kenny thomas
Well-known member
How many people would accept a job of taking care of 50 cows for $7500 per year. $150 per head. Not me.
Feeding Cost?
- Thread starter David Norred
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Caustic Burno
Well-known member
The real money in cattle here is property tax savings.
kenny thomas
Well-known member
I understand that but here it doesn't matter if you have cattle or not. No tax break.
kenny thomas
Well-known member
What I'm trying to show here is that many/most people unlike CB have no clue what their cost is. My cost is small compared to others but my numbers are low to make up for it. I don't spend much. Where is the sweet spot between cost and profits? I sure don't know that and it's definitely different for each of us. As I have said before I am a lazy cattlemen and make the cows do the work. Cows were grazing today and are fat so something is going right.
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
You are 100% correct IMO.
They know what the salebarn check is they have no clue what it cost.
Lot of welfare beef being raised for the consumers.
Caustic, I appreciate your comments. You believe in fertilizer. Do you soil test very often?Are you cutting hay off these pastures. My experience is that, unless you are haying some of your pastures, nutrient removal should not be a problem. Especially if you are bringing in hay of site.
Dave
Well-known member
2021 cost came to$496.75. The old one and done cows the profit came out to $231.70 per cow purchased. I have a full time rancher friend who says you need 300 cows to make a living. And he says if you have 300 cows you need to have a hired man. So you have to have another 100 cows to be able to pay him.
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
Yes I do and in this rainforest you will fertilize or reduce stocking rates. Lime is huge in this acidic soil. I haven't priced lime this year last year it 75 a ton spread, that has to go up.
Most places here need a ton per acre every couple years.
When 94% of the county is pine plantation you will fertilize or plant pine trees.
SBMF 2015
Well-known member
That would complement a row crop farm.
I have a lower cost of living than most. The goal is 200 cows. That wouldn't pay for a brand new truck, but the cows don't care if I show up in a new truck as long as there are buckets in the back.
Little Joe
Well-known member
I recently figured up how many head of steers a year I would have to feed to make a living direct selling my beef, at today's prices of cattle and feed it would take 100 head a year to make living for me. That's not a driving a new truck, living high on the hog living but a tolerable living. ROI would be in the neighborhood of 10% - 15%. These figures are based on buying pre-vac steers at the sale barn.
Holy Mackerel that's high isn't it? You're in east Texas...should be more forage there. Winter's are light here. Are you running enough acreage per cow? Standing cow for me per year for feed is around $150., my labor is free. ..and I'm being overly generous, with the cubes and corn hay...leaving lots of winter stockpile forage uneaten. I'm going to try start bringing that amount down to around $90. per head. I don't have any steel equipment costs, fuel to speak of....big round corn hay ($30.) is on the way to the ranch 7 miles away. My biggest headache is lambs-quarter...a nightmare. This year I'm going to get tough with my cattle...and force them to eat the young lambs-quarter (less toxic) before I start having to mow in the cattle field. I'm going to look awful stupid mowing in a cattle field but I have to.
mwj
Well-known member
Land cost needs to be figured in as well. If you rent pasture you can not avoid the cost. If you own the pasture you could rent to other producers for cash.
Lee VanRoss
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DR
''Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't you will be right'' Henry Ford
Build on an honest appraisal of your assets and skills and remember notoriety will always outrun you
whilst reputation follows behind. Good Luck!
''Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't you will be right'' Henry Ford
Build on an honest appraisal of your assets and skills and remember notoriety will always outrun you
whilst reputation follows behind. Good Luck!
Dead on!
Lee VanRoss
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David> Not to add to the issue but, have you included the cost and maintenance of the bull or the AI services if applicable?
Dave in Oregon is correct about the advantages of the scale of volume. I don't know him but I'm sure he can purchase any
inputs at a lower rate than you or I simply due to the volume expressed above.
Dave in Oregon is correct about the advantages of the scale of volume. I don't know him but I'm sure he can purchase any
inputs at a lower rate than you or I simply due to the volume expressed above.
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
Your not charging all your cost to the cow, feed, fuel, fertilizer, maintenance of equipment to tend the cow, taxes, meds.
Hay alone is 240 dollars a cow.
Go back and look it will shock you at your true cost.
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
Ya, and unless you have cheap rented ground, cow feed cost does not tell you much. You need to run comparison numbers:
Cows vs. pines GM per acre
Cows vs. deer GM per acre
Yearlings vs. hay GM per acre...
It costs me 2.1 acres to run a pair thru the summer. I have been charging $85 per acre for grass and maintenance. Pretty easy to justify cows back when grain growers lost money year after year... Ugly in 2020-2022.
JJColvin
Well-known member
I can't make a profit at that either but we have lots of company!
