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A rising market like this makes almost everyone look good. You should still track the value of different classes on animals, to know when to make a trade. Fleshy breds jumped up in value here this month. Thinner ones are much less expensive.

Many of the hobby operations here work a job in town so they can afford to do the same thing every year.

For profit operations usually use one of these restocking approaches: - Never retain heifers, just buy mature cows and terminal bulls. - Retain about the same $ worth of heifers per year, so more retention when calves are cheap. - Only retain heifers during the bottom portion of the price cycle...

The small local hobby guys like to cherry pick a couple heifers each year. They don't worry about feed prices unless as long as they or a neighbor has enough. The thing that has changed here is a number of these small operators are aged and using this market rally to do a total dispersal. The...

True, Packers try to control the cash price by buffering bidding using cattle they already own or have contracted for previously. So cash prices are held down until packers get truly desperate. We saw it here this winter during periods where cattle receipts were very low due to storms, and...

I have not seen the podcast yet, but selling heifers and buying back breds is a no brainer business move. That said, I have my best pen of open heifers ever... I am going to procrastinate and take them to grass. High corn prices are holding back what feedlots can pay for calves. My crystal ball...

Too much protein. Not enough fiber. Ground ear corn is the old timey solution. Looking away for a couple weeks would also work. Next time leave more old grass residue in a couple paddocks to give them a turn out choice.

So I should dump my calves for $2.50 or take them to grass?

Yes.

Record 2023 fat prices have not resulted in record feeder prices. Scott Brown just published an article for The Farmer explaining how it is different this time. Corn dropped from U$S 7.04 in early 2013 to $ 3.65 by end of 2014. So feedlots were able to pay more for feeders in 2014, compared to...

Not what I meant. There is a current timing assumption included in the answer, and the data says straight bred matings on average will give you a lower weaning percentage and a lower weaning wt. per cow exposed than X bred matings. There also an assumption that you are actually trying to make...

OK, I will take the bait: A 50 pounds WW reduction is unlikely. Perhaps 35 pounds. So without getting into when you wean and a lower VOG - - 20x35=700 herd WW less, but you may lose one dumb calf from using a power bull that sires square calves, and so it is about a wash... Problem with lower...

1) Kenny nailed that timing is key. 2) An issue is local feed cost 3) Another issue is local replacement pricing 4) Income tax strategy 5) And then there is herd size Seems like bred heifers are worth more in the west and cost less to winter there. My genetics allow me to winter heifers with...

The most amazing thing here is how much some will currently pay for short breds in snow country. They must have trouble counting? This kind will become very expensive fall calvers unless you have free feed.

Some cattle and some breeds need a lot more feed and mineral than others. There are breeds developed w/o any mineral supplementation. Another approach to is to cull individuals harder, particularly for hair coat. An indirect approach is to provide more forbs and legumes in your feeds. For...

Market top is close to $1.30 but average is much less. Too many cows in upper mid west?

Seeing more herd dispersals here. Had two people recently tell me how profitable cows are, and how kill cows will be worth over U$S 1.20 this fall. I asked them if they were buying. No... Sounds like many fixate on what the big top dollar corn silage fed cows bring. An average hay fed cow is...

Yes, but it would be a tax-deductible recreation.

Can not argue with consistent success. What is the cause of these pre natel brain infections?

Growing season is an issue for corn CC in MN, but most corn areas have a much longer growing season. MN folks are designing shop built row crop inter seeders. True soil believers include a cereal grain in their crop rotation. and NT plant grain into green cover crop the following spring. There...