HDRider I am trying to see how someone sells at a decent margin (gross margin) over operating expense. From what I can tell said:
1) An average cow calf operator makes a decent profit during only two years of the beef price cycle. So part of it is timing and determination for poor operators.
2) An above average cow calf operater does a little better in a number of expense and income areas. No silver bullet here. Some common threads are using some leased assets, a low cow replacement cost, and an above average weaning rate per exposed cow.
An interesting sitution here is called "too many cows". Some run more than they can manage, and/or more than their low cost forage can support, and these extra cows literally eat up the profit. So no - - operating income per cow is not linear.
Have you ever run numbers on what would happen if you culled the bottom 20% of your herd and stockpiled some forage?