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Why wean calves?
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<blockquote data-quote="greybeard" data-source="post: 1711831" data-attributes="member: 18945"><p>Thanks. The death loss is sure something to consider. I'm thinking, depending how many you have total, it wouldn't take but a few to completely wipe out any profit you make considering the buy-in cost and in the case of borrowing that cost against the sale of the yearlings, (+interest) you could get upside down too easy for my risk appetite. </p><p></p><p>The reason I asked, is there was a big push last year by the appraisal district's chief appraiser for the small cow/calf producers to forego that venture and just raise what she termed 'feeders'. She asked me to come in, gave me a bunch of TAMU brochures and articles to read and asked me to submit an opinion of cow/calf versus feeder/background operations. I tried to explain to her, that those calves don't grow on trees, you have to buy them from somewhere and if it's at the salebarn, you are bidding against deep pocket order buyers than can put you in your place pretty quick and for small farms, the death loss meant no profit and you're again upsidedown on the venture. (we were talking about little places with less than 100 acres and the minimum ac requirement here is now 15 acres for cattle. ) If she were successful in converting all or even a big majority of the little cow/calf producers here in the county, where the heck would the calves come from?</p><p></p><p>I don't know what she has against cow/calf but she has certainly harbored a grudge against them for awhile now. I suspect it's because it's such a less initial cost way to get into cattle, meaning fewer people applying for ag exemption.</p><p></p><p>Most of the literature she gave me was written by TAMU extension agents in counties where there is a lot less annual rainfall than we get here in East Texas and they don't have the forage we have. One was out in West Texas in Uvalde, had been raised on a sheep/goat ranch and the other down around Karnes county in South Texas .</p><p></p><p>I called and talked to the one in West Texas and asked why he thought small cow/calf was not good and he flipped when he realized I was in East Texas, explaining when they write those publications, they do it with an eye on the whole state and most of the state gets lots less rain than East Texas does, further saying that "Heck yeah, you guys should be able to do cow/calf easy there in East Texas"</p><p></p><p>Interesting thread, and yall please continue as before my interruption.</p><p></p><p>(I may play with that market report KAstocker posted and try to determine what effect death losses would have on the operation, using the unweaned calves' $147.79 as a buy-in point, but math is sure not one of my strong points)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="greybeard, post: 1711831, member: 18945"] Thanks. The death loss is sure something to consider. I'm thinking, depending how many you have total, it wouldn't take but a few to completely wipe out any profit you make considering the buy-in cost and in the case of borrowing that cost against the sale of the yearlings, (+interest) you could get upside down too easy for my risk appetite. The reason I asked, is there was a big push last year by the appraisal district's chief appraiser for the small cow/calf producers to forego that venture and just raise what she termed 'feeders'. She asked me to come in, gave me a bunch of TAMU brochures and articles to read and asked me to submit an opinion of cow/calf versus feeder/background operations. I tried to explain to her, that those calves don't grow on trees, you have to buy them from somewhere and if it's at the salebarn, you are bidding against deep pocket order buyers than can put you in your place pretty quick and for small farms, the death loss meant no profit and you're again upsidedown on the venture. (we were talking about little places with less than 100 acres and the minimum ac requirement here is now 15 acres for cattle. ) If she were successful in converting all or even a big majority of the little cow/calf producers here in the county, where the heck would the calves come from? I don't know what she has against cow/calf but she has certainly harbored a grudge against them for awhile now. I suspect it's because it's such a less initial cost way to get into cattle, meaning fewer people applying for ag exemption. Most of the literature she gave me was written by TAMU extension agents in counties where there is a lot less annual rainfall than we get here in East Texas and they don't have the forage we have. One was out in West Texas in Uvalde, had been raised on a sheep/goat ranch and the other down around Karnes county in South Texas . I called and talked to the one in West Texas and asked why he thought small cow/calf was not good and he flipped when he realized I was in East Texas, explaining when they write those publications, they do it with an eye on the whole state and most of the state gets lots less rain than East Texas does, further saying that "Heck yeah, you guys should be able to do cow/calf easy there in East Texas" Interesting thread, and yall please continue as before my interruption. (I may play with that market report KAstocker posted and try to determine what effect death losses would have on the operation, using the unweaned calves' $147.79 as a buy-in point, but math is sure not one of my strong points) [/QUOTE]
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