@Drose ... we are in a situation that reminds me of you a little bit as far as the building the herd and making it make monetary sense. I am about twice your age and have seen many ups and downs,
You slow down the building to some extent in this type cycle... take some of the profits while still retaining the "best of the best". For years we would sell the steers and keep as many heifers as we could as we went from a small herd of 20, to the numbers we have today. We are not debt free... but the cattle are all paid for. We bought out a friend's herd and his equipment when he was dying from cancer, he set it up so his wife would have income through payments. Interest rate at a small %, and payments manageable to be able to make them and still survive. He has been gone for 10 years, cattle are paid for, equipment is paid for... we leased the farm for about 8 years and she finally sold it to my son. Sadly, it will take another 20 to pay it off... it could have been half paid for already.... but at least the cattle are paying for it. We wanted to buy it right off, but there was family that would not agree to selling and finally the mother said she was done with their BS and sold it. 2 daughter's wanted to keep it and run cattle, but they were totally ill equipped to come up with the money to buy it and had no inclination to do the work that was required to actually get out and "sweat a little" for the day to day work of actually farming.
All that aside.... we kept any and every heifer that was decent, to build the numbers. Bought a group of 20 bred cows when the prices were down even before this friend got sick. Rented and leased a lot of places... made alot of hay on places that were given to us for the making... some good some not so good.
Built our numbers.
When prices were high, we sold more, when prices were low, we kept more.
I understand what
@Caustic Burno is saying, but disagree to the point that keeping heifers that fit my environment is preferable to putting out a huge investment in bought ones... and it is easier to spend a little over time, keeping them, than to go out and buy a group ready to calve and make a return on investment sooner.....but to have a huge outlay of money all at once...and we had grass that we could utilize that didn't cost anything, because we were running animals on land that old farmers needed the tax advantages of land use taxes, and some were just "leased to us" for the "keeping the land open and fences kept up"... so some labor and no actual cash output.
Maybe that is not the way to do it... but sometimes you do not put a monetary price on your labor when you want something.... and what else would you be doing with that labor anyway.... wasting it on other things that would not give you back anything but maybe some momentary enjoyment ????
We do buy and sell some,,,, helps with the write offs and such. Buy some steers to run when there is more grass than we need .
Now that the cycle is in the "high" swing... we are going through and being much more strict in what we want to keep... as in VERY FEW.... several years as the prices were climbing, we kept only 5-8 heifers each year... and they would basically cover what we were culling. Then the herd average age started to get quite a bit older, and we have culled more heavily and the cull prices made that workable. Last year we retained and bred 18, culled a couple non-breeders, rest are due to calve in the spring. Have another 15 or so with the bull now for fall calvers.
We sold every steer weaned this past year while prices were good so needed something to run on some leases, so we kept heifers for that. First time in 20 years that there were heifers run on 2 places. Heifers have a 2 way use... feeders or for replacements. Steers do not have that flexibility.
We went through 28 5-6 wt weaned heifers the other day and sorted off 12... and will go through and sort through another group of about 30+ after the holidays. We have 40 plus calves, heifers and steers, coming off cows, that have been out on pasture since April/May...
We have been in drought status here and yet we have had more grass than most everyone around. We had culled cows and were down about 20 from where we normally were, and it paid off in the better utilization of the grass and with rotational practices. We had a couple of timely rains that got us some early decent hay, although the quantity is down, the quality is up a little.
We had an opportunity to buy some hay at prices we couldn't make it, so we did to be on the safe side and now looks like we will have a surplus.
Money that you would invest, we are investing in the farm in payments... but it is now ours and we cannot "lose it" to another leasing it out from under us.... or it being sold for development. We are making infrastructure improvements, fences that are old and changing some so that there is more flexibility with rotational grazing here. Plus, this is where we do all the "work"... sorting cattle, weaning, all those things.
We buy some some bull calves and such, mostly singles, at discounted prices, and put together groups to sell... do some "backgrounding" ....
We also buy some of these "one and dones".... old bred cows that we can get a calf out of... sometimes get some nice heifers to keep to put back in the herd.... sometimes just add to the calf numbers to make bigger groups to sell... Try to buy them for what the cow is worth as a cull.... and then realize a bit back on her with added weight and condition while she raises a calf for us. We put up some silage to help these "grandma cows" do better with their last chance calves. Right now we can't buy many, as the prices do not make it pencil out. But sometimes, they will be good to run on some pastures for the summer with calves, or get fed some silage in the winter group, to make enough milk to feed calves and have feeders to sell in the spring.
@kenny thomas does some of the same... buys discounted calves and gets them into better shape and puts together some groups and sells them for increased return.
@Dave out west buys the "one and dones"; calves them out, runs them on summer pasture, culls the cows and then has the calf crop to sell after they are weaned and conditioned...
You do what will put back something into the operation.
We will be culling more this year... keeping only the better calves... because we need a certain number to run on pastures... but we want to stay flexible to go with the weather situation. It is nice to have just moved the last group of 30+ cows to the final pasture field to graze... they are fat and sassy, calves look good.
We would maybe keep more of them out on pastures, longer, but some of these leased places are not set up for winter use, cannot get in and out of easily... and feeding at the home farm is easiest and best for winter. There are 2 close pastures that are easy to get in and out of for winter feeding also... they will have cattle from now until May... then will be rested and stockpiled until late fall when we move cattle back off summer grazing.
So, long answer.... only keep the best in these times, cull more heavily, and UNDER UTILIZE the pastures so that you are feeding less and grazing more... take some of that "profit" and then you will have some flexibility if something else comes along that you want to invest in.
I'm still holding the F1s or any thing I can't live with out just because there is always natural attrition but have definitely cut back on just holding groups to see what happens.
