How Many?

[MikeC]

Have sold "Fats" on the rail or grid and have feed conversion and/or gain data?

For those that answer "NO", how do you know what kind of cattle you are raising?

I'm pretty sure most every state has a "Pasture to Rail" or equivalent program for small producers.


Seriously.

 

[Wewild]

For those that answer "NO", how do you know what kind of cattle you are raising?

Seriously.

Only by the way they sale at the barn. We are working on a better program.

What have you seen to be your increase profit per pound for doing it that way? Are you talking large quantities as well?

 

[MikeC]

For those that answer "NO", how do you know what kind of cattle you are raising?

Seriously.

Only by the way they sale at the barn. We are working on a better program.

What have you seen to be your increase profit per pound for doing it that way? Are you talking large quantities?

No, I'm not necessarily talking about large quantities. The programs here will take 1 or 100.

The last big profits were 2004 and 2005. Some animals were bringing as much as $1,700 with a low cost of gain. I had a few calves to PROFIT $500 to $600 those years. But not all.

The reason I ask, is that when most of us sell weaned calves, someone buys them with the intention of making a profit. Why shouldn't we make that profit ourselves?

Just wondering who has done it, and for those that have not, why haven't you?

Is it for non-access to a program of this type or other reasons?

Just curious.

 

[Wewild]

Just wondering who has done it, and for those that have not, why haven't you?

Is it for non-access to a program of this type or other reasons?

Just curious.

There has been alot to do around here for several years and i have tried to and succeded in improving the program. i was left with good Lim momma's and a poor infrastructure.

I talked with Tommy B. down South of you about the Laura Lynn thing but i can't get there tomorrow. We discussed improvements but he seemed to like the cows. He's a good guy. I don't have the facilities to wean and hold for them for the minimum 30 days.

i'm doing a pitifull job of getting on a single calving season. We still calve year round and are no closer to accomplishing this than 2 years ago when i made it a goal. Got a buddy that seems to beat me every year this way. He sales to a broker.

I'm not familiar with the rail in our area but i will look it up. Any help would be appreciated.

We could increase our pounds sold considerably by going to one calving season. The question might be which one is right?

 

[KNERSIE]

We could increase our pounds sold considerably by going to one calving season. The question might be which one is right?

This is a bit off subject.... sorry Mike, but...

As a general rule of thumb you want your best season for grazing coincide with your breeding season. That way your cows will be on a cheap form of a rising plane of nutrition and your calves grow with the pasture, when the cows milk flow slows down the grass will typically be higher in carbs and energy to meet the growing calves needs while he isn't ruminating as effectively as an older animal.

This will have to be tweeked a bit if you have a very short grazing season, very cold winters or any other environmental issues that might play a role. Only you will be able to decide on that.

My above statement is to be the most in synch with nature, not neccesarily to time it for the best markets.

 

[iowahawkeyes]

No, because we sell all our calves as feeders. Next year are hoping to keep them though and feed them out.

 

[Frankie]

Have sold "Fats" on the rail or grid and have feed conversion and/or gain data?

For those that answer "NO", how do you know what kind of cattle you are raising?

I'm pretty sure most every state has a "Pasture to Rail" or equivalent program for small producers.


Seriously.

When we sold off the commercial cattle, we sent some steers through the OK Steer Feedout program. We made more money off them than we would have if we had taken them to the sale barn. At the "wrap up" program for that group of steers, they had a USDA grader there to talk about YG and QG. It was a learning experience for us all around.

 

[cfpinz]

I haven't tried it yet. The retained ownership program that I've looked into requires a minimum of five animals. I've considered sending a group but haven't bit the bullet. If I wind up with enough red steers that I can't sell straight off the farm I'll look into it more. So far we've sold them to locals wanting an animal to fatten and kill, I'm considering finishing them out here but we'll see.

 

[Diehard40]

Mike C
I fully understand the importance of knowing what you are producing. Have i personally done it? No i haven't, for the most part i just haven't gotten around to doing it, just like a lot of things i should be doing.
From the devil's advocate point.
Why should a lot of these 10 head even up to 100 head producers do retain ownership or get carcass data back. If you are pre-cond or backgrounding your cattle or selling trailer load lots i can see it, but for a lot of these guys selling directly at the sale barn they will never fully see the benefit. Need to be more progressive??? Why hell yeah they do, but most won't for whatever reason. These guys need to be looking for the bulls that are going to put pounds of weaned calf on the ground that will sale at the barn. They don't need to be looking at carcass quality (for their needs not the industries needs).
Trust me i've heard all this from many different producers.
Like i said i see the benefits of retaining ownership, the "pasture to rail" programs and so forth. And will continue to encourage the more progressive guys to go this route. The 70+ yr old farmer with the 365 day calving season, who will be found each week at the stock barn, probably not.

 

[IL Rancher]

We did it with a potload from our herd in 2006. I am hoping to do it again this year but we shall see. It was an eye opener in some regards and pointed to a few things we are going to have to work on.. The Lot we dealt with had a number of folks who would send a small amount every year, mixed sex loads whatever.. Most of theirs were small sized custom feeders...

 

[R.N.Reed]

I have retained ownership on several small groups of steers from a cross section of my herd.No feed efficiency tests have ever been offered even though I started asking about it 15 years ago when the first group was fed out,just got a lot of blank stares.

 

[IL Rancher]

Should have added we got all the information back that we could. We got individual data on ADG and than all the stats on each carcass. The only thing that came back without individual data was Conversion rates and consumption. That data was there for the group as a whole and we did get it. It was interesting and I hope to send a pot every year from now on. I think we need to do a better job prefeed lot..