Dairy Surrogate Mother's? Disease???

[Jake]

TNG - what is th ecalving ease/BW of the waygu embryos that you want to implant?

Are you planning on using sexed embryos, if so sexed heifer embryos may work better on first calf heifer recips (speaking strictly on CE)?

Calving ease on wagyu is quite good. They come out very small. Friend of mine implanted their heifers that past few years as a cooperator deal. Purchasing a confirmed bred recip from the embryologist. This would most likely be the cheapest and fastest return.

 

[TheNewGuy]

AVG birthing weights are between 50-60lbs so easy. I havn't been able to find an embryoligest in the Lafayette area to determin the costs. I think H & H makes the most sense. Ive run the numbers a few ways and would be able to pay for the embryo's, transfers, and cattle with little to no mony outa pocket by buying springing heffiers. Once the calfs drop and the cows are ready Implant. Sell the first round of calfs to pay for the cost of the embryo, or at least help with the cost. Once the Waygu's drop and they are ready breed them, wait for them to drop the calfs and sell as pairs. Keeping the waygu's!!! Simple.. While I'm rubbing my hands togeather laughing in a sinister tone. Lol.. I know its not that easy but I can dream. I think I'm just going to spend the money on 8-10 bred angus heffiers and slow down until I learn what Im doing. But not to slow!!

 

[Dega Moo]

TNG where do you see this say 5 years from now? If you're building a herd for developing and selling genetics you're facing at least two additional years from the drop of your first heifer calf before you can expect a next gen Wagyu calf if I'm understanding your plans. If you start with 8 recips you'll likely get 4 heifers and 4 bulls. What are your plans for any bull calves? If they're full bloods and you castrate Wagyu tend to finish older than most Continental and British breeds so they'll be 2 to 3 year old before slaughter. Would you keep them as bulls? Sell them as bulls? Collect them and sell their semen? Would you and could you?

What are your plans for the heifers? If you're NS rebreeding the recip cows and selling them I imagine you will either be harvesting eggs from your Wagyu heifers or AI or NS breeding. Or is this a one shot deal? If you're rebreeding and calving then you're two years out from calves on the ground and if you're lucking you'll get 2 more heifers out the four you kept and restart the cycle. It's certainly a slow road to get into business.

I don't want to discourage you but I think the most important thing to do is have a strong vision of what your operation will look like in 5 or 6 years and work your way back to today penciling in the things that have to happen previously to get to the next step. If you don't find yourself at day one with those 5 to 8 recips then: you need to adjust where you want to be in 5 or 6 years; adjust your first steps; or both. Then you have to ask yourself for each of those steps "can I do that?". Finally, I'm pretty sure this is already understood, but once you know the path you have to take to reach that vision you got to project your cash flow out and see if you can sustain the plan long enough to reach the vision.

Good luck and best wishes

 

[TheNewGuy]

In five years I hope to be a top breeder. Even if my operation is small I can still produce the best genetic's possible. I understand all the time it takes to start a herd and it wont happen over night. As long as I set realstic goals they can be acheved. I have a full time job and my wife is a nurse. Any money made off of the cows will go to bills, toys, and trips. What I would like to see out of this in say five years would be paying for the house and land. about 1,300 a month x 12 = 15,600 a year from the cows. Not an unrealistic goal if the price of the cows stay the same. If I were to get 8 bulls one year I could make that. 8 x 2000 = 16,000. The steer's I get are spoken for from a hand full I peopel I know. Like a said I have a good job and don't need this to stay alive. I'm just trying to make the land pay for its self and have a litle fun with the kids. Pluss I like the idea of having the best beef you can get on my farm and in my freezer.

 

[Engler]

Why dump the recips after one round of ET calves? You've gone through the screwing around to get them set up and to get the program going. Also, you will have a lag year in the middle that you don't have any premium cattle to sell. So, why not buy another set of eggs and do it again? As I see the flow it looks like this

Year 1-commercial calves out of recips
Year 2-ET pb calves
Year 3-sell commercial cows as pairs
Year 4-"your" pb calves

What I'm saying is to do as follows
Year 1&2 same as above
Year 3-ET pb calves, then sell the cows as breds or calve them and sell in year 4
Year 4-your pb calves

 

[Taurus]

In five years I hope to be a top breeder. Even if my operation is small I can still produce the best genetic's possible. I understand all the time it takes to start a herd and it wont happen over night. As long as I set realstic goals they can be acheved. I have a full time job and my wife is a nurse. Any money made off of the cows will go to bills, toys, and trips. What I would like to see out of this in say five years would be paying for the house and land. about 1,300 a month x 12 = 15,600 a year from the cows. Not an unrealistic goal if the price of the cows stay the same. If I were to get 8 bulls one year I could make that. 8 x 2000 = 16,000. The steer's I get are spoken for from a hand full I peopel I know. Like a said I have a good job and don't need this to stay alive. I'm just trying to make the land pay for its self and have a litle fun with the kids. Pluss I like the idea of having the best beef you can get on my farm and in my freezer.

You know that market can changes at any time between today and 5 years later. As for the money made off of the cows, most money goes to them (vet bills, feed bills, cattle equipment, meds, hay, etc). I wish I can spend all of that money I got from my cattle but I invest $$ in their future (new bull, new fencing, hay, meds and shots, vet bills, land rent, truck repairs etc) and little money left for me. Not mentioned that it's important to keep your cattle health and free of diseases since you are doing seedstock business. That means there will be vet bills and cattle equipment. It's not a quick way to get richer. As for the steers....they have painfully slowest growth rate to be finished and butchered which can be 2-3 years later.

 

[chippie]

I wouldn't bother raising heifers as surrogates. You don't want to mess with a first calf heifer. I would buy a young cow that has already had a couple of calves and proven herself to be a good mother.

Another option would be to buy excellent quality cows and a good Waygu bull and raise F-1s. I have a friend who does that.

 

[Dega Moo]

I wouldn't bother raising heifers as surrogates. You don't want to mess with a first calf heifer. I would buy a young cow that has already had a couple of calves and proven herself to be a good mother.

Another option would be to buy excellent quality cows and a good Waygu bull and raise F-1s. I have a friend who does that.

TNG - I'm wondering if you've considered Chippie's alternative and what you think about it?