Herd type

[Beef08]

Does anyone on here farm just calves? I have heard of people buying calves feeding them and then sale them after a few months... I have only been around raising cows and a bull and doing it that way. Just curious bout how raising calves is compared to normal herd... I guess thats is the best way to put it... :?:

 

[ROB]

years ago we used to go up into Wyoming every spring and purchase a couple of hundred head of weaned hereford calves from a couple of ranchers we were acquainted with. we would either truck them back down to Missouri, or on a couple of occasions brought them back by rail. when we made the purchase, we would ride out on horses and help the rancher round up the herd. they would be out basically free-ranging on 10 to 15 thousand acres of land. we'd sort off what calves we wanted and away we'd go. weaned on the truck. seems like they usually weighed around 450 lbs or so. by the time they got back to missouri- they didn't look like the same calves. of course we had a lot of trouble with sickness, but it wasn't too bad 'cause we'd do it again the following year. grazed the pastures through the summer and sell in the fall.

later on, or more recently - we'd pick up most of our purchases locally. either go to the auctions ourselves, or have order buyers pick them up for us. again graze through summer and sell in fall. some years though we would feed a few on out to slaughter depending on the market. bringing in small runs of calves to group into pot loads had its downfalls though. very easy to bring some type of sickness along with the calves. also, even though we tried to purchase uniform calves - we had a lot of trouble keeping them even. different genetics would result in different performance.

i prefer to raise my own calves- grow my own replacement heifers- and have the option of selling as weaners, yearlings, fats, as replacements, cow-calf pairs, three-in-ones...
ROB

 

[Beef08]

which one is more profitable?

 

[Jogeephus]

which one is more profitable?

$1000 question. It just depends on your setup and the market. My cousin stockers here. He keeps about 600 all the time. According to him, he will net about $40 per head - this is based on a 15 year average. Some years you might lose your tail and some years you can make some serious money. The good thing about stockering is the number you can run per acre if you creep and have improved forages. During the cooler months here you can run around 4 to the acre. Normally can turn 3-4 batches a year but this again depends on the market and how much weight you want to do.(So if you do the math, 40 x 4 x 3 = $480/acre/year which I think most will agree is better than what the average cow calf man will net.)

Two downfalls. First is money. It takes a heck of an investment to go out and buy 80-90 calves and have money for feed and meds. Second, like Rob pointed out, sickness. If you buy them from a salebarn and they are not weaned you are in for some trouble. You need to know a great deal about cattle illnesses and have a prescription for some of the stronger meds. Losing one calf can take the profit of 10. Another negative side is the amount of time it takes. When you first get the calves you best live with them for at least two or three weeks to be sure you didn't bring some funk in with the calves - and don't dare think this won't happen to you. Once you get them straightened out, you just will have to feed them once a day and check on the at least twice a day.

On paper, the stockering looks to be more profitable. In reality, it will depend on you and your abilities and your setup. I think the key is to have an unfair advantage in the form of cheap feed or plenty of free/cheap grazing.

I don't know if this answered anything but it was the best answer I could come up with.

 

[Beef08]

both of ya'll have given good answers and i appreciate it