The 6 month heifers here are not bringing $3.00 a lb... so that is not a true example... they are in the $2.-2.30 range... so at 500 lbs she would be worth... 1200, less the amount of feed ALREADY in her at that point... so not near as big a "value" to sell... even if she is on the cow and sold off at 500 lbs... she then has to "pay for the cost of keeping the cow" first... so you can't add on that to the cost of keeping her to her first calf cost of 1750.... if you keep her, she has not "paid for the cost of keeping the cow" in money, like a steer would...but she still has that value that can be sold...
No thank you... I will not buy bred heifers again... BTDT and have had several bad experiences with them... will take my chances with my own, that I "cherry pick" to keep...
And
@Warren Allison , you keep preaching about keeping these F1 heifer calves off these couple of cows to build a herd for Zeke... by your own words it would be cheaper to go buy the 20 head you feel he needs; and not breed them AI with more expensive sexed semen, then raise them and breed them and not get a saleable calf off them until 30 months.....
Well the only reason we got them, was Zeke finding and bringing home that stray Jeresy. And no, we didn't think with our heads.. we just felt sorry for Zeke since his traumatic event, and Gail made him happier than he had seemed since that happened to him and Mattie. But, with that Jersey, the best thing we could breed her to to get the most valuable calf was a brahma. and that didn't cost anything. Scott's neighbor with the red Br bull enjoys hunting
our quail and rabbit, behind
our dogs. Just didn't figure on not being able to sell Gail's calf because of Zeke. Even though someone on here
did buy her, and asked Zeke if he would keep it for them.
The Milking Shorthorn and the two 1/2 jerseys were a result, again, of thinking with my heart instead of my head. I would have given both of those people the same amount of money`anyway, but they didn't want to accept charity, and this gave them a way to keep their dignity. Those three are Ai'ed to the grey polled sexed semen Brahma bull Dan has in the tank, and didn't cost me a dime. The G-H, Scott bought at a good price, and we were getting her bred to the neighbor's red Brahma for free too, but turned out she was already bred to a yearling Gyr by accident. But, 4 of them now live with other people, who are going to give us back a half-Brahma heifer at weaning each year. But you are right: For what those 5 costs me, I could have gave him 21 Corr cows, that would have given him $25k to $30k worth of calves (at today's prices) each year, with no work and no inputs. But Mexican raised Corr cows just don't make very good pets! And at the first sign of Zeke losing interest in them, I can sell those 1/2 brahma x 1/2 diary heifers/cows easily. Building him a 23 herd of 1/2 Brahmas is worst case scenario. From now on, he won't see the other 4 each year til they come home weaned and are turned out on pasture And we can sell them each year, and won't have to fool with anything but Gail's heifer each year. And it will go to the pasture with the others at weaning, and when they are breeding age, will be bred to whatever black bulls we are breeding the Corrs too.
Those calves will
definitely be sold each year! We just hope that if we don't feed her, we won't have to put another calf on her each year.
And I don't follow what you are saying about the costs. Scenario 1, you sell the heifer for $1200, and buy a replacement for $2500. You have $1300 in a cow that will give birth in 9 mos, wean a calf to sell in 15 months, has another in 12 mos to wean in 6 more. Two calves sold in 30 months. Scenario 2, you keep her and spend $1750 in 30 month before you have 1 calf to sell? What am I missing in these 2 equations?