Sell the laggers?

[jdcopkid]

So I’ve got 9 calves, 2 of which spent a significant amount of time sick a few months ago. They have residual coughs and just aren’t performing yet, although they have started to gain weight, they are at least 100 pounds behind their herd buddies. Would you cut your losses and move on from them? Wait a little longer to see if they turn it around a bit? It is the first two little white face calves in the video

 

[chaded]

What is the goal with these calves?

 

[kenny thomas]

If they have a cough still its likely they aren't going to sell very well.

 

[jdcopkid]

What is the goal with these calves?

Bought them to learn the ropes of raising them and learn the finances so I could eventually start making profit some day lol

 

[jdcopkid]

If they have a cough still it’s likely they aren't going to sell very well.

I don’t think the cough is going to go away. They have been to the vet and treated, they don’t have current infections, I think that might have some minor lung damage from when they were so sick. I mean, I don’t know if it’ll heal or not. They are starting to put weight back on.

 

[chaded]

Bought them to learn the ropes of raising them and learn the finances so I could eventually start making profit some day lol

With there being 2, I suspect that neither decision (keep or sell) will make a significant enough impact in the grand scheme of things. Personally I would probably take them when I took the others.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Bought them to learn the ropes of raising them and learn the finances so I could eventually start making profit some day lol

You wanted to expand your knowledge. Finish them with the others. No dropping out of the class.

 

[jdcopkid]

You wanted to expand your knowledge. Finish them with the others. No dropping out of the class.

That was my thought, my dad brought up the idea yesterday and said to get rid of them instead of sinking more money into them so I thought I’d ask some people with more knowledge than myself

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Monetarily your Dad is right. But it will be a fairly inexpensive hands on education, to see how they do. And if they overcome the cough.

 

[Hpacres440p]

That was my thought, my dad brought up the idea yesterday and said to get rid of them instead of sinking more money into them so I thought I'd ask some people with more knowledge than myself

Are you still having to spend extra $$ or are they basically on cruise control now, just slower? If nothing else, you can beef them for home use.

 

[kenny thomas]

Is it possible to grow them some and sell them privately for beef? Some people dont want or can't afford a 1200lb beef to slaughter.

 

[GoWyo]

If they get sick again and die then it gets even more expensive. Consider them to be your tuition and it really doesn't matter what you do with them, but if you keep them around it might be another semester of tuition or maybe you get a slight tuition refund.

 

[Dave]

I usually go with the idea of selling them. And then I usually end up keeping them too long and end up dragging their carcass off to the bone yard. One that looks or acts sick generally sell pretty cheap. However I have noticed that they sell better than dead ones do.

 

[4hfarms]

I had a calf with a cough 2 winters ago. Treated him and ate him a few months later. Filled the freezer with more meat than could have been bought with the sale barn proceeds.
You have time to feed him out 90 days while the meds wear out of his system.
Just a thought...

 

[sunnyblueskies]

Depends. Do you have any kind of winter? How much feed do you have? What are your plans with the other ones? Ship or finish?
We had one like that this year. Was a little on the sick side from small on and never really grew too good. Wasn't going to ship him. But the last few weeks he put on a bit of weight and wasn't 'just' belly. Changed my mind and shipped him.
Unless they are currently sick and were treated recently....... I would ship them. Maybe not with the main bunch, maybe take them in on a separate sale. But keeping them, to see if they improve or not, is a gamble you could lose and be out of that money. Sometimes it works, sometimes they fall over dead. Like @Dave said, dead they don't sell so good.

 

[sunnyblueskies]

I had a calf with a cough 2 winters ago. Treated him and ate him a few months later. Filled the freezer with more meat than could have been bought with the sale barn proceeds.
You have time to feed him out 90 days while the meds wear out of his system.
Just a thought...

We had something similar few years ago. Little calf, didn't do too good. Treated it, find out it's blind, cow just always stuck with it so we didn't notice. Fine. Confined it so it couldn't run off, cow still had access to it whenever she wanted. Bottle fed it a bit too to help out. Plan was to make it to 6 weeks and butcher it for veal.......... worked like a charm......... except it fell over dead at 6 weeks, a few days before it was meant to be butchered.
Sometimes you just can't win.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

@sunnyblueskies is asking the questions that you need to be asking. However, the answer to those questions needed to have been made before you ended up in the situation you are in now. What you needed (past tense) was a plan on how to react to cattle with different health conditions, rate of gain, medical levels, pasture amounts/feed levels, drought conditions, with a PRE-determination of when to pull the trigger and get rid of them. Many (most) producers end up in a situation sooner or later that they need to do something now but have 'hope' that if I go just a little bit longer things will get better. It is very, very hard to make a decision at that point to cut your losses. If you have already made this decision (plan) it is much easier. The problem at that point is having the self-disipline to follow through with the decision that was made at a time when the "pressure" was NOT "on". To keep or not to keep livestock under drought conditions is somewhere this 'action plan' should be developed.

If you have to ask the question here, you yourself probably know what the right answer for you actually is. By asking, you are either looking for verification, on looking for someone to say that you are wrong. What you can't do, is get the answer from someone else and then blame YOUR decision on them when the outcome does not end up what you want it to be. My thought would be, take control while you can and YOU determine what the outcome is going to be, rather than leave it to chance. Then again, maybe you like to gamble. Some people do. I don't.

 

[kenny thomas]

Cattle have been a gamble all my life.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Cattle have been a gamble all my life.

Humm....... you go by Kenny........ You aren't actually Kenny Rogers in disguise, are you?

You have seen me post that I am incapable of actually taking part in the 'ownership' of a herd of livestock and that I have a lot of respect for those that do. This is a major contributor to the why I can't do this.

 

[kenny thomas]

You got to know when to hold them and know when to fold out.
Over the years i have posted several times that i don't do cattle for a living. Good thing some years.
I cleared more money in 20 days of hurricane response than i would with 20 cows year round. I just like keeping cows.