Running Summer stockers only

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pwilli3

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If I were to run Summer stockers only, not wintering the cattle at all, what would that do to stocking rate? I know it would increase, but how much? I'm afraid of increasing too much because I don't want the available pasture, which is in decent condition, to end up depleted and have no good pasture the next year. If I don't Winter the cattle is it wise to graze the entire pasture leaving nothing for hay?

My plan is to run stockers bought at about 650 in March and sell at about 850 in late August. I only hope to break even on five steers, with two being retained for finishing and three being sold for finishing. I figure this is a decent way to get my feet wet and use the 15 acres I have available free of charge from my in-laws. They have the infra-structure in place, and two horses on the pasture also. Over the last two years the pasture has produced 23 large round bales and 332 small square bales. Three years ago a family friend had 20 hereford pairs that Summered on the pasture, but ate it clean of anything living.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.
 
pwilli3":dd5snqag said:
If I were to run Summer stockers only, not wintering the cattle at all, what would that do to stocking rate? I know it would increase, but how much? I'm afraid of increasing too much because I don't want the available pasture, which is in decent condition, to end up depleted and have no good pasture the next year. If I don't Winter the cattle is it wise to graze the entire pasture leaving nothing for hay?

My plan is to run stockers bought at about 650 in March and sell at about 850 in late August. I only hope to break even on five steers, with two being retained for finishing and three being sold for finishing. I figure this is a decent way to get my feet wet and use the 15 acres I have available free of charge from my in-laws. They have the infra-structure in place, and two horses on the pasture also. Over the last two years the pasture has produced 23 large round bales and 332 small square bales. Three years ago a family friend had 20 hereford pairs that Summered on the pasture, but ate it clean of anything living.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.

Assuming 180 days, 25 pounds of forage per day, large rounds at 1100 lbs per roll, small squares at 75 lbs per bale, that is equal to grazing forage for 11 head for 180 days. A dry summer would lower than number significantly. 5 head would be a good starting point for the first summer, and adjust over the coming years as you get your system down better. Adding 200 pounds per head over this period seems like a reasonable goal to me. What kind of grass do you have? I'll be interested to hear what the more experienced stocker folks on here think of your plan. I may have missed something.
 
Sounds like you will have plenty of grass, even if the forage is not high quality. If the quality is pretty good, 12% or better and you get the rain, then I would add stock. You want to adjust the stocking rate to meet the available forage. Graze enough to keep the grass fresh but not so many that they eat it down. You can increase or decrease stock as the grass determines this. It would be a good idea to divide the pasture for better management.
On 15 acres I would divide into 3 or more pastures. Put the cattle in one and let them eat it down to the desired height (depends on the type forage.) Then move cattle to the next section and repeat. Then the third pasture. If the grass recovers fast enough then you may find you can get 1 cutting of hay off 1 of the pastures or add more stockers. The growing conditions will change throughout the growing season.
 
The only problem I see is that you would being buying at the high of the market and selling at the low.
 
pwilli3":35y4z829 said:
is it wise to graze the entire pasture leaving nothing for hay?

If you leave pasture over the winter and cut it in the spring, the old grass will be raked into the first cutting a month or two later. Hence, my opinion differs from others for this reason. I want to produce the best hay I can and reputation is everything. I have people feeding my first cuttings to horses even tho it is not "horse quality" hay. It is however better hay than what a few other people are selling as horse quality.

You also have to bear in mind the climate I live in. Things are likely different in other climates.
 
I think that most people that run successful stocker operations do it year round. If you are buying and selling on the same days over an extended period of time you are more likely to avoid losses do to market fluctuations.
 
pwilli3":bolpg367 said:
If I were to run Summer stockers only, not wintering the cattle at all, what would that do to stocking rate? I know it would increase, but how much? I'm afraid of increasing too much because I don't want the available pasture, which is in decent condition, to end up depleted and have no good pasture the next year. If I don't Winter the cattle is it wise to graze the entire pasture leaving nothing for hay?

My plan is to run stockers bought at about 650 in March and sell at about 850 in late August. I only hope to break even on five steers, with two being retained for finishing and three being sold for finishing. I figure this is a decent way to get my feet wet and use the 15 acres I have available free of charge from my in-laws. They have the infra-structure in place, and two horses on the pasture also. Over the last two years the pasture has produced 23 large round bales and 332 small square bales. Three years ago a family friend had 20 hereford pairs that Summered on the pasture, but ate it clean of anything living.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.

Are you saying that the pasture produced 23 LRB's per year or 23 LRBs over two years in total? Because if its the first, then 5 steers on 15 acres may not be enough, even if it is just a start. Unless you subdivide the pasture into 15 paddocks (1 paddock/acre), you'll still have lots of forage left over. See I'm guessing 15 acres on decent quality forage can hold ~1 AU/acre or 15 cows with calves per acre. Which means you can have up to 22 head of feeder steers at the most on that amount of land, to utilize all/most of the forage in a grazing season. However, if its the latter (23 LRB's over two years) that cuts down your stocking rate by half, like skyline mentioned.
 
Thanks for all the advice!

Dun, when would be the best times to buy and sell for stockers? Should I look at running them longer for more gain?

Karin, It was 23 LRBs two years ago for the single season. This was the year after the 20 cow/calf pairs grazed it to nubs. This year we harvested the 300 and some odd small square bales. That was with four horses grazing it for half the Summer, and two of the horses there the entire time. I am afraid of how wet those bales were. We tried to get them in between two storms. The bales were weighing in around 70-85 pounds instead of 50-60. We were baling and loading into the wee hours of the morning just to have the rain pass to the North of us. We never got a drop. Luckily the hay didn't burn the barn down. I spent two weeks worrying about that one. Now the mold has me anxious. Time will tell I guess.

It sounds like the pasture has the potential to fulfill my goals of getting my feet wet. If the weather is good I may even be able to stock enough to turn a small profit. Sure would be nice.
 
pwilli3":1zxrp6mx said:
Dun, when would be the best times to buy and sell for stockers? Should I look at running them longer for more gain?

If you buy them right you could probably do a OK, especially since right now light weights are selling for less per cwt then ehavy weights. That isn;t how it usually works. Stockering over the winter would better take advantage of the price cycle, but then you have the winter feeding to contend with. Maybe turning them faster would be a better way to deal with the price situation. But then you would have to start with 6 weights instead of lighter weights. But I persoanlly wouldn;t want to deal with anything other then 5 weights as starters, too much of a possibility of them being too young to take advantage of forage vs milk and possibly more sickness.
I don;t really have the answer, I just threw that out as a possible issue to be looked at. We tried stockering a few times and really made out great the last time. We doidn;ty do it again because the light weight calves had gone nuts pricewise. We're considering retaining all of the calves this year and pasturing them over the winter and selling in the spring, the market just isn;t all that great for selling 6 and low 7 weights right now.
 
Divide your pasture as nova suggested, and look at buying sooner,or keeping longer. You are gonna need the hay, so plan around that. Buying 3250lbs of meat and selling 2550 lbs of meat, monetarily you cant break even, however your meat in the freezer does have value and will taste better. Buy heifers, they will taste just as good ,and give you another option. Buy from a neighbor with good herd health if possible, make a fair deal. Admittedly this has been an exceptional year for us here, fertilized heavy last fall and lots of rain, but I have 12 calves right now on 10 acres and have had 2 cuttings of hay. In my experience 500lbers will do the best for you as far as profit margin goes, it may be different in your area, but your initial purchase price will be your biggest single expense, so buy wisely. Good Luck and keep us informed.
 
pwilli3":12ftn1xt said:
Thanks for all the advice!

Dun, when would be the best times to buy and sell for stockers? Should I look at running them longer for more gain?

Karin, It was 23 LRBs two years ago for the single season. This was the year after the 20 cow/calf pairs grazed it to nubs. This year we harvested the 300 and some odd small square bales. That was with four horses grazing it for half the Summer, and two of the horses there the entire time. I am afraid of how wet those bales were. We tried to get them in between two storms. The bales were weighing in around 70-85 pounds instead of 50-60. We were baling and loading into the wee hours of the morning just to have the rain pass to the North of us. We never got a drop. Luckily the hay didn't burn the barn down. I spent two weeks worrying about that one. Now the mold has me anxious. Time will tell I guess.

It sounds like the pasture has the potential to fulfill my goals of getting my feet wet. If the weather is good I may even be able to stock enough to turn a small profit. Sure would be nice.

Oops, I misunderstood you the first time. I thought you had produced the rounds and squares in a single season. With this clarification, my calcs are cut in half. I would definitely stick with 5 calves the first year and assume that I would have to be buying hay from off the farm if you are going to keep the calves out before the spring greenup or after the grass goes dormant. I would also look into the rotational grazing plan using electric fences to create some paddocks.
 
Another question that comes to mind is what type of grass do you have? You may have sadi but I can;t find it. If it's the typical KY31 fescue, and the way it bounced back from over grazing I'm assuming it is, you really only have about 3 - 3 1/2 months of quality forage. The endophyte goes up and the gains go way down come june. With an abundance of clover or other legume interseeded in the fescue it will help a little, but you still won;t get the gains in June- early september that you will in late march through may. If you can keep it vegetive instead of reproductive you may can stretch it a bit, but as soon as the tmeps start getting into the 80s very often the growth will slow way down. At that point no matter what you do it will set seed. To keep it vegetive as long as possible would either require very intensive grazing managment or clipping. Clipping gets expensive with the cost of fuel today.
It may sound like it, but I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom. Just trying to point out the pitfalls that you may face.
 
skyline":3p2usnra said:
pwilli3":3p2usnra said:
Thanks for all the advice!

Dun, when would be the best times to buy and sell for stockers? Should I look at running them longer for more gain?

Karin, It was 23 LRBs two years ago for the single season. This was the year after the 20 cow/calf pairs grazed it to nubs. This year we harvested the 300 and some odd small square bales. That was with four horses grazing it for half the Summer, and two of the horses there the entire time. I am afraid of how wet those bales were. We tried to get them in between two storms. The bales were weighing in around 70-85 pounds instead of 50-60. We were baling and loading into the wee hours of the morning just to have the rain pass to the North of us. We never got a drop. Luckily the hay didn't burn the barn down. I spent two weeks worrying about that one. Now the mold has me anxious. Time will tell I guess.

It sounds like the pasture has the potential to fulfill my goals of getting my feet wet. If the weather is good I may even be able to stock enough to turn a small profit. Sure would be nice.

Oops, I misunderstood you the first time. I thought you had produced the rounds and squares in a single season. With this clarification, my calcs are cut in half. I would definitely stick with 5 calves the first year and assume that I would have to be buying hay from off the farm if you are going to keep the calves out before the spring greenup or after the grass goes dormant. I would also look into the rotational grazing plan using electric fences to create some paddocks.

So then that means my calculations of 22 steers on 15 acres is cut in half twice. I did the calculations based on an overestimate of forage avialability and estimated lb DM per inch per acre...also an overestimate. My bad. :oops:
 

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