Hit by wet possum

[Bama]

As my ole buddy Caustic puts it. I got slapped in the face by a wet possum today at the sale barn. Everbody hears about how good someone does at the salebarn, but rarely do you hear about them getting their head handed to them in a spitoon. Thats just what happened to me today. Most folks know I buy cattle that I try to turn a good profit on at resale. This is a risky way of doing things but when you get good at it you can make some money. You can also loose a lot of money quickly. I have been doing this for a while and have a pretty good eye for the cattle I can turn a profit on. I did well with the rest of them but I had one that I kelpt for 187 days. After all the expenses were added in I made a whooping $4.01 on this one. I missed judged this one badly. It had $26.04 cents worth of grain, $7.40 in hay, $10.99 in vet and medicine, $.03 in gas and oil, $1.06 in minerals and protein, & $1.85 in seed and pasture. His average daily gain was only .6684 pounds perday. Others in the same lot did well this one just bombed. He looked wormey even though he wasn't, his hair was long, no butt, and just plain didn't look good. Biggest mistake I made on this one was paying to much for him to start with. At the time I thought I could make something out of him. At least a wet possum don't hit me often.

 

[Stocker Steve]

If you made four dollars on him you can not complain too much... It's the dead ones that you didn't cull that really hurt.

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Bama

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger! Been there, done that. Probably will do it again. Seems like I need one of those every now & then for a reality check. Guess it proves we are human after all.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[Bama]

If you made four dollars on him you can not complain too much... It's the dead ones that you didn't cull that really hurt.

That ain't uncharted waters for me either. Most of the ones that die I know i'm taking a bigger risk on. Its just that this one I thought had much more potential when I purchase him. No real harm done Good Lord willing the sun will still come up tomorrow, I just posted it for folks to see that even us old codgers that have been doing this still get our senses checked from time to time.

 

[Beefy]

wonder if he had some kind of sure nuff problem?

 

[Howdyjabo]

If you get down to deciding your success or failure by individual calves you are doomed to depression. The bad ones will always stand out in your memory.

Gotta Lump into groups of 100 calves(even if it takes you years to get there)--to get a realistic view of your real standing.

If making $4 on a looser is getting hit by a wet possum
Then I've been hit by my share of wet Elephants

 

[Bama]

If you get down to deciding your success or failure by individual calves you are doomed to depression. The bad ones will always stand out in your memory.

Gotta Lump into groups of 100 calves(even if it takes you years to get there)--to get a realistic view of your real standing.

If making $4 on a looser is getting hit by a wet possum
Then I've been hit by my share of wet Elephants

$4.00 ain't gonna break me :lol: I do lump them in lots but I wrote a program that allows me to track each and ever animal with very little effort. I don't look at it as a failure or success type of thing on any one animal. But I did fail on this one, I'm sure it won't be the last either. I've been doing this long enough to know that some of em just ain't gonna make the grade. It's my job to cull them before I buy them. I made enough on the rest of em to cover the underachievements of this one. ;-)

 

[Beefy]

was it an angus cross? or what.

 

[Howdyjabo]

I've been stweing over this ALL day-- and discussing wet possums and not making money on calves----has got me wanting to share.....

I figured up today what one neighbors pet dog has cost me in the last week.

Its up over $2,000 -- not including aggravation and time spent sitting and waiting for two nights.--

I'm of a mind to take a bill over there but Hubby says " Better left Shoot Shovel Shut-up". But it sure does gripe me-- that money was hard come by.

If you have a Dog in a rural area-- SHUT IT UP AT NIGHT
Wether or not you think its into any trouble .

 

[Hasbeen]

Bama, I'm very impressed with the program you've come up with that pinpoints gain and costs right to the penny. I understand it's averaged out and spread across the herd but the part I found humorous is the .03 for gas and oil. At today's prices, isn't that the vapor that floats out when you open the cap?

I understand that all costs must be figured to be accurate and I'm not poking fun, that one figure just struck me as funny.

 

[Caustic Burno]

As my ole buddy Caustic puts it. I got slapped in the face by a wet possum today at the sale barn. Everbody hears about how good someone does at the salebarn, but rarely do you hear about them getting their head handed to them in a spitoon. Thats just what happened to me today. Most folks know I buy cattle that I try to turn a good profit on at resale. This is a risky way of doing things but when you get good at it you can make some money. You can also loose a lot of money quickly. I have been doing this for a while and have a pretty good eye for the cattle I can turn a profit on. I did well with the rest of them but I had one that I kelpt for 187 days. After all the expenses were added in I made a whooping $4.01 on this one. I missed judged this one badly. It had $26.04 cents worth of grain, $7.40 in hay, $10.99 in vet and medicine, $.03 in gas and oil, $1.06 in minerals and protein, & $1.85 in seed and pasture. His average daily gain was only .6684 pounds perday. Others in the same lot did well this one just bombed. He looked wormey even though he wasn't, his hair was long, no butt, and just plain didn't look good. Biggest mistake I made on this one was paying to much for him to start with. At the time I thought I could make something out of him. At least a wet possum don't hit me often.

I am rolling Bama as I have hauled some back I wished I had turned 4 bucks on.

 

[MikeC]

There's a lot of BVD-PI calves floating around in the sale barns that never get tested.

They are always the Poor-Doers in the bunch.

 

[TheBullLady]

Mike... I recently read a good article about that very thing! It's gotten to be enough of a problem that the industry is trying to figure out the best way to solve it. Once you bring it into your herd, it's very very hard to get rid of.

 

[MikeC]

Mike... I recently read a good article about that very thing! It's gotten to be enough of a problem that the industry is trying to figure out the best way to solve it. Once you bring it into your herd, it's very very hard to get rid of.

BVD is a lot more prevalent than people know.

They have recently (last 2 years) begun testing the bulls that go into the bull tests and have found a few positives that were actually growing pretty good.

 

[Bama]

This perticular one was purchased along with others of mixed ages and breeds. He was a angus cross. When I got him I knew he was not a good calf. I thought he could turn into something better. I buy calves to turn a profit on. I buy them at most any weight I can get at a good price. I don't buy bottle calves as I just don't have time to fool with them. I have bought as light as 110 and poured replacer over his calf started until ready for cattle pellets. I don't grain them no more than I have to. I perfer to run em on grass, I don't get the gain but I save more money. This one weighed 335 pounds when I purchased him on 12/14/05. He was on aueromycin at first and had been given bovishield gold. He was dewormed on 3/22/06 with dextomax. He had not been implanted. He was a bull at purchase and a bull when he left my place. He would kinda stay off to himself. He would stay in a creek a lot when the rest of his bunch would come up near the barn he would join them. He would use the mineral feeder whenever they did but would return to his place near the creek. I saw from the get go that he wasn't a good gainer. I left him a bull in hopes he would grow off a little better. I planed on cutting him when he recovered. He never did come around. I knew I would be wasting time and money to keep him. Some may say just let him stay on grass he ain't hurting anything. The way I see it he was hurting my bottom line. He was taking a spot where a better calf should be so I cut my loses early. He was only 460 when sold. I sold him with some 600-700 weights.
The program I wrote to track expenses is one I wrote in excell. All the cattle have a record sheet. There is a sheet for equipment, feed, fertlizer lime and chemical, gas and oil, improvement supplies, milage, miscellanous supplies, seeds and plants, utilities, and vet and medicine. When I purchase a animal I enter the weight, day, price and id when I sell I enter the weight and price. When I give meds I also enter it in the feed and hay is entered in pounds. When I purchase supplies they are entered into the other sheets. The program tracks the number of days each animal was on the farm and how much to charge to a animal per day. It also keeps up with previous expenses from prior years to get a acurate cost of animal. It will also track a cows calves over the years to see what kind of profits I really have on a perticular cow. Setting up the program was a lot of work but after I got it done all I do now is enter in expenses and it allicates them where they belong.
I normally ain't this long winded. (It's just been a good night to be a maintenance man at work.) Much less carrying on about one calf. I just saw in another post where Caustic had mentioned folks getting hit with a wet possum at the salebarn. I just started this topic to show some folks how that can actually happen. If you are not careful It will happen a lot. Expecially folks that ain't been doing this long. Raising cattle is a risky business, one has to learn to manage those risk and be responsible for the outcomes. Was this perticular calf the problem.? Hey I did everthing I should have to take care of him. I know I could have thrown more money at him to improve him a little, but the return just wasn't there. It must have been his fault. Nope, it was mine I shouldn't have purchased him in the first place.

 

[Caustic Burno]

This is a post from a cattleman knows his cost, realizes the risk, and takes responsibilty.
Hats Off.

 

[Roadapple]

As my ole buddy Caustic puts it. I got slapped in the face by a wet possum today at the sale barn. Everbody hears about how good someone does at the salebarn, but rarely do you hear about them getting their head handed to them in a spitoon. Thats just what happened to me today. Most folks know I buy cattle that I try to turn a good profit on at resale. This is a risky way of doing things but when you get good at it you can make some money. You can also loose a lot of money quickly. I have been doing this for a while and have a pretty good eye for the cattle I can turn a profit on. I did well with the rest of them but I had one that I kelpt for 187 days. After all the expenses were added in I made a whooping $4.01 on this one. I missed judged this one badly. It had $26.04 cents worth of grain, $7.40 in hay, $10.99 in vet and medicine, $.03 in gas and oil, $1.06 in minerals and protein, & $1.85 in seed and pasture. His average daily gain was only .6684 pounds perday. Others in the same lot did well this one just bombed. He looked wormey even though he wasn't, his hair was long, no butt, and just plain didn't look good. Biggest mistake I made on this one was paying to much for him to start with. At the time I thought I could make something out of him. At least a wet possum don't hit me often.

I am rolling Bama as I have hauled some back I wished I had turned 4 bucks on.

CB, In a former post you said: "Just admit when you're not savvy enough around cattle to buy them." Was this one of those times? No wait a minute. I bet this is just a hobby is'nt it. Buying and selling cattle I mean.

 

[Caustic Burno]

As my ole buddy Caustic puts it. I got slapped in the face by a wet possum today at the sale barn. Everbody hears about how good someone does at the salebarn, but rarely do you hear about them getting their head handed to them in a spitoon. Thats just what happened to me today. Most folks know I buy cattle that I try to turn a good profit on at resale. This is a risky way of doing things but when you get good at it you can make some money. You can also loose a lot of money quickly. I have been doing this for a while and have a pretty good eye for the cattle I can turn a profit on. I did well with the rest of them but I had one that I kelpt for 187 days. After all the expenses were added in I made a whooping $4.01 on this one. I missed judged this one badly. It had $26.04 cents worth of grain, $7.40 in hay, $10.99 in vet and medicine, $.03 in gas and oil, $1.06 in minerals and protein, & $1.85 in seed and pasture. His average daily gain was only .6684 pounds perday. Others in the same lot did well this one just bombed. He looked wormey even though he wasn't, his hair was long, no butt, and just plain didn't look good. Biggest mistake I made on this one was paying to much for him to start with. At the time I thought I could make something out of him. At least a wet possum don't hit me often.

I am rolling Bama as I have hauled some back I wished I had turned 4 bucks on.

CB, In a former post you said: "Just admit when you're not savvy enough around cattle to buy them." Was this one of those times? No wait a minute. I bet this is just a hobby is'nt it. Buying and selling cattle I mean.

Bama is a lead dog in the cattle business, hard not being the lead dog where the scenery never changes. Do you know what yours cost Apple? Or you just another cattle owner that thinks he makes money while propping them up with other income.

 

[tom4018]

Bama, maybe you need to sell your program to increase profit. I try to track mine as close as possible, wish I could figure out how you are getting it to do it by the days on the farm. Guess I am just not computer savy.

 

[Bama]

Example - spray pastures with grazon $2250 divided by total number of all animal days = a value per day per animal times the # of days a animal was here.

=[2006s.xls]Report!$F$48/('[2006s.xls]2006 Stock'!$E$84+'[2006s.xls]2006 Stock'!$E$85)*F5+(G123)

ReportF48 = total chem bought this year + total mount carried over from last year - total carried over to next year.

stockE84 = total # of all adult days on farm per year.

stockE85 = total # of all calf days on farm per year

F5 = number of days this animal on farm this year

G123 = amount from prievous years.


edited to add all of this is figure automatically from the purchase date and sell date( or death date) I subtract the sale date from the purchase date to get days on farm. The total chemical purchased comes from a tally of the chemical I buy through the year I enter in each purchase and it tracks the total. prior and following years are also just coped from the respective sheets automatically. Their are some other formulars going on but you can get the picture.