business decisions - feeding calves out

[cypressfarms]

This maybe should have posted on the feedyard board, but oh well:

Heres the situation: Last year I had made a deal with a guy who owns two nursing homes. I supplied some butcher calves to him. We did it last year as a trial. I fed/grain corn gluten for about 60 days and sent some calves to the butcher. All done legitimately - I sell the nursing home the calves on the hoof, and the nursing home picks up the butchered/wrapped meat up from the store that processes.

It went so well, that the owner has now approached me to supply all of there beef. This would be at least 2 calves per month, maybe even three.
He even offered to raise the price he pays to me; they were really happy with the meat. They realized quickly that not only could I provide better quality meat than the local grocery store, but it is cheaper.

So here's my predicament. I have, for the most part, calved in the winter and early spring. That would make calves that I feed out ready roughly 12 months or so from their birth. The nursing homes do not have enough freezer capacity to hold what they need for an entire year, so I would have to set up a system to have 6 or so calves ready every 3 months.

I'm thinking that I can just bring the 6 marked calves up 45 days before the nursing homes need them and start the graining process to finish them. The only problem with this is that the size of the calves will vary greatly if they want calves every three months the way I currently calve. The owner has no problems if the calf size is smaller or larger - he's paying by the hanging weight. However, I'm looking at all angles of this.

I could keep a stock of calves in with the cows and pull them out as needed (to finish) - that's the only way I could do it this year. Or I can go to a calving year round situation - which I am not looking forward to.

All in all this is a good problem to have. I've just secured guaranteed price/income for calves on the ground, and probably future years as well. I just need to do some heavy thinking on the production side on my part.


Any comments/suggestions?

 

[Howdyjabo]

See if you have a local locker that will rent you freezer space. We have a warehouse around here that will.

Or purchase calves to feedout as you go thru the year- you should be able to stretch yours over 6 months- and just buy for the other six or put them in the rented freezer to hold out for the other six.

Or you could just go to a split calving with half calving every six months

 

[longtimelurker]

The only problem with this is that the size of the calves will vary greatly if they want calves every three months the way I currently calve. The owner has no problems if the calf size is smaller or larger - he's paying by the hanging weight. However, I'm looking at all angles of this.




Any comments/suggestions?

The buyer of the beef maybe doesn't have a problem with calf size at slaughter but you should.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

See if you have a local locker that will rent you freezer space.

Or purchase calves to feedout as you go thru the year-

Or you could just go to a split calving with half calving every six months

I was thinking along similar lines.

Have you got/will you be able to get a long-term written contract committing the nursing home to this arrangement? And I mean long-term as in longer than 3 years. If so, then for this year and possibly next, you could buy the amount of feeders you need or see about freezer space while adjusting your management practices to a 2X a year calving season.

Just a thought.

I also agree with longtimelurker, if you have smaller calves at time of slaughter, they may not have the "finish" they should, resulting in the "product" not being up to the same "standard/quality/etc" that the nursing home will have been accustomed to.

Katherine

 

[bigbull338]

heres my thoughyts on your deal.but 1st some qs for you.1 how much do the calves weigh when you pull them out of the pasture.2.how much do they weigh at the end of 45 days.i think you need a set of scales to weigh the calves coming in an going out.an if you make enough money supplying him calves.id change over to a year round calving.do you have corral an pasture space for the calves.

 

[cypressfarms]

This issue has caused me to do do some serious planning.

No, I do not have scales to weigh calves on my property; I now just estimate weight from my experience. From the calves that I feed out the previous years I'm normally within 50 to 75 pounds of the actual weight.

Yes, I do have room - I normally bring butcher calves up to a front paddock and feed them twice a day. I'm a fairly experienced woodworker, so task number 1 is to build a bulk feeder that I can drop a super sack of feed into - so there isn't a need for me to walk with buckets to feed twice a day.

Katherine had asked about long term contracts. That's not a problem. For the nursing homes, they can buy beef of better quality and a cheaper price from me than from their current supplier (basically the grocery store) They will put anything in writing that we agree to.

I'd really rather not go to a year round calving situation. Even if this nursing home takes 2 calves a month, I'll still have calves that I need to sell (at the stockyard).

Here's the deal we have so far:

They will let me know end of May/beginning of June what they expect to need for the entire upcoming year. I'll take from my current calf crop and bring 4 or 5 up for feeding. After ~ 45 days of feeding, The calves will go to the butcher and to the nursing homes. I'll bring the next group of calves up to feed to be ready three month's later. Basically I'll be supplying them with 4 to 5 calves every 3 months. They have agreed to pay me a $500 deposit for each calf that they expect to need for the entire year - so I have money upfront. Then each calves hanging weight will be used to determine the final price (at $2.50 per pound)

The more I think about this, the more I believe that I will stay with a "calving season" for the whole herd, but I may buy 6 to 8 more cows to calve in the summer to have calves ready during the "off" season. I normally hang weights around 500 pounds at the butcher.

 

[Jogeephus]

Why don't you just buy some weaned calves in to fill the void in your calving season. I'm sure there are some good calves in your neighborhood that you could pick up at market price. You'd be doing a small seller a favor by buying their calves since they would have the commission, trucking expense and other costs associated with a sale barn.

 

[farmwriter]

I'm with Jo - I'd be looking for somebody near me with similar cattle who calves in the fall. Congrats on a good predicament to ponder. :tiphat:

 

[cypressfarms]

Why don't you just buy some weaned calves in to fill the void in your calving season. I'm sure there are some good calves in your neighborhood that you could pick up at market price. You'd be doing a small seller a favor by buying their calves since they would have the commission, trucking expense and other costs associated with a sale barn.

Thanks Jo! I hadn't thought of that. The whole reason I started doing butcher calves was to cut out as many middle men as possible. I do know several local cattlemen like me who have angus based herds. Might not be a bad idea to fill in the gaps by buying weanlings from them - that way they don't have to pay the auction house and I still know what quality I'm getting (versus buying stockers from an auction where it's a potshot at best)

 

[longtimelurker]

I think the 900 lb spread from first calve sold to last calf sold is going to produce different quality beef.