Mountains Reign Ranch in Peyton, Colorado

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Can a new start beef cattle business be profitable?

  • Yes, if you are not an idiot.

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  • Yes, it isn't that hard.

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    27
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$3.50 is on the low side compared to others in my area. I am not in high populated area. Like I said, I don't feed many 3-5/yr. I only feed out my Sept/Oct born steers because I have plenty of "lots" available for a small group during the summer. Mine have to be out of here by mid October because of all my breeding groups during winter months. So, not only is it economical for me to finish them at 12/13 months old, it is necessary management wise.
To me, 750# carcass is getting on the big side when you are selling halves.
 
What was your cost of gain on those, if you tracked it?
We don't really track it, but I bet it's not as much as you would expect. We raise all our own feed. They get commercial supplement, corn silage, ryelage, and cracked corn. Their April May born calves, weaned around thanksgiving. The strs are probably close to 6wts. Their backgrounding on grass hay, good silage, and 3 lbs cracked corn/ day, and grower supp.

We don't "try" to get primes. It's kinda just started happening. I don't care how big they get I hate selling selects. So as I've culled cows over the years because their str calves don't preform. We have started getting more and more primes with out getting more YG 4s.
 
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Success in the cattle industry starts with a feed plan. Understanding the feed requirements for different classes of cattle, and where this feed will be sourced from, and at what cost is paramount to your success.

What is your current feed plan? How many AUM's are you working with?
 
Success in the cattle industry starts with a feed plan. Understanding the feed requirements for different classes of cattle, and where this feed will be sourced from, and at what cost is paramount to your success.

What is your current feed plan? How many AUM's are you working with?
AUM = Animal Unit Month
Learn something new everyday.
 
We are a small red angus ranch, looking to make a go of it, even though all I hear about the cattle business is that their is no money in it. From feed prices through the roof, pasture unavailable/unaffordable and the meat packers control over pricing, it doesn't sound like a great time to get into this business, but I would love to hear from those that are making it work and what it takes. Because of our small herd size, we are currently planning to keep all cattle through to finish and give a go at farm to table sales. Any and all input is appreciated. Thank you in advance for those willing to weigh in.
Hi! Welcome to the forum. We're doing custom meat sales. Our calves are raised on grass/hay and finished on feed. Taking orders for whole or half. Also, looking at selling to a local specilty meat market close by. With a quality product and customers, we're looking at our first sales this year.
With all that said, the market may be something you want to check out.
 
AUM = Animal Unit Month
Learn something new everyday.
Around here we use AUM calculations quite a bit to figure out stocking rates, lease rates, pasture capacity, etc. In my neighborhood, native upland range requires about 2.5 acres per AUM (should equate to about 1000 lbs of dry matter, but some cows definitely eat more). So, if a pasture is 160 acres, it should have around 64 AUMs of forage on an average year, leaving a decent residual stubble. That pasture could be stocked with 64 pairs for one month or 128 pairs for half a month or 256 pairs for a week. Most of our leases are calculated by the AUM, so we pay for what we use rather than by the acre or whatever other measure is used in other places.
 
Around here we use AUM calculations quite a bit to figure out stocking rates, lease rates, pasture capacity, etc. In my neighborhood, native upland range requires about 2.5 acres per AUM (should equate to about 1000 lbs of dry matter, but some cows definitely eat more). So, if a pasture is 160 acres, it should have around 64 AUMs of forage on an average year, leaving a decent residual stubble. That pasture could be stocked with 64 pairs for one month or 128 pairs for half a month or 256 pairs for a week. Most of our leases are calculated by the AUM, so we pay for what we use rather than by the acre or whatever other measure is used in other places.
160 acres x 0.4 AUM per acre = 64 AUM

I am new to AUM. I agree with the math in your example, but it seems too simple because many cattle weigh over 1000 pounds. Do you account for AUEs (animal unit equivalent)? The average AUE per grazing pair is 1.4 AUE.
64 AUM ÷ 1.4 AUE = 45 pair for 1 month

I can see how leases can be calculated using AUM. Pasture that can produce more forage would bring more money. Seems similar to other leasing methods.
 
160 acres x 0.4 AUM per acre = 64 AUM

I am new to AUM. I agree with the math in your example, but it seems too simple because many cattle weigh over 1000 pounds. Do you account for AUEs (animal unit equivalent)? The average AUE per grazing pair is 1.4 AUE.
64 AUM ÷ 1.4 AUE = 45 pair for 1 month

I can see how leases can be calculated using AUM. Pasture that can produce more forage would bring more money. Seems similar to other leasing methods.
Moses388 - that has been a discussion with BLM and others for a number of years. Historically it was based on a cow that weighs 1000 lbs. Most modern cattle will weigh 1100 to 1400 lbs. that are running on western federal range, so it really comes down to proper grazing management and figuring out how to use the unused forage in those really large pastures. Most BLM and Forest Service permits have utilization or stubble guidelines in "key areas" that the permittee has to meet or face action against their permit. That can get complicated and often results in disagreements between permittees and federal range staff (both the setting of the limitation guidelines and the monitoring results after use).

For my own purposes, I have a pretty good idea what the range will produce as far as pounds of forage per acre on my own ground and my leases to leave a 3" stubble (measuring longest leaf on some two-step transects to get at least 30 or so data points) on native range and 4-5" stubble on seedings (usually intermediate wheat, smooth and meadow brome and some other wheat grasses). We try to hit the seedings early and keep them from heading out as long as we can because the forage declines rapidly after they go to seed while the native range is a lot better production-wise and for proper management after it has a chance to grow and start setting seed.

If you want to get technical, you can do clipping studies on transects from representative areas and dry and weigh the samples to determine the dry matter production of the forage species (do not count non-forage species). Anyway, around my private ground it works out to about 2.5 acres per AUM (with my cows, which are more like 1200-1500 lbs.) and on my leases 30-60 miles away is around 3.0 acres per AUM.
 

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