Bred Heifer Prices

[WarEagle73]

So we are probably going to start a small heifer growing business this fall. The idea is that we would lease pasture and fill it at 75-80% full with 500-700 lb heifers. We would buy these calves in the fall when prices are typically lowest and raise them cheaply until the spring, then breed them and sell them the following summer/early fall.

My question is as a bred heifer buyer, how much of premium would you pay for more information on the heifers? For example, if I had 1 heifer that all I knew was she was sired by an Angus bull, 1 heifer that was sired by an Angus bull with good EPD's and 1 heifer that was just black and all 3 were identical other than that, whatdo you think that is worth?

 

[Dega Moo]

You may need clarify your post a bit - you're talking about a bred heifer and then talk about the sire of the heifer without any information about the sire of the calve she carries. I couldn't or wouldn't want to put a real amount but would share how I'd think about the situation.

Start out with all three are identical and therefore all are black. They're all worth the same.
If I put value on Angus bloodlines then there's a favorable adjustment for knowing the heifer is at least 50% Angus. On the other hand, the third heifer could be full blood Angus so the favorable adjustment is small. If I don't like Angus, then the small adjustment is favorable to the heifer of unknown heritage. "Good EPD's" is terribly general but if the EPD's are ones I'm interested in, then knowing the sire had those good EPD's removes some risk of the heifer being a lousy performer in my herd. The higher the accuracy of those EPD's means I can assume less risk in the purchase. If the accuracy is below about 40% then I wouldn't consider the EPD's as reducing my risk at all.

As the base price of the heifers goes up, the more I'm willing to pay to reduce my risk. If those base heifers sell for $500 each I can take quite a bit more risk than if they sell for $2000 apiece. On the other hand, these heifers could be bred to some behemoth off breed throwing calves that would kill an elephant. Cattle ranching is tough enough. I want to remove as much risk as possible so I really want to know the EPD's on the mother, the sire and the sire of the heifers calf.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

The best bull information would help, but I can't see a profit doing this.

 

[WarEagle73]

I may have not have been extremely clear. The question about price differences would be on my finished product. So if you were buying heifers from me and the 3 above were options, what premiums would you be willing to pay for heifers with more information about their pedigree?

I ask this because the debate about where to buy the heifers came up today. I could buy them at local stockyards for probably the cheapest price, but I know very little about them and the disease risk will be highest. Another option would be to buy off of farms in this area. Those calves could have various levels of information know about their sires (farmers in this area don't always take alot of care in buying their herdsires). Which route we would pursue might depend on what we can expect get for them in the end.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Ok, I got it now, and it vary's a lot, at the right special cow sale and from the right respected and well known producer I have seen a 400$ premeium over a plain heifer not known by anyone and not having much information. But the same heifer just going on what you are saying I would expect to not get over 50$ more for one bred with a extra good bull over just a bull. A lot depends on your local market and who you are selling too.

 

[WarEagle73]

The best bull information would help, but I can't see a profit doing this.

You probably have more experience than I do at growing calves, but the idea would be similar to stockering steers. I buy heifers at the cheapest time of year (fall) and heifers already take a discount off their brothers. I buy these calves at 600 lbs. (average) in October and plan to breed them starting in March at 750-800 lbs (65% mature weight of ~1200lb cow). That gives me about 120-150 days to gain 150-225 lbs. (1.25-1.5 ADG). Using understocked fescue pastures and hay I should be able to achieve this pretty cheaply even if small amounts of supplement is needed. Rent in this area is no more than $40/acre/year. Using broiler litter, I can fertilze for $50/acre/yr on the high end. After breeding I then carry them on that same ground until at least midsummer for a preg check and then begin attempting to market them. This should be about the time most farmers are selling open cows after weaning and looking for replacements for the next year. In this area, $1200 is the lowest I can find decent bred heifers, which according to my math would be a bit above my break even.

I would've worn out a big pack of pencils working out budgets for this plan if computers weren't around. Even in my worst case scenarios, with 75% conception rates and 5% death loss I wouldn't lose bad enough to out weigh the positives if things mostly work out. Still, I could be horribly wrong and headed for a train wreck.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Hey I hope it works out great and you make a bundle, taking risk's is a big part of this business. Your land rent sounds cheap, and your bred heifer prices sound good. So that helps.