Price gouging vs profit opportunity

[farmerjan]

Good for you to have an area where inputs are so inexpensive. Does not happen in many other areas. You also keep changing the scenario and now list that you lime and such and the owners are paying for it. You do not tell the whole story and then tell everyone else that they are basically stupid for the way they are managing their own places. Can't know "anything about anything" if you only tell part of the story.
And with a 150 cow/calf operation... if we only had an average 75-85% calf crop we would be hurting. We try to run 90% .... and except for a problem with a bull this year that was good and suddenly quit preforming, our preg check rate has been running better than 92%....and we normally only have 1 or 2 that are checked preg that don't deliver a calf.....
I usually will graft a calf on a cow that has a dead one, so normally after buying a replacement calf, the "profit" off that cow might be zero, but I have salvaged the lactation of an otherwise good cow. We average maybe 1 born dead calf every other year...might go 5 years with no born dead calves, then have one or 2. The cows are paying for the mtg on the new farm we bought; plus the fertilizer we so "foolishly" put down on our productive hayfields. We average much more than 1 1/2 to 2 rolls an acre... with our bales running 1,000-1200 lbs... so 2,000 lbs to the acre... FIRST CUTTING.... usually more... then there is 2nd and sometimes third cutting....
With the increased costs of fuel and fertilizer (that we DO believe in, to increase the productivity of the hayfields and the pastures), there will be no hay around here in the $25-30 range....
If you can still find it there, all the more power to you.

But to tell people that they should shoot their cows and bury them with a bull dozer because others methods do not meet your criteria is being childish. This forum is a place where people mostly talk about, complain about, and learn about, others ways of doing things without being subjected to the abusive attitude that you have displayed.

 

[Muletrack]

The cost goes up considerably when a breakdown occurs. How much would the hay cost if you had to replace an injection pump to finish the job?

A lot less than a newer tractor. But you make a good point in favor of buying hay. I can't get by without a loader tractor because I need to move a lot of snow -- the cost of all other tractor work figures into to rebuilding an injection pump. I had to redo one once, on a 4020 which I inherited when I bought my dad's farm. It was 10 years old when he bought it in 1975. Plus, people who run old equipment usually have a spare tractor sitting around. I have baled with my 3020 in an emergency. Worked ok on a 535 baler (except for going up a hill).

 

[Muletrack]

There are several Minnesota locations that hold hay and bedding auctions twice per month. Results are posted on the internet. Auction selling cost is high due to trucking and fees and commission. About $18 to $21 per bale (or $30 per ton) selling cost for local grass hay, and much higher for hay with a couple hundred miles on it. About half the auction hay here currently comes out of the Dakotas or NW MN.

Good grass hay price has dropped to $150/ton at auction, so local on farm price should be about U$S 150-30=120 per ton.

Just made a deal yesterday on some nice, tight, green grassy bales for $75 per bale. Needed a few to finish the season. Had my cows in a local feedlot for 2.5 month this winter -- saved money over buying hay, and didn't have too look at them every day. But it meant weaning early, so had to pay for some creep. Ordinarily I just let my calves suck most of the winter and have a creep hay yard. Another guy here sent his cows to a Nebraska feedlot, but the price he told me was so low I found it incredulous.

 

[smartin0022]

Well we can only talk about the things you've told us about. "don't know anything about anything" seems a bit harsh for a group of people spending their time trying to talk and learn about what other cattle producers are doing.

Well I apologize. It seemed to me callmefence and a few others where trying to posture themselves in a way to make me a liar. So I let it keep going. I reckon I could have done what I should have done and just backed out gracefully but it's not in my nature. Maybe it's the pain medication and the fact I just had a multilevel anterior disectomy with fusion that I had the time and the energy to argue and feel like a few were after me. I have learned on this forum. I have also used my mentors and previous landowner experiences to stop making what I see as mistakes and costing me money. I have failed in many ways along the course. I tried $8,000-10,000 a year fertilizer regimen and it didn't produce for me it almost wiped out my profit and the yields were no better. I couldn't see how it could ever work to pay over $50 a bale. Sounds like my attitude towards it all is poor. I guess my opinion is like an arse hole or an elbow. We all got em. To anyone whom I offended I apologize. It's what works for me the way I do it. I didn't mention the lime because it wasn't asked about and I didn't even think about it i only do it every third year. The landowners pay for that service they get land improvement and don't have to clip their fields burning expensive diesel. They want nice clean fields. One of those farms isn't worth the diesel I burn on it but the relationship with the landowner and the network I get through him makes it profitable in its own right. I digress. Again wasn't trying to offend yall. I got offended but that's my character flaw no one else's. Signing out sometimes the world wide web isn't the place for people like me.

 

[SmokinM]

I'm a hobby farmer and proud of it.

Ken

Thats pretty obvious with the pics of those sorry water buffalo crosses you keep posting pictures of. Just wish they were in driving distance so I could get my hands on one!