$1300! whoa thats a lot of money

[AngusLimoX]

I don't see much being said about labour.

If you don't expect to be paid something reasonable for your time then where do you folks assess that operation??

And I am not talking sensitive here - what are you paid per hour? As much as I enjoy it, I intend to make that amount reasonable, or I will do something better with my time and just keep a few to call myself a rancher!! :lol:

I've heard it said that farmers work for the equity at the end.
What do we think about that?

( I figure my cow costs are well over 300/head right now and trying to break even is tough ). But I am still starting up and herd building. Building infrastructure. ( Gawd I hate that lingo!! ). :lol:

 

[Dave]

One thing about buying high dollar heifers right now. It is just about the right place in the cattle cycle to sell them as broken mouth bred cows at the next peak in the market. The ones that hold together that long will probably make you money.
Dave

 

[Bama]

CB,

I agree with you, But I bet the CEO of walmart doesnt go to the grocery section an get a freezer full of top choice CAB certified meat and take it home. lol
I can tell you on my little place we eat some of our profits. literally. :roll:
There are pros and cons of how you should run the costs, but if you get a figure less than 300 bucks per cow you are kidding yourself. Takes at least that in the good and twice that in the bad.

Now I am off to the freezer to get me some of that FREE meat.

MD

Freezer meat ain't free. I have one up feeding it out. I have $479.14 in it as of today. Not only that, you also have to take off the profit you could have made from selling it. Freezer meat is expensive. But it is also darn good eating.

 

[KMacGinley]

CB: Obviously we are wrong. I think that we should humbly apologize for pointing out all of those pesky costs associated with raising cattle. None of them really exist. We would spend all that money even if we didn't have a single cow on the place. I will be glad to tell my wife this new insight, because she sometimes wonders why I need a new load of gluten when I just got one a month ago. Or that part for the manure spreader that I am going to drive to town for and not get groceries while I do it. I would have to spend that money no matter what, and it is not fair to the cows to charge them for all these costs. Looks like I will have a lot more taxes to pay next year, with all that profit that is fixin to roll in now that I have learned the new accounting system here.

 

[stocky]

It is certainly easy to see that everyone figures their costs of keeping their cattle differently and very few are going to agree on a simple formula. I would think it would be simple to count "everything you actually spend on the cattle that you would not otherwise be spending" However, that formula is not acceptable to many of the posters. There are some who are talking about everything they count for taxes and some who pad everything they can into it to be able to show numbers for some other reason and there are those who are just figuring what they can get get by with in terms of cost to be able to add a few cows to the herd. Alot of people are figuring how much extra to add a few cows to the herd because all their costs are fixed and it will only cost the extra hay, salt/minerals, and vet expense since they already have everything else with the current cattle they have. Figure any way you choose for your needs, just dont figure that the way you figure applies to another farmer in a different situation.

 

[milkmaid]

Milkmaid, you need a considerably better hay than I do. The dairy people around here pay 150 per ton for alfalfa and their hay cost per cow is around 3 dollars per day. With your nurse cows, you have to have much more expensive hay than I do. The hay I buy is mainly fescue and orchard grass with clover and also some johnsongrass hay. A good 4x6 bale will feed 30 cows per day, so it is 1 bale per cow per month and at 15 dollars per bale, that is 15 dollars per cow per month.
Our drought drove hay prices up this fall for people who didnt have enough and 30-35 was pretty common. What it will cost this summer all depends on the rain

That makes sense.

Interesting how others figuring their cow/calf costs. With my nurse cows, I always calculate my calf costs as a portion of the cow cost - cow costs X amount per week, she has 4 calves on her, so X divided by 4 is the amount each calf costs per week, and cow is "free". I could figure it the other way around; calves don't cost anything to raise but cow costs X amount. I just prefer it the first way on paper - easier to say the calves cost me $2-5 per head per week depending on the time of year, than to say that the cow is costing $80/month to keep. :lol:

 

[Caustic Burno]

This thread has shown who is ranching and who owns some cow's.

 

[Rod]

I have cattle because I enjoy them and out of everything I've ever done it has to be the slowest returns I've ever experienced. I praise anyone that can make a living doing so. I have on the other hand implemented practices that have quickened my returns but still once you consider all of one's time and expenses it's definately a business of sheer volume. If it wasn't something that I didn't truely enjoy it would never be worth it to me.

 

[Bama]

Theres money in cattle. Lots of it. The only problem is getting it back. Kind of like a boat. A boat is a hole in the water to pour money in. Cattle can be the same way. You have to know where your money goes to be able to find ways to produce at the least possible cost. If your in the business to just look at cattle, pouring money up a cows butt ain't no big deal but if your after a profit you need to learn where you can cut your input cost. BEZ is the best one I know of at this. He has it down to a science. We could all do well to take some of his advice.

 

[cypressfarms]

My take is that you must calculate expenses as follows:

Anything you spend money on, whether it be fertilizer, hay, water, ear tags, and on and on must be included in the total farm expense. I look at it as if I could have taken that $15 for an ear tag tool or that $100 for that spray tank and put the money in the bank to draw interest (or a cd), then that money is a farm expense. Really quite simple if you look at it that way. Every time you spend money that could have otherwise been invested (savings account, cd, mutual fund), that should be considered a farm expense.

Take that total amount and divide by the cows (since they produce the product for you) to see your annual cost. Even the cost of the bull should be divided among the cows, since they need the bull to make a product. Then you will know your REAL return on investment.

If you want to get really techincal compare your profit per dollar invested for cattle to what a mutual fund or cd earns. That is opportunity lost.

 

[dun]

My take is that you must calculate expenses as follows:

Anything you spend money on, whether it be fertilizer, hay, water, ear tags, and on and on must be included in the total farm expense. I look at it as if I could have taken that $15 for an ear tag tool or that $100 for that spray tank and put the money in the bank to draw interest (or a cd), then that money is a farm expense. Really quite simple if you look at it that way. Every time you spend money that could have otherwise been invested (savings account, cd, mutual fund), that should be considered a farm expense.

Take that total amount and divide by the cows (since they produce the product for you) to see your annual cost. Even the cost of the bull should be divided among the cows, since they need the bull to make a product. Then you will know your REAL return on investment.

If you want to get really techincal compare your profit per dollar invested for cattle to what a mutual fund or cd earns. That is opportunity lost.

Aspart of our costs I also figure in the value of the grass they eat if we rented/leased the pasture out.

dun

 

[rkm]

Been in farm business a long time. Guess that shows how dumb I am. I've the longer you put the pencil to something less it pays. Most lose money.

 

[jersey lilly]

We take everything we spend on anything farm related. add all that together, be it fuel for the tractor, tractor parts, parts for the farm trucks, haying.....ear tags, vaccines, any vet costs (which is usually minimal) Fencing costs, mineral, our day worker help, even so far as the expense of our horses we use on the ranch and all their feed and associated costs. Divide that by the number of cows...and there's your cost per cow for the year. This year that came out to right at $130.00 dollars per cow per year.

 

[aplusmnt]

My take is that you must calculate expenses as follows:

Anything you spend money on, whether it be fertilizer, hay, water, ear tags, and on and on must be included in the total farm expense. I look at it as if I could have taken that $15 for an ear tag tool or that $100 for that spray tank and put the money in the bank to draw interest (or a cd), then that money is a farm expense. Really quite simple if you look at it that way. Every time you spend money that could have otherwise been invested (savings account, cd, mutual fund), that should be considered a farm expense.

Take that total amount and divide by the cows (since they produce the product for you) to see your annual cost. Even the cost of the bull should be divided among the cows, since they need the bull to make a product. Then you will know your REAL return on investment.

If you want to get really techincal compare your profit per dollar invested for cattle to what a mutual fund or cd earns. That is opportunity lost.

Cypress, nice way to simplify it! Makes sense if you did not have a cow could you take that nickle to the bank, if so it is an expense.

But I was a little confused on the Bull Part? What about Dun? He is strictly A.I. I believe. So how much is he worth? Maybe we would need to ask his wife that one ;-) And if she posted a picture of him would there be lots of insensitive post knocking him or would he be a keeper?

 

[dun]

What about Dun? He is strictly A.I. I believe. So how much is he worth? Maybe we would need to ask his wife that one ;-) And if she posted a picture of him would there be lots of insensitive post knocking him or would he be a keeper?

Not a keeper, just a "can't get rid of". That's the reason I don;t go very far from home. Afraid she'ld move and not leave a forwarding address.

dun

 

[S.R.R.]

We take everything we spend on anything farm related. add all that together, be it fuel for the tractor, tractor parts, parts for the farm trucks, haying.....ear tags, vaccines, any vet costs (which is usually minimal) Fencing costs, mineral, our day worker help, even so far as the expense of our horses we use on the ranch and all their feed and associated costs. Divide that by the number of cows...and there's your cost per cow for the year. This year that came out to right at $130.00 dollars per cow per year.

Wow!! Do you have to feed any hay down there?

 

[Caustic Burno]

We take everything we spend on anything farm related. add all that together, be it fuel for the tractor, tractor parts, parts for the farm trucks, haying.....ear tags, vaccines, any vet costs (which is usually minimal) Fencing costs, mineral, our day worker help, even so far as the expense of our horses we use on the ranch and all their feed and associated costs. Divide that by the number of cows...and there's your cost per cow for the year. This year that came out to right at $130.00 dollars per cow per year.

Wow!! Do you have to feed any hay down there?

Better resharpen that primary pencil and get a new page in that Big Chief talbet.

 

[aplusmnt]

We take everything we spend on anything farm related. add all that together, be it fuel for the tractor, tractor parts, parts for the farm trucks, haying.....ear tags, vaccines, any vet costs (which is usually minimal) Fencing costs, mineral, our day worker help, even so far as the expense of our horses we use on the ranch and all their feed and associated costs. Divide that by the number of cows...and there's your cost per cow for the year. This year that came out to right at $130.00 dollars per cow per year.

Wow!! Do you have to feed any hay down there?

Better resharpen that primary pencil and get a new page in that Big Chief talbet.

Caustic.......with those figure a person does not need a Big Chief Tablet, just one of those little small post it notes.

 

[Caustic Burno]

We take everything we spend on anything farm related. add all that together, be it fuel for the tractor, tractor parts, parts for the farm trucks, haying.....ear tags, vaccines, any vet costs (which is usually minimal) Fencing costs, mineral, our day worker help, even so far as the expense of our horses we use on the ranch and all their feed and associated costs. Divide that by the number of cows...and there's your cost per cow for the year. This year that came out to right at $130.00 dollars per cow per year.

Wow!! Do you have to feed any hay down there?

Better resharpen that primary pencil and get a new page in that Big Chief talbet.

Caustic.......with those figure a person does not need a Big Chief Tablet, just one of those little small post it notes.

At 20 dollars a bale of hay person is at 80 dollars a head not counting anything else and thats bailing cost with no breakdowns.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Lets see ivomec is roughly 5 bucks a head twice a year with other meds roughly 20 bucks a cow so now we are at a 100 dollars a head and haven't bought the first chemical for spraying 2-4d or grazon etc. What about tires I have roughly forty tires on the ground related to the operation not counting batteries. It takes a lot more to run the operation than most people realize. If you are truthful with cost a lot of them salebarn checks didn't have near the profit in them as most people think.