Buying lightweight heifers

[Bfields30]

Buying light weight heifers 300-500 lb and growing them on grass and reselling them in couple months ?? Any chance of profit ?

 

[texan@heart]

Depends on quality and price. Quality or value is determined by genetics, vaccination history, and body condition. Good deals can be priced above or below market averages. Train wrecks can be priced above or below market averages. All producers don't make the same profit because they don't all have the same knowledge.

 

[Bfields30]

Depends on quality and price. Quality or value is determined by genetics, vaccination history, and body condition. Good deals can be priced above or below market averages. Train wrecks can be priced above or below market averages. All producers don't make the same profit because they don't all have the same knowledge.

the ones I've seen are around 450-550 cost wise. I was thinking have them on grass all summer there already fully vaccinated.

 

[wbvs58]

Depends on quality and price. Quality or value is determined by genetics, vaccination history, and body condition. Good deals can be priced above or below market averages. Train wrecks can be priced above or below market averages. All producers don't make the same profit because they don't all have the same knowledge.

the ones I've seen are around 450-550 cost wise. I was thinking have them on grass all summer there already fully vaccinated.

Big words, "fully vaccinated" in my experience that means very minimal maybe closridial diseases 1st shot but I may just be a pessimist.

Ken

 

[RanchMan90]

I'd buy steers to do that at today's prices. Not much total dollar spread between them at 250-300 lbs. Sell them in 90-120 days. Just my opinion

 

[Bfields30]

I'd buy steers to do that at today's prices. Not much total dollar spread between them at 250-300 lbs. Sell them in 90-120 days. Just my opinion

Would you feed them or just have them on grass?

 

[snoopdog]

Sometimes you win , and sometimes you lose . Implanting and vaccination are necessary for grass calves , no matter what . It's a tough row to hoe and the learning curve can hurt . Buy quality and you stand a better chance even if the up front cost is more .

 

[Bfields30]

Sometimes you win , and sometimes you lose . Implanting and vaccination are necessary for grass calves , no matter what . It's a tough row to hoe and the learning curve can hurt . Buy quality and you stand a better chance even if the up front cost is more .

would you recommend doing it? Or too risky

 

[snoopdog]

Sometimes you win , and sometimes you lose . Implanting and vaccination are necessary for grass calves , no matter what . It's a tough row to hoe and the learning curve can hurt . Buy quality and you stand a better chance even if the up front cost is more .

would you recommend doing it? Or too risky

I won't make a reccomendation either way , you can make money , or you can lose money . If you make on the first 3 bunches , you can bet you'll lose on the 4th, example only. With heifers , if you have the feed , and can stand the loss of cashflow , you can always breed and calve them . And that can be a trainwreck itself , there are no guarantees , with mortality loss or market fluctuations , you can make up to 150 a head, or you can lose the same amount , if not more . I think the average margin of what you want to do , is probably going to be about 60 dollars per head , some may dispute , but that is my experience .

 

[RanchMan90]

I'd buy steers to do that at today's prices. Not much total dollar spread between them at 250-300 lbs. Sell them in 90-120 days. Just my opinion

Would you feed them or just have them on grass?

I would feed them at least 2% of their body weight per day

 

[Bfields30]

Sometimes you win , and sometimes you lose . Implanting and vaccination are necessary for grass calves , no matter what . It's a tough row to hoe and the learning curve can hurt . Buy quality and you stand a better chance even if the up front cost is more .

would you recommend doing it? Or too risky

I won't make a reccomendation either way , you can make money , or you can lose money . If you make on the first 3 bunches , you can bet you'll lose on the 4th, example only. With heifers , if you have the feed , and can stand the loss of cashflow , you can always breed and calve them . And that can be a trainwreck itself , there are no guarantees , with mortality loss or market fluctuations , you can make up to 150 a head, or you can lose the same amount , if not more . I think the average margin of what you want to do , is probably going to be about 60 dollars per head , some may dispute , but that is my experience .

im just getting into cattle so im kinda nervous about bred heifers lol so gonna stay away from them

 

[Bfields30]

I'd buy steers to do that at today's prices. Not much total dollar spread between them at 250-300 lbs. Sell them in 90-120 days. Just my opinion

Where in northeast Tx would I find light weight steers

 

[Bfields30]

I'd buy steers to do that at today's prices. Not much total dollar spread between them at 250-300 lbs. Sell them in 90-120 days. Just my opinion

Would you feed them or just have them on grass?

I would feed them at least 2% of their body weight per day

A certain mixture of feed ?

 

[Bullitt]

I'd buy steers to do that at today's prices. Not much total dollar spread between them at 250-300 lbs. Sell them in 90-120 days. Just my opinion

Where in northeast Tx would I find light weight steers

The Winnsboro Livestock & Dairy Auction has a stocker cattle sale at 11:30 a.m. every Friday. I am sure you can find steers for sale there.

http://www.winnsborolivestock.com/

Here are the steer prices from March 2. Prices are per pound.

UNDER 300 LBS - $1.55 - $2.60

300-400 LBS - $1.45 - $2.30

400-500 LBS - $1.30 - $2.05

OVER 500 LBS - $1.20 - $1.80

 

[RanchMan90]

Would you feed them or just have them on grass?

I would feed them at least 2% of their body weight per day

A certain mixture of feed ?

A 16% commodity ration would be perfect. Sulphur springs, Mt pleasant, Emory, and winnsboro all have decent sales. I would go sit in on one of the NetBIO sales in sulphur springs to get some price points and work backward on what you can pay for some at your local sale.

 

[Bfields30]

I would feed them at least 2% of their body weight per day

A certain mixture of feed ?

A 16% commodity ration would be perfect. Sulphur springs, Mt pleasant, Emory, and winnsboro all have decent sales. I would go sit in on one of the NetBIO sales in sulphur springs to get some price points and work backward on what you can pay for some at your local sale.

will do.

 

[1wlimo]

Sometimes you win , and sometimes you lose . Implanting and vaccination are necessary for grass calves , no matter what . It's a tough row to hoe and the learning curve can hurt . Buy quality and you stand a better chance even if the up front cost is more .

would you recommend doing it? Or too risky

I won't make a reccomendation either way , you can make money , or you can lose money . If you make on the first 3 bunches , you can bet you'll lose on the 4th, example only. With heifers , if you have the feed , and can stand the loss of cashflow , you can always breed and calve them . And that can be a trainwreck itself , there are no guarantees , with mortality loss or market fluctuations , you can make up to 150 a head, or you can lose the same amount , if not more . I think the average margin of what you want to do , is probably going to be about 60 dollars per head , some may dispute , but that is my experience .

If you have good easy calving bulls breeding them is possiable without a wreck, but we lost a heifer just this week as she got stuck head down on her back on a hill. `

Need a good yard, and need to pay attention with heifers, I only have 60 this year

 

[callmefence]

Buying light weight heifers 300-500 lb and growing them on grass and reselling them in couple months ?? Any chance of profit ?

I don't think you'll do much good. You'll be getting most likely trailer weaned calf's. They will lose weight the first week. And not going to gain enough weight on grass in two months.

I agree with ranchman. Buy bull calf's make them steers and feed them.
Or do the heifers but get quality matched set and run on your grass and feed until yearlings.
Sell them as open replacements.

Or if you wanna make a dollar. Buy some skinny old cows and put em on the tall grass.

 

[Dave]

Buying light weight heifers 300-500 lb and growing them on grass and reselling them in couple months ?? Any chance of profit ?

I don't think you'll do much good. You'll be getting most likely trailer weaned calf's. They will lose weight the first week. And not going to gain enough weight on grass in two months.

I agree with ranchman. Buy bull calf's make them steers and feed them.
Or do the heifers but get quality matched set and run on your grass and feed until yearlings.
Sell them as open replacements.

Or if you wanna make a dollar. Buy some skinny old cows and put em on the tall grass.

Buying older (maybe not too old) cows will work. The bull calves can work. But just like the heifers you have to watch out buying too small as those are almost guaranteed to be weaned on the trailer. It is one of those regional things also. here you would go to every sale for two months to put together 50 calves under 300 pounds. Look at sale reports from local sales. Figure the highest price in the size you plan to buy and the lowest price in your projected sale weight. Calculate the total dollars at each size and see what the difference is. Last week here 415 pound heifers cost a little over $600. Heifers just short of 700 pounds brought a little over $900. So there is $300 to add almost 300 pounds. What are your costs to put on that 300 pounds?

 

[Bfields30]

Buying light weight heifers 300-500 lb and growing them on grass and reselling them in couple months ?? Any chance of profit ?

I don't think you'll do much good. You'll be getting most likely trailer weaned calf's. They will lose weight the first week. And not going to gain enough weight on grass in two months.

I agree with ranchman. Buy bull calf's make them steers and feed them.
Or do the heifers but get quality matched set and run on your grass and feed until yearlings.
Sell them as open replacements.

Or if you wanna make a dollar. Buy some skinny old cows and put em on the tall grass.

Buying older (maybe not too old) cows will work. The bull calves can work. But just like the heifers you have to watch out buying too small as those are almost guaranteed to be weaned on the trailer. It is one of those regional things also. here you would go to every sale for two months to put together 50 calves under 300 pounds. Look at sale reports from local sales. Figure the highest price in the size you plan to buy and the lowest price in your projected sale weight. Calculate the total dollars at each size and see what the difference is. Last week here 415 pound heifers cost a little over $600. Heifers just short of 700 pounds brought a little over $900. So there is $300 to add almost 300 pounds. What are your costs to put on that 300 pounds?

The ones I am looking at now are 250 to 400 cost range from 475 to 550 on price per heifer but i was thinking about just testing it seeing buying 2-4 and seeing how it went before i bought a good amount so i wont lose money on the whole deal how much would you say i should feed each heifer and how many times a week should i feed them.