question about the daily market and cows??

88-1175 · Nov 18, 2015

ive been watching the market post,i seen 1 person comment they'll have to feed their calfs all winter.im really clueless about cows,my neighbor had cows that's my knowledge.my ? is doesn't a cow eat a square bale of hay every day ?,neighbor sells hay for 5 dollars a bale.woulnt you be feeding the cow 1 bale per day for 4 months ? based on the cattle price of 128,wouldnt you be feeding it more value of hay than the actual cow is worth ?

RalphWD45 · Nov 18, 2015

Good luck, finding hay at $5.00. Here in western Washington, good grass hay is offered @ $8.00, and that seems to be the lowest. I still have some grass, but keep hay in front of them anyway, as the nutrients of the grass, falls this time of year. I guess you just have to like having cows, and hope for better markets to happen! I reckon I could rent some hay ground, buy a baler, and moco, and go broke that way. Less work to do it my way.

Part Time Pete · Nov 18, 2015

Where I live (Central NY), for beef cows I figure I need 200 45lb bales per year per cow. Roughly a bale per day.
If you get a calf out of her that you can sell the following fall for $800, I might make a little.
I sell my best hay, it's handy to have a few beef animals to feed the stuff that I don't think is good enough to sell. Beef cows will pick through it, eating the good stuff and leaving the weeds
Pete

Case e · Nov 18, 2015

I try to use different things like some free choice corn stalk bales, ground ear corn and will limit feed the hay if that is my most expensive part of the ration. I will also feed some protein, more when its colder and when the hay might not be of as high of quality. I also try to run some stock fields and have some winter grass pasture. I will also plant some rye or wheat to graze in early spring to help out. It all costs, just try to be as cost effective as possible. But remember a content cow that has its nutritional needs met will do better when they calve, nurse and breed back as well as stay home and not go looking for greener pastures!

rrlund · Nov 18, 2015

You can't buy all your feed and come out on these cattle,but anybody who thinks they're gonna get $5 for every bale of hay they put up is a dreamer.
I grow all my own feed,finish every calf that's born here and don't even think about what the feed or the calves are worth. If you do that,you'll be jumping in and out of things and be selling everything when it's at it's lowest point in the cycle. That's why I always say,farmers get in to trouble when they try to make money instead of just trying to make a living.
Get in to one thing,stick with it and ride the highs and lows. It'll all average out.

Here's the results from Monday's local hay auction at the stockyard. That $5.50 stuff was no doubt just a few bales of top of the line third or fourth cutting.

MikeinKy · Nov 18, 2015

I'm in Kentucky and I sell all of my hay for at least $6.00 and wish I had more. I sell some that is not top quality for $5.

keh · Nov 18, 2015

When I had a cow calf little operation I tried to feed a square bale for every 3 cows, at least. This is SC and there was some grazing all winter, depending on the weather. I didn't feed grain. Feeding hay usually started after Thanksgiving, ended around the second week in March. The milage varied in different years.

KEH

RalphWD45 · Nov 18, 2015

Randy shoot me an e mail. I would like to get your address, and send you the latest farm newspaper. It covers Cal, Id, Wa. and Oregon. Sit down, when reading the classified section.

Traditional Farmer · Nov 18, 2015

Thats why people use large round bales hay is much cheaper to put up in large round bales
and cheaper to buy

Andy Martin · Nov 18, 2015

So $128/hundred pounds for an 800# calf would be worth $1,024. If you think the calf will gain 1# per day and you think prices will recover (I don't) then after 100 days the 900# calf would bring the future price. Heavier animals bring less per pound but generally more per head, so today you would expect 900# to bring maybe $1,100. If you have the hay in round bales, maybe 1,200# bales worth $60/bale, that is equivalent to $3/square bale (but you may have stalks, unmarketable hay, or other feed which lowers this cost). Assuming you have to feed hay for 100 days, and assuming that will be $300 in hay, you would be expecting prices to recover to at least $165 to make a profit. That would be for the 900# calf worth $1,485. If you are feeding protein on top of that, then you have to make the protein cost back too. The statement "I may have to keep them" was really "I think I can make more money holding them than selling them now, including all the costs of carrying them over." I'm too stupid to play the market, I wean them and kick them out at the sale barn and take my licks.

wilson ind · Nov 18, 2015

should eat 3 percent of body weight dry matter daily for beef cow. About 1000 lb bale per month on average.

notjustair · Nov 18, 2015

I raise all of my hay and sell what I won't use. I feed about three rounds every three days per pen or pasture when it is snow season. I've done the math and for NEKS I make the most impact if I sell them about 300-350 pounds. Of course, all of my pasture and hay ground I own, so technically it doesn't "cost" me anything to feed them out more. If I put the feed price in as if I would have purchased it I come up with selling them smaller.

I just bought 27 heifers that are about 450 pounds and 8 heifers that are 750. It's time to cull some old cows. I've also got a young bull that needs to learn the ropes. Those 750's will be perfect. I'm not intending on needing to monitor the pocket book on them. I will get my return over the next 8 years in calves.

The guys that are playing cows like the stock market are soon belly up.

Ray IN · Nov 18, 2015

I think the biggest waste of feed is putting out big bales of good hay for dry beef cows. They will flat out eat you out of business if you let them! That plus waste a lot. Does anyone have any experience feeding round bales of corn stalks to dry beef cows, then supplementing with a flake or two of alfalfa per day? Seems to me it would keep the cows full without using up all the good hay. The consumption/digestion of cornstalks will be enhanced by the extra protein from alfalfa.

Bruce from Can. · Nov 18, 2015

I sell the hay that I don't want for my Dairy cows to beef farms @ $35.00 per bale . I let them try to find a profit from it.Never have any trouble selling out , and no death losses either, low risk . Probably same profit .

bteny10 · Nov 18, 2015

I used to have 135 head plus calves an I just dumped out 30 big round bales spread them apart then let them eat they cleaned up good enough to satisfy me ya a lot of waste feeding corn stalks i would think never fed them at all I don't think not much good unless you grind it up

rrlund · Nov 18, 2015

I feed good first cutting round bales in the morning,corn stalks at night in the fall after I wean the calves off. I don't bother to put up more than I can have fed up by Christmas or New Years. Any later than that here in mid Michigan and they're either frozen so solid on the outside that the cows can't even get in to them,of they're going bad on the inside. For feeding for six weeks or so though,ya,they're OK. I don't put them in the round bale feeder,they won't eat enough of it. I let them tear it up,eat what they will and they make a manure pack out of the rest.
One thing I still remember my ag teacher telling us in high school,a cow can starve to death on a full stomach, and I think they could on corn stalks if you tried to feed too many for too long.

rrlund · Nov 18, 2015

I don't know about grinding them. I can chop them in the silage wagon and run them out on the ground,they'll barely touch them. Bale them though and they'll eat probably 75% of the bale. I think they like the whole leaves and husks,but when the stalks are chopped up and blended in,they just turn their noses up and walk away. It's the darndest thing,chop it with the ears on and they'll clean it all up and lick the ground.

bteny10 · Nov 18, 2015

IN 2013 we sold calves some 750 down to 350 I did the sorting but didn't pay attention to the little ones lucky i got all the
little ones were steers got home from the sale an figuring out prices the little ones netted way more than any other calves we
had ya as a general rule you get more for the heavy ones but not that year I would have loved for every calf we had that year
weigh 350 pounds

Pair-a-dice farm · Nov 18, 2015

(quoted from post at 15:36:20 11/18/15) ive been watching the market post,i seen 1 person comment they'll have to feed their calfs all winter.im really clueless about cows,my neighbor had cows that's my knowledge.my ? is doesn't a cow eat a square bale of hay every day ?,neighbor sells hay for 5 dollars a bale.woulnt you be feeding the cow 1 bale per day for 4 months ? based on the cattle price of 128,wouldnt you be feeding it more value of hay than the actual cow is worth ?

In my neck of the woods I figure, on the average, 6 1100# round bales per cow and calf for roughly 120 days. I usually have ryegrass pasture for all but the coldest part of winter. All things considered I have about $40 in each bale. This year I may get by with feeding only 90 days if the snow holds off. The last time I put a pencil to it, I had about $600+ on a 600# calf. I read an article a few days ago the estimated it was $981 per calf. I guess I'm making a little, I ain't rich but I ain't broke either. Cattle ranchers learn early not to count on too many good years.
To answer your question, There are some years when you put more into them than they are worth. That goes with just about any part of farming. But you have to take the bad with the good, plan for the worst and hope for the best. You can't sell out every time the profit looks low, it takes too long to build back up.

tomstractorsandtoys · Nov 19, 2015

We feed hay one day and stalks the next. When we bale stalks for feed we bale the two rows behind the combine that have all the husks and tops in as they make the best feed. We also harvest some hi-moisture corn early in the fall and that makes great feed as well because it has most of the leaves still. We mow with a flail stalk shredder that tears up the stalks better than the bush hog we did to use, so they eat more. Tom

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