Mini cattle are more profitable

[darcelina4]

I've sold some cattle lately. I have a variety of breeds. Our main bull is a registered white beef shorthorn. Our cows are shorthorn, red angus, jersey and jersey crosses, other dairy/beef crosses, some charolais crosses, some other random cattle. I also raised a registered Charolais bull. Our cattle are dog gentle and most are halter broke. We prefer to sell private rather than salebarn but do sell some at the sale. I had a smaller Angus cross cow I bought that then failed to get pregnant that did not bring much at the sale barn. I sold her in may along with a shorthorn steer calf. He weighed 305 and brought $2.77 so $844. Then I sold the bull and got about $1200 for him. Hoping for more but he wasn't big. So some of my cows are mid sized minis. Piggy is a shorthorn/? Blue roan heifer 2 years old and 650 pounds . In April she has a 25 pound white heifer. She didn't make enough milk to raise her so we pulled the calf and bottle raised her. We sold the baby heifer last week. I advertised her for $2000 and sold her in 30 minutes. I had 10 people begging to buy her if that deal fell through. It went through. How is a 60 pound 3 months old calf worth more than a yearling registered charolais bull? So we had thought of selling Piggy but if I can sell a calf off her every year for $2000 as a bottle calf, I will keep her. I'm going to go ahead and sell these other babies that are born to my small cows as bottle babies. No reason to stress the cow raising a calf when I can get more for the baby at a week old than I can get for it at 8 months. What do you all think?

 

[moses388]

Glad somebody is making money. Take advantage of your market while it lasts. I wouldn't think the $2000 calf market will last forever. Dairy x beef cross calves in my area seem to be the rage; I don't understand it.

 

[Travlr]

I've sold some cattle lately. I have a variety of breeds. Our main bull is a registered white beef shorthorn. Our cows are shorthorn, red angus, jersey and jersey crosses, other dairy/beef crosses, some charolais crosses, some other random cattle. I also raised a registered Charolais bull. Our cattle are dog gentle and most are halter broke. We prefer to sell private rather than salebarn but do sell some at the sale. I had a smaller Angus cross cow I bought that then failed to get pregnant that did not bring much at the sale barn. I sold her in may along with a shorthorn steer calf. He weighed 305 and brought $2.77 so $844. Then I sold the bull and got about $1200 for him. Hoping for more but he wasn't big. So some of my cows are mid sized minis. Piggy is a shorthorn/? Blue roan heifer 2 years old and 650 pounds . In April she has a 25 pound white heifer. She didn't make enough milk to raise her so we pulled the calf and bottle raised her. We sold the baby heifer last week. I advertised her for $2000 and sold her in 30 minutes. I had 10 people begging to buy her if that deal fell through. It went through. How is a 60 pound 3 months old calf worth more than a yearling registered charolais bull? So we had thought of selling Piggy but if I can sell a calf off her every year for $2000 as a bottle calf, I will keep her. I'm going to go ahead and sell these other babies that are born to my small cows as bottle babies. No reason to stress the cow raising a calf when I can get more for the baby at a week old than I can get for it at 8 months. What do you all think?

Mini cattle seem to be the new pot belly pigs/designer dogs/miniature horses. I say take advantage of the fad and go for it, but be aware that it will likely be a trend that ends eventually, probably sooner rather than later. Have a back up plan.

 

[Stickney94]

Have a back up plan.

Isn't the back up plan always "hamburger."

 

[J+ Cattle]

Isn't the back up plan always "hamburger."

In the case of mini cattle wouldn't that be more like a slider?

 

[StrojanHerefords]

The idea of selling drop calves to people who don't know livestock is a recipe for disaster. I imagine your customers are city people who want their children to experience "farm" life and having a calf die would be something they are unprepared for. If you are going to do that sell the calves at an old enough age that they can be weaned.
For someone who is small, you need a gimmick and producing healthy mini calves might be a good one. At this point, the market for registered cattle is saturated and people are spending money for the bragging rights of spending so much money for an animal.