Randi
Well-known member
Well, it looks like we made a deal to buy another 6 quarters (960 acres) and lease another 5 quarters(800 acres). It's pretty exciting.....and a bit scary. This will take our herd from around 300 mama cows to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 450!
Looking at the payments, we are trying to figure out the most cost effective way to increase. I think we are going to take at least half of the cows on lease from a friend that wants to step back a bit. The cost of the lease should be about half of what a payment for buying the same cow would be. But, we don't own the cows, so that income is lost.
The cows are Horned Hereford, bred back Hereford for this year. We will be breeding them Shorthorn and Charolais in the future....we need to buy 4-5 new bulls...
Lease agreement is to pay 14% of the value of the calf crop back to the owner, he supplies the cows, we supply everything else, vaccination, bulls, vet costs and feed costs. Only thing we have to figure out yet, is how much we are going to have to pay above the 14% for the cost of wintering the cows, as normally we would take the cows on in the fall.
Looking at buying the other half. Hopefully we can make it work to buy bred cattle, rather than pairs as that is the cheaper way to go. But, we are getting pretty close to the point where the breds we want will have to be pairs...lol. Likely be looking at Red and Black, Angus x cows.
This will change things for how we manage the herd a bit, looking at moving calving back a bit. Thinking that we will Synch all the replacement heifers, and the top 100 - 150 cows to continue calving Mar 10. We will synch using bulls, as we did last year, so far we are fairly happy with that. These cows and heifers will be bred Red Angus and Shorthorn with the intention of producing replacement females. Then, we will turn the Charolais bulls with everything for Mar 20, with a 50-60 day breeding window, which should have calving wrapping up around May 1.
Looking at the payments, we are trying to figure out the most cost effective way to increase. I think we are going to take at least half of the cows on lease from a friend that wants to step back a bit. The cost of the lease should be about half of what a payment for buying the same cow would be. But, we don't own the cows, so that income is lost.
The cows are Horned Hereford, bred back Hereford for this year. We will be breeding them Shorthorn and Charolais in the future....we need to buy 4-5 new bulls...
Lease agreement is to pay 14% of the value of the calf crop back to the owner, he supplies the cows, we supply everything else, vaccination, bulls, vet costs and feed costs. Only thing we have to figure out yet, is how much we are going to have to pay above the 14% for the cost of wintering the cows, as normally we would take the cows on in the fall.
Looking at buying the other half. Hopefully we can make it work to buy bred cattle, rather than pairs as that is the cheaper way to go. But, we are getting pretty close to the point where the breds we want will have to be pairs...lol. Likely be looking at Red and Black, Angus x cows.
This will change things for how we manage the herd a bit, looking at moving calving back a bit. Thinking that we will Synch all the replacement heifers, and the top 100 - 150 cows to continue calving Mar 10. We will synch using bulls, as we did last year, so far we are fairly happy with that. These cows and heifers will be bred Red Angus and Shorthorn with the intention of producing replacement females. Then, we will turn the Charolais bulls with everything for Mar 20, with a 50-60 day breeding window, which should have calving wrapping up around May 1.
