Had a question need some input

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Coosh71

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I have a partnership that ends at the end of January 2019. I care for 34 cows and 2 additional bulls on a 50/50 calf share. We are set to wean that group on the 19th. My partner asked if I wanted him to take everything when we wean and 1/4 of my half of the calves vs me keeping his cows on hay and feed thru January. I did some figuring on what the cake cost would be as well as mineral and I came up with roughly $1200. They will be on a pretty heavy hay grazer field once we wean calves off if we keep them. I'm figuring he's asking for 4 additional calves. We will private sell ours along with our other calves and average $800+ on the calves. So what is yall thinking on this offer? Thanks for the help.
Steve
 
If the math is good, that's $2k out of pocket for you. Have you figured any labor into keeping them until the end of January? You'd be selling the calves for $300/hd, instead of $800+, if all of your inputs are figured into that $1,200. 28 cents per day per head would be some pretty cheap feeding through the two worst months of the year around here, unless a guy had the infrastructure, equipment, and numbers to make it work.
 
The numbers are based on an every other day feed ration and are accurate. Now if we get real bad weather meaning sub 30s I will feed 1/2 ration on off days. Our worst part of winter is from Jan 15-end of March. Worst case I'm looking at $1500-1700 in total costs. The field is a mile away so labor is minimal.
 
One hour a day @ $20 an hour X 4 months is nearly $2,500. Add the $1,200 to $1,700 in feed costs.

"Minimal labor" will pick your pockets. Now, if you have the grinder mixer hooked up, and you're feeding another 200 cows at the same time...….
 
We only feed every other day 5lbs/hd of 20-4 cake. Our entire feed route takes less than an hour. It's so minimal on time to feed that group that I wouldn't put $20 on it. I'm more trying to make sure that I wouldn't be shooting myself in the foot by giving away too many calves.
 

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