What a difference a week makes and good help!!!

We loaded and unloaded cattle today without a single problem. I should have canned the fellow months ago but I kept hoping he would shape up. Cousin already called me an cried a river because I fired her "baby". Well he is some else's problem now. I am done with him.

I got the settlement sheets form last week. It cost us $25 a head for the last two loads because they arrived after the scheduled window. So 86 x 25 = $2150 To make it even better the shrink on this last two loads was 1.5 point more too. So 86 x 1420 x 1.5 = 1831.8 x $1.39 = $2546.20 So the extra handling and trouble cost us around $4500.

The sorting and extra handling put those cattle under more stress. This will always cause you trouble. The incoming calves are still not up to where the others that came in are. They got hammered by the larger cattle. Larger and Strange too.

I have always tried to handle cattle as gently, quietly and quickly when possible. So when you have troubles it just snowballs. This time of the year with heat and humidity does not help things either. Finding calves you can even PRAY to make anything on right now is hard.

There are few things showing profitability on the farm right now. Farm income is going to be really down for a while now.

If you can't make money this year selling your corn through cattle you need to take a hard look at your business model. 100 pounds of gain = 12 bushels of corn (equivalent) = $48.00, tops. Fat cattle are $1.16 per pound, you should not paying over $1.40 for 550-600 feeders, that leaves a lot of margin for a 1300 pound fat.

LAA Your numbers are not what they are here. 500-600 steers are bringing $1.50-60 here. You will have over that by the time you get them in the yard. Then the cost of production of corn is MY cost not the board price. So what the market price is does not reduce my costs. Also looking at the futures market, cattle are not at $1.16 when current 5-6 weight cattle are ready for market. The price is more $1.05.

Also there is NO way you can gain cattle for $48 a hundred. It is more like $85-95 right now. I figure ALL cost not just the corn.

The cattle going in the yards right now are showing a $60 profit IF they do well. So that is not much on a $1500 dollar animal.

In the last twelve months there has been a ton of money lost on finishing cattle. We have don alright but we did not buy any of the really high priced feeders before that. I know of several lots of cattle that lost $300 per head in the last six months. One fellow put 8 weight cattle in the yard and when he sold them he got $30 less per head then what he gave for the calves. So he lost the feed and yardage.

And this , is why I milk cows.

This is why I sold my calves right off the cow. Buyer walked thru my herd, in an open field cows and calves would approach us. None would run away. Buyer got quiet calves that did not go thru the disease pit which is most sale barns. I was always happy with this arrangement

JD, I did not mean that feed was your only cost but feed should be at least 80% of your cost and it is income when selling your home grown feed through your cattle, not expense, if there is no profit it is due to other expenses or market cycles.

Here Bruce the milk guys are seeing $12-13 dollar milk. Most guys break even is more in the $14-15 dollar range.

Either your dairy friends are BSing you, or milk is worth more east of the Mississippi. We were paid 16.86 last month, and prices are rising.

Many of the pure Holstein herds in this area are running around 3.0-3.2% butterfat and that has been getting them a price barely over $13. I've heard of a farmer or two who was getting under $13 for a month or two. The price did start going up a bit in July and it sounds like it will be up this month also. The $16 range sounds about right for August milk. As JD said, most operations need $14-$15 to break even IF they are maintaining at least 70 lbs. per cow at their lowest point in the production cycle. The Midwest and eastern markets are generally different prices, also.

http://mcclivestock.com/market.htm#081216

Last Friday's auction prices:

STEER CALVES? 325-550 LBS.
Dwight 3 blk 418 @ 203.00
Leonardville 1 blk 325 @ 200.00
Manhattan 1 blk 395 @ 199.00
Auburn 1 blk 350 @ 198.00
Manhattan 3 blk 451 @ 189.00
Alma 1 blk 440 @ 181.00
Frankfort 1 bwf 480 @ 178.00
Dwight 1 blk 350 @ 174.00
Blue Rapids 2 blk 530 @ 170.00
Auburn 3 xbred 536 @ 164.50
Back

FEEDER STEERS? 550-950 LBS.
Alma 9 blk 558 @ 169.00
Auburn 15 mix 598 @ 167.00
Osage City 7 blk 641 @ 163.50
Blue Rapids 11 blk 680 @ 161.50
Alma 6 blk 571 @ 161.50
Alma 27 blk 680 @ 161.00
Frankfort 12 blk 681 @ 160.00
Frankfort 6 blk 580 @ 160.00
Frankfort 10 blk 741 @ 159.75
Auburn 20 mix 726 @ 159.50
Osage City 16 blk 696 @ 158.50
Whiting 36 blk 800 @ 158.85
Flush 8 blk 705 @ 157.00
Alma 20 blk 668 @ 156.00
Valley Falls 17 blk 705 @ 156.00
Blue Rapids 23 blk 780 @ 155.75
Flush 17 blk 787 @ 155.00
Alma 63 blk 778 @ 154.00
Randolph 8 blk 678 @ 153.00
Mayetta 4 blk 701 @ 152.25
Alma 29 blk 782 @ 148.75
Valley Falls 4 blk 813 @ 148.50
Randolph 16 xbred 812 @ 148.00
Onaga 7 blk 805 @ 145.00
Topeka 4 blk 800 @ 140.25
Alma 9 blk 893 @ 137.75
Randolph 4 bwf 951 @ 127.00

Yes, if butterfat is that low you will receive less. We are running a 3.8 fat with all Holsteins, and 100-105 lb tank average. If their fat is as low as they say, there are other issues to be dealt with.

We are milking all Jersey cows , and our fat test is 5.05 , protein is 3.98. Some will argue they can make more $$ shipping a higher volume of milk with a low fat test, I tell them , " go ahead" . I will go to their auction sale, no hard feelings from my side.