year. Now compare that to the performance from cattle.

Still each to his own and I'm sure there are other reasons for your choice, good luck. If you want to join us in the "bush", then the Nike principle applies, "Just Do It"

Isaanaussie

Edited June 24, 2010 by IsaanAussie

[ozzydom]

Suggest you contact Thai-French Beef at Sakhon Nakhon,with view to becoming a contract beef grower for their slaughterhouse.There are grower groups(co-ops ) in all areas .

Prices are set and guaranteed (currently about 100% up on the figures you quoted ),they only fatten Charolais cross steers .

The usual cross is Charolais x Brahman using AI ,I wonder why anybody uses expensive bulls when semen straws are so inexpensive.

My mate averages nett profit at 10-15% using all bought in feed and supplements and my Sis in Law averages 20-25 % by providing all dry and green feed from her own farm.

[slapout]

A cow/calf beef operation is one of the better operations you can get involved in, providing you have land/pasture to carry the number of units you are running, you have supplemental feed to carry thru the dry season, you know what you are doing, there is a ready market with a price of 60 to 70 baht a kilo, and your not after the big dollar profit, quickly. The Brahman Charolais is a good start which can be improved by throwing in a good milk producer as a additional cross (shorthorn, etc).

You can calf every 12 months, ween calves after 4 months+ feed the calves up to slaughter weight while running on grass and unless the bottom drops completely out of the market you will make a profit, providing you can get a gain of about 1 kilo/day. The period from weening to slaughter weight is where good grazing and finish feed is a must. Death lose should be under 5-7% and slaughter weight needs to be reached prior to weening the following year calf crop. You have to hold replacement heifers back for the old and infertile at the rate of 10 to 15%. These are some general guide lines but every operation will have minor input changes without going into rai required for cow/calf unit. It will interesting to get input from people in the business in Thailand as what i have posted is from the real world, thus subject to Thai conditions.

[IsaanAussie]

OD and SO,

That is some really good advice for those into cattle. It would be interesting to compare more detail between cattle and pigs, if that is possible. I know I yielded a loss, no actually, an abject failure with the Thai native cows we had. They were cared for by family members who I suspect faired a little bit however.

For the pigs, I am expecting (yet to be realised so grain of salt to be taken please) a profit of 27% including all overheads and ROI over 10 years. If I get close I will be happy. But I had no idea the cattle would have such good yeilds. That makes your market advice really worth following up for those in the business.

So Roni, I retract my advice and apologise for the negative vib. It appears you are on a good thing.

Isaanaussie

[roni]

Thanks everyone for the responses,

I am actually fill ok with what and how to do. I have researched foe about 6 months straight before starting and I have started small to minimize investment.

I have visited ranches in Thailand and in Israel to find the best food recipes and food lot procedures. As it is my first lot(a little over a month now) I can only be carefully optimistic rather then confidant.

Just wanted to make sure about live wight price per kilo. Moreover if anyone has any info on cattle scale or the best way to evaluate a live bulls weight accept experience (which seem to be the way its dune around here) please share. I am trying to get people to evaluate bulls and cows weight around me all the time in order to be able to do it myself but I would rather have a scale

[slapout]

Some of the high end squeeze chutes have scales built in to them. The chute itself is a labor savor and anyone who works cattle 2 or 3 times a year (will not be without one). You will work cattle that much on a cow/calf operation if you want to meet the figures I used as a guide and more so if AI is involved. I used one of the chutes with the scale while helping a fellow out a few times and if memory serves it was a hydraulic type, no battery, power required. It would not be hard to rig one in a welding shop, if you can locate one here. Martin Decker makes a smaller one that goes up to 5000 lb. The squeeze chute could be fabricated in a decent welding shop. Many were home made back home until mass production and reasonable prices came about. Once you are around cattle guessing the weight becomes a second nature from 400 lb. weaning calves to a 2500 lb. bull. Yes experience is a factor but most cow men will get with 10% depending on whether they are buying or selling.ha. Aussie, I would not even get into the Thai cattle for beef production nor Brahman for that matter. The crossbreeds used for beef production have surpassed the pure breed for slaughter. A good bull will cover/correct the deficiencies of many plain old cows.

[slapout]

Just to give you and idea of price you can work with from a consumers point in Chiang Mai. Ground beef 230+/kilo roasts, brisket, etc 300+ baht/kilo, steaks 400+baht/kilo. Loss on beef cattle will be about 50% on a hanging weight vs live weight. The organs excluding the stomach are eaten by someone, somewhere. The hide has a market here in Thailand, about the only none used portion is the head and hooves thats not a given.

[IsaanAussie]

Slapout,

2 or 3 times a year? Now I am really jealous. 3 times a day with the pigs is closer.

But the head is used from the pig, in fact they are going for between 400 and 500 baht a piece. Used in spirit house ceremonies here. The yield in Western countries is about 75% of live weight for a pig, It is much higher here in a country where in season bugs, trees and flowers are staple foods not hard to see why. If it doesn't kill you it must (be edible and) make you stronger

I agree with the scales issue. My brother in Australia built all his own cattle crushes etc.. I am building all my own stuff for the new sty, trusses, gates, hinges, partitions even the feeders. Not hard at all. Just a lot of it to do. Materials are cheap and I have nothing but time on my hands.

I saw an advertisement for a company in BKK that markets complete scales as well as load cells and read outs. I tried to contact them a month or so back but didn't get a response. My intention is to build (or buy) a thin platform that be sat in an aisleway so the pigs basically just have to walk across it. Digital readout, hand recording.

Isaanaussie.

Edited June 25, 2010 by IsaanAussie

[ozzydom]

For anybody in the Sakhon Nakhon area on a slaughtering day a visit to Thai -French is a real eye opener, as slapout says, nothing is wasted.

Outside the factory are rows of trucks on which they process everything from the carcase after it has been boned out in the factory proper.

Even the undigested stomach contents are collected for sale, the bones are picked clean of anything edible then they go to a local soap factory (inc skulls and hoofs).

T.F do not slaughter any beast under 500kg so yearling beef is not considered, I have seen 900kg LW animals go under the gun.

All the growers (fatteners) house their beasts intensively in single beast pens and are fattened on company approved rations such as pellets ,pineapple, molasses etc which are bought in bulk through each area co-op, green and dry feed is provided by the individual.

Each beast is vet checked as suitable by the company vets and ear tattooed as an approved fattener.

A practice I find a bit strange is that they prefer to leave the beasts as bulls until a few months prior to slaughter and the vets visit and remove their "jewels"

They strive to get heavily fatted and marbled meat, not to my taste but it must work for some as their "top" end cuts retail for about 1000 bt kg.

[slapout]

I find the cutting of bulls this late self defeating , if you are after rapid gain and milder tasting beef. First young bulls start riding heifers, and other bulls very early, thus expending calories that could be going toward a weight target. Weening time was our preferred time, due to vaccinations, etc, being done at one time.

Cattle are sociable animals and to isolate them individually to fatten out,in my experience, will also hinder reaching the max gain rate that is possible/expected. We always fed our own beef out for butcher and would add a couple more to the lot where the one we wanted to eat was penned. A single animal will injure itself to get to other cattle, plus the exercise they get in a lot seems to result in better appetite and health overall.

If they are feeding out to 900+ kilo, I wonder what age the beef is and their gain per day with their methods? Sounds like a variation of the Japanese Kobe treatment. Learn something new every day. Thanks for the input Ozzydom