Selling on the rail?

[Lon]

I have a question here. So i have been talking to a few people about how i am going to go about once i am started. i know a guy who said he rund his cow calf than retains the calves roughs them threw winter throws them on grass and then sells them when thier ready to go to feed. he said he would personally feed them out all the way through and sell them on the rail but he doesnt want the extra work and sure doesnt want to be farming. Now i am picking up farm ground and pasture ground myself and have been figuring on keeping my calves back as well. here is my question How does it work when a person keeps thier calves all the way threw till they are ready to be either butchered or like he said sold on the rail? i always here poeple say retain your calves than all that dicount for anything that aint black peels right off with the hide. i am going to be starting small with roughly 50 head or so and have been wondering about keeping them all the way threw. guess just hoping anyone with experiance doing this could chime in and teach a guy some things here. things like benefits of doing it the drawbacks of it, what i really want to look for in cattle if i am not going for just the weaning weight lbs for sale barn calves, what i should be planning on growing as far as feed if i was to do this etc etc. thanks in advance for the input its greatly apreciated.

 

[dun]

Feeding claves to a slaughter end point is a science unto its self. You may be money ahead for starters to retain ownership and have a feeder/feedlot finish them

 

[mlazyj]

Personally I wouldn't try to run a cow/calf to finish right out of the gate . I would pick one end or the other and make sure you've got most of the bugs worked out of it before you start jumping into the other . There is so many variables ,I just don't have time to type that much.

 

[Baldie Maker]

If you would like to add value to your cattle participate in value added programs or buy bulls from producers who are part of vertical alliances that can get you a premium for your weaned calves or will help you to retain ownership on your calves but feed them out with cattle sired by their bulls. A great simmental example of this is AGR. If you use their bulls buyers will buy your cattle for a premium because packers want cattle that will cut and hang. I wouldn't feed cattle out on my own property because as others have said it's a science unto it's self. Retaining ownership is a great way to make extra money if you know you have cattle that will perform, yield, and grade; even then it's not a given though.

 

[expensive hobby]

How do you plan on marketing the finished calves? If you are going to keep them then maybe consider going to a seed stock operation. Should be better off money wise, but you will probably need to invest money up front for quality stock if you don't already have it.

 

[Lon]

How do you plan on marketing the finished calves? If you are going to keep them then maybe consider going to a seed stock operation. Should be better off money wise, but you will probably need to invest money up front for quality stock if you don't already have it.

Yeah beings how i am just starting (not new to cattle though i have experiance but can always learn) buying my own cows i would have to get the quality stock for raising seed stock but i have to buy cows either way for that or commercial operation. i could be in the wrong thought process here so someone do tell me if i am, but there are few reasons i dont want to go for seedstock. 1.I do not belive that i know enough to raise a good quailty bull.(i know what i want but that doesnt mean its what someone else does) so i believe there are better people out there for that than me. 2. If starting with only 50 head i figure on seedstock than say 25 bull calves 25 heifers this wouldnt be it cause of loss but just as a easy figure. Out of those 25 bull calves i would think you would probably only save the top 25-50% to keep as bulls. so i have some expensive cows to make steers the same as i would if i went with comercial cows instead of reg. cows but dont have as big a payment with comercial and i dont get the benifit off a cross bred on those momma cows raising steers. and i could be wrong but i would assume every bull and heifer raised will not be of quality that if my name was attached to it i would want sold to people. 3. With the amount of culling on bulls and hiefer calves that dont make the cut to produce a quality breeding stock i dont think 50 head would give me adaquit amount to choose from. 4. I assume that more poeple fail when trying to go into the seed stock business vs. comercial operation.
As far as marketing the calves i figured i would keep all replacement hiefers that i felt were good for building herd. Than my plan was to take the rest after weaning carrying through winter and putting on grass as yearling the next spring until heavy enough to sell. Everything would be sold through sale barn (most stock i know of around here is sold through the barn)while frowing more than likely but am looking at a few different prgrams like straus and the such. This is why i was wondering about feeding them out and selling on the rail like someone was talking about because i figured i keeping as far as putting through grass than might not be all that much longer. My knowledge stops after the yearling are on grass. i know a few guys that wean and feed out over winter than sell to someone who takes them the rest but i dont know alot about that. everyone i ever helped just takes them through on grass if keeping them after weaning.

 

[Lon]

If you would like to add value to your cattle participate in value added programs or buy bulls from producers who are part of vertical alliances that can get you a premium for your weaned calves or will help you to retain ownership on your calves but feed them out with cattle sired by their bulls. A great simmental example of this is AGR. If you use their bulls buyers will buy your cattle for a premium because packers want cattle that will cut and hang. I wouldn't feed cattle out on my own property because as others have said it's a science unto it's self. Retaining ownership is a great way to make extra money if you know you have cattle that will perform, yield, and grade; even then it's not a given though.

Thank you I will look a little more into this.