I did this once years ago, on some calves I bought to background. If memory serves, I made about $70 a piece on that group. Personally, I was pleased with $70, and would pursue that every day the sun comes up.
We seldom see “real” numbers here, just hypothetical situations. Thought I would share a recent experience:
I trailer weaned some calves on the last sale of the year, and I sold some calves today, that had been almost exactly 90 days weaned.
The calves I sold today, weighed almost exactly 180 pounds more than the group I trailer weaned. Well never know what they weighed when I weaned them, because I don’t have scales. I’d say it’s safe to say, that they did infact gain 2 or possibly more pounds per day. If I throw out the high and low on both groups the 90 days weaned calves brought $195 more dollars per head. The long weaned calves ate 480 pounds of feed, and 2/3 of a bale of hay in the 90 days. Feed was $200 a ton this year, and I call my hay worth $50 a roll. I’m calling that working out to $81 to carry the calves 90 days. That works out to netting $114 more dollars per head on the long weaned calves. On 85 cows, that’s almost $10,000 more net. One could argue, that there is expense in the weaned calves, beyond feed and hay. I would say that I have already absorbed that expense, by just having cows period. Time, fuel, insurance, expenses, etc.
Moral of the story for me. The profit is slim on a herd of cows. We all now that. You leave too much money on the table, when you don’t keep your calves a while, to just ignore it. That $114 would not be worth pursuing for many, and I understand that. The $10,000 extra at the end of year, is. Your mileage may vary.
We seldom see “real” numbers here, just hypothetical situations. Thought I would share a recent experience:
I trailer weaned some calves on the last sale of the year, and I sold some calves today, that had been almost exactly 90 days weaned.
The calves I sold today, weighed almost exactly 180 pounds more than the group I trailer weaned. Well never know what they weighed when I weaned them, because I don’t have scales. I’d say it’s safe to say, that they did infact gain 2 or possibly more pounds per day. If I throw out the high and low on both groups the 90 days weaned calves brought $195 more dollars per head. The long weaned calves ate 480 pounds of feed, and 2/3 of a bale of hay in the 90 days. Feed was $200 a ton this year, and I call my hay worth $50 a roll. I’m calling that working out to $81 to carry the calves 90 days. That works out to netting $114 more dollars per head on the long weaned calves. On 85 cows, that’s almost $10,000 more net. One could argue, that there is expense in the weaned calves, beyond feed and hay. I would say that I have already absorbed that expense, by just having cows period. Time, fuel, insurance, expenses, etc.
Moral of the story for me. The profit is slim on a herd of cows. We all now that. You leave too much money on the table, when you don’t keep your calves a while, to just ignore it. That $114 would not be worth pursuing for many, and I understand that. The $10,000 extra at the end of year, is. Your mileage may vary.
