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I just wanted to bring up the topic of feeding out an animal other than a young feeder steer or heifer. I've noticed many on here butchering a steer at 1000-1100 lbs and at 15 months or something similar even though the mature frame size of that animal might not be until 1300 lbs and 18 or 24...

Do you mean still on the same or similar ration fed once or twice a day in a bunk but just out in a paddock? If so then the answer is probably so. Cattle can be fed like they are in a feedlot while remaining in a pasture and achieve similar gains while reducing some health issues. They just...

Thanks Brock, just trying to figure out what the market is pricing/paying for in the gain and what it may actually be, if it is different.

So that is .60 for gaining them on a ration at weaning.

Looking for data or experiences on the COG to take a calf through weaning and add 100-200 pounds, starting with a 400# calf on a ration. Any first hand information.

I am just wondering how you have a cost of gain even on beef steers that is 30% lower than the best feedlot numbers I've seen this year (that's all costs included). Here's how I equate holstein versus beef steers: A fat holstein steer this week is right around $87 @1380# and a 300# steer cost...

Can you explain your math or add some details to that?

From first hand experience I can tell you that Feedlots do like feeding holsteins but they aren't the profit centers they might appear to be, the margins are consistent if you can get them to convert consistently but they aren't particularly large margins and you are tied up with large amounts...

I know nearly everyone disagrees about the ability of holsteins to graze but they can and do. And they are less feed efficient in the feedlot.

Well, the answer to all that for most cow/calf and stocker folks is to sell what the market wants when it wants it. My answer is to buy heifers, bigger ones and little ones, the steer heifer spread at times in the winter and spring can get pretty wide.

Green grass is why 600# cattle are overvalued but they really aren't that high and not the highest they've been this year relative to Fat Cattle. Against Fat Cattle and my .80 cog of gain it's only overvalued by $16, often time ranchers running yearlings are overpaying by $100 or more. My rule...

OKC West for an example: 600# Feeder Steers $126, 900# Feeder Steers $103.90. At an .80 cog of gain including some profit for me: That's 300lbs of weight and $179 dollars difference, you'd need a cost of gain below .60 to make this a cash flow positive transaction. If you reversed this and...

Maybe the secret is to be selling 600# cattle? What's your all inclusive cost of gain plus a profit for yourself. Know what that is and then see what you can do in your markets. In my area markets this spring folks selling 5-600# steers could buy back about anything they wanted.

Holsteins can marble well along with other dairy breeds, they will require a higher energy ration when finishing though compared to say an angus, not as feed efficient. You can run them on grass or native forage quite effectively and then put them on that high energy finishing ration around...

No, but there were cattle sold recently at 99, and 100. To replace our inventory and cover our cost of gain and maintain positive cash flow I could pay no more than 109. It's all about making the market we sold on pay for buying back new inventory and covering the cost of gain+profit. Just like...

To replace feeding inventory at a positive cash flow I could pay no more than 109 for an 850 lb. steer if I just sold a 1300# fat for $99 feeding at .80cog. I would be putting $.50 back in my pocket. Having said that we bought some thin 7 weight steers last week for 109, that's obviously a...

I am still concerned about the ability of an animal to marble properly if slaughtering it at an immature weight and frame. Marbling and tenderness are directly related to the true mature size of animal, marbling fat is some of the last to be developed and an angus steer should reach a mature...

What is the weight/frame/flesh of the dam that raised it? Animals finish at a percentage of their mother so if she was 800-1000 lbs. then you might be able to raise a mature muscled beef at that weight, if she was larger then you may have a problem, grain alone doesn't make tender meat, it's...

Grazing Corn. Corn is a high energy grass that also sets on grain but you can graze it prior to that for great grass fed gains and fat.

Is the weight/class of your cattle undervalued relative to the market and relative to what they would be if feeding them? If so then retaining ownership of them is something to consider. If the market is paying too much for your class of calves then it wouldn't make much sense to feed them into...