Feedyard cattle

[kenny thomas]

How many of you are retaining ownership in your cattle is someones feedyard and how are you doing profit wise?

 

[dun]

We've done it in the past. Some years we came out ahead some years we would have been better off selling them outright. Since the feeders are losing money it seems we made more money on doing the protection crap (which I don;t understand) then we did on the calves themselves. But at least when you retain ownership you get the carcass data back so you have a better idea how your breeding program stacks up

 

[Stocker Steve]

Harlan Hughes is always publishing his estimates on which sector will be profitable. Interesting but I would never make a business decision from it. I think one potential advantage to retained ownership is if you have discounted cattle and take them to slaughter. Once the meat is on the platter the hide does not matter.

For me - - there is usually about 20% of the stockers that are framy and really good doers. I have thought about keeping them rather than having them sorted off and sold as a smaller group due to their larger size.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Kenny
I have fed cattle some yrs and not some yrs this past yr with the prices being unstable and feed prices being the same I sold instead of retaining,
with the so many crops being damgaed this yr I believe a person needs to wait and see how things stabilize in the first few months of 2010 before they make any decisions on feeding or selling