Finally sitting down after all the bills are paid and looking through every thing.
Feb 2, 2024 through May 2, 2024 (roughly 90 days)
Basis was estimated @ $1050 per head (what they would have brough straight off the cow Feb 2)
Target sale price was $1500 per head
Steers avg was #584 @ 2.87 $1680
Heifers avg was #601 @ 2.34 $1434
Total avg of $1557 ea
The avg don't really say a whole lot because there was more weight difference than I expected. As an example, scanning through some big steers went 680, 645, 670... They were bringing $2.70, 2.77, etc. They were definitely the upper end bringing plus or minus $1800. Small end there were steers that went 475, 530, etc. They brough $3 and up which was still in the $1600 range.
On heifers, same thing. Heifers on the bigger end were 665, 635, one went 725 lol. Those bigger ones were bringing in the $2.30 range for right around $1500. The lighter end had some in the low #500s and only brought $2.5, 2.6, etc and end up $1400-1500.
On expenses
Total $245.49 per head
Feed | $209.58 |
Med | $9.91 |
Labor | $26.00 |
Feed included things like the creep feed, a bag of cubes as seen in the video, a couple round bales, loose salt, loose mineral, and a molasses tub that was in the trap we turned out in to so we billed it.
Medical was Triangle 10, multi min, de-wormer, fly spray/ powder, etc. It really was not that expensive to make sure they had the right stuff on this.
Labor was 48hrs @ $12. That was for weaning, setting up the feeders, working them for shots, hauling out, and some misc. It didn't account for every minute checking on them or phone calls and things like that but I definitely wanted to show some thing. If I wanted to really be a stickler and double the labor its easy to see what that would add to a calf.
In Summary (I'm sure I will think of some more later)
It worked. Good cattle prices helped a lot. Having the spreadsheet and numbers let you play with price fall, death, labor, etc to see how it would have effected the overall numbers. As a whole, we would have had to have major death loss or a pretty good price drop to go in the red.
The self feeder was a win. Even at potentially higher consumption it was cheaper that feeding daily, overall. We also saved on labor with the AB hauling for free due to the amount of calves. Doing what we did really didn't require tractors, big trailers, or any equipment overhead. I would consider a squeeze chute and good pens, traps, pastures almost a necessity though.
Adding in the green pasture the last 30-45 days was a winner. They definitely came on strong with the combination of time and pasture. In different circumstance, mainly rain dependent, I would have cut the heavy end off and kept the light end on pasture and a different feed regiment for another 30-60 days. It was discussed but its just turning too dry here.
Things that went right.
Feeder and keeping labor down.
We were very fortunate that this group weaned easy, took right to feed, and could be handled fairly easily. I attest a lot of that to the genetics of the animals and the set up/ environment they were handled it.
Things I would do different.
I would try a different feed. That feed is probably good for right when they come off the cows and you have them kind of penned up. Once they started getting turned out and took to feeding they should have been on a better feed like accuration. I do want to try a group on wcs as we had very good luck with my sons heifers on pasture and free choice wcs. They did not consume near as much, daily, when it was kept out free choice. I don't think there is a big money savings to be had but I think we could have gotten a little better results or even got to a target weight a little faster.