Feeding Cost?

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I reckon you are in a good place for hay. I assume no mold, noxious, or poisonous weeds .
I hope your good fortune holds.
 
I put off building a hay barn for years, if I bought another place it would be the first thing I built now. The second would be a fence line feeding setup with a good gravel road.

It's very hard to discuss what it cost to run a ranch. There's too many variables and too many ways to look at it. I've found a system that works for me and have been profitable for the last 6-7 years. Someone else might look and figure a way I'm going broke though.
 
Caustic Burno said:
Going price and making a profit two different things.
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CB I gotta ask why everytime someone says they are making money you say they aren't? I believe in an above post you said you were at $60 for a role of hay. You could feed 10-12# a day of commodity mix and come out way ahead on that deal. Cows don't have to have hay. Maybe they didn't tell you that at the TAMU course but, it is a true story. The cow business is a pretty simple deal if you aren't afraid of a little hard work and don't mind spending money on equipment and facilities that will last and pay for themselves over time. It's really not that hard.
 
Lee VanRoss said:
That you would ask someone to give you a list of what you need to figure the cost of keeping a cow leads me to believe you may not have
a handle on your own numbers which sadly is a matter of fact for too many of us in this business, myself included. I do know after some
honest research and calculation that on average if you think you are feeding a cow or maintaining a cowherd for a dollar a day each, you are
probably on your way out of business whether you realize it or not.
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I think it may be a regional thing on this cow feeding deal. Every year I buy hay, feed, mineral, and meds for the Cattle. I don't wait around and buy it 20 rolls at a time or 2 sacks a day either. I buy it all at once with the money from my once a year calf check. The money left is what I make land and equipment payments with or do any needed upgrades. Trust me I don't make enough money at the day job to have cows that don't make money. Almost everything else I spend at the ranch is on something that is going to pay me back. I own the land but do figure going lease rates in per head. I hate to even figure the land cost in because it's been the best investment I have, goes up in value every year.

I would definitely say I don't figure every dollar in but at the end of the day as long as the ball is still rolling does it even matter.
 
Lucky said:
I think it may be a regional thing on this cow feeding deal. Every year I buy hay, feed, mineral, and meds for the Cattle. I don't wait around and buy it 20 rolls at a time or 2 sacks a day either. I buy it all at once with the money from my once a year calf check. The money left is what I make land and equipment payments with or do any needed upgrades. Trust me I don't make enough money at the day job to have cows that don't make money. Almost everything else I spend at the ranch is on something that is going to pay me back. I own the land but do figure going lease rates in per head. I hate to even figure the land cost in because it's been the best investment I have, goes up in value every year.

I would definitely say I don't figure every dollar in but at the end of the day as long as the ball is still rolling does it even matter.
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I own land but also lease land my most expensive lease place per acre is $15/acre a year
 
Caustic Burno said:
Your hay man is loosing his ass. You can't buy a 4x5 fertilized less than 60 a roll.
No way can you buy fuel, fertilizer and net wrap for your cost of a bale .
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I consistently buy net wrapped, fertilized (usually fields have had litter spread) round bales for $25-$35 a roll delivered, may be around $45 on a dry year. You can buy horse quality round bale bermuda here for around $50/bale. Now that I have a barn to store it I'm gonna keep 2 -3 years worth on hand until we have a dry year so I don't have to pay draught prices.
 
Caustic Burno said:
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.
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Yeah, that's what I figured was the difference. My hay costs won't ever encroach $240./year unless my supplier increases their prices. I'm finding a little supplement of cattle cubes every other day while cutting back my hay and forcing my cattle to graze a bit more...saves me money. Cattle cubes adds protein and is less expensive then corn hay (due to the costs and time it lasts) I can control the amount of cubes every other day, I cannot control how fast the cattle consume hay when I'm gone. They want $60./round bail of hay and $30./round bail of corn..both bails are (4x5 to 4x6)...switching over to solely to corn hay has saved me a bunch of money. Cows conditional weight are 5 to 7...most all 6's some 7's...maybe one 5's. I'm only two years into my learning curve with cattle on the ground. I would like to know if other cattle producers are finding cattle cubes save them winter hay cost money? Because I believe if I stopped feeding cattle cubes, surplus potatoes, old apple, banana and orange fruit and skins... and went solely with just hay...my feed costs would increase by 30 to 60% (my estimate) per year. Little more protein saves big money.
 
Little Joe said:
I don't count all of my expenses against the cattle until tax time because some of those things I would own whether or not I owned cattle. But the things that I would only buy for cattle I definitely do count against them.
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I don't hold the property taxes against the cattle even though they do pay the taxes. We'd own the property with or without them.
 
Lee VanRoss said:
That you would ask someone to give you a list of what you need to figure the cost of keeping a cow leads me to believe you may not have
a handle on your own numbers which sadly is a matter of fact for too many of us in this business, myself included. I do know after some
honest research and calculation that on average if you think you are feeding a cow or maintaining a cowherd for a dollar a day each, you are
probably on your way out of business whether you realize it or not.
Click to expand...
I think I'm happier not understanding the cattle business and being new to the business...my costs would never encroach 1$ a day per head. I have no steel, no equipment, i don't include my labor...i don't over tax the land (cows/acreage). Quick calculations I'm around 75 cents a day for feed alone and then add in the vaccines, dewormer, minerals and other...so ok, I'm right at $1. So, I'll be the controlled "test subject farm"...let's see if my costs increase or I go out of business. You maybe correct Lee. I don't buy steel other than barb-wire, so there's almost no fuel, fertilizer and equipment costs to speak of. I sold my old vintage 1946 Avery Model-V last year. My Ranch probably looks like something out of the 1930's to 1950's, complete with wooden head gate (literally 1954 design i hand built for $120.) I might be too cheap for my own good...but I love the land and cattle.
 
Little Joe said:
I don't count all of my expenses against the cattle until tax time because some of those things I would own whether or not I owned cattle. But the things that I would only buy for cattle I definitely do count against them.
Click to expand...
Exactly...barb-wire and gate fencing....corrals....that goes on your Schedule F, but those are long-term improvements to the land...i'm not going to saddle those costs to my innocent cattle, my beloved business partners.
 
DCA farm said:
He actually brought it to me this year for $30 a roll said it's cheaper on him to bring it and drop at my house then to haul to his barn unload I ain't complaining either he brought me 100 rolls for $30 each
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I understand him doing it that way, I figure it cost at least $5 a bale every time I handle one.
 
We tie all the ranching cost to the Cattle for tax reasons. When we want to see if the Cattle are actually making money we figure in the true cost of running Cattle. A cow doesn't care if you feed a roll of hay out of a $100,000 tractor, a $60,000 pickup with a fancy bale bed, or roll it to the field by hand.

Allot of people spend way too much money feeding their Cattle. They feed them like my wife feeds our dogs instead of watching their body condition and manure. Around here if you run the ranch like a business it will be good to you most years.
 
Last year the hay cost was $1.44 a day per cow. That was 100% purchased hay. Grass hay was $100 a ton and alfalfa was $140 a ton. We figured $2 a day. That other $0.56 is minerals, fuel, and equipment cost.
 
It's $5-8 a bale to have hay delivered within 10 miles here. I try to buy it off the meadow because these guys tack that $5 on once it's been moved. I can move it 10 miles one way for $1 a bale in fuel cost.
 

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