Tough decision to make, cow/calves or feeders

Dave from MN · Feb 14, 2011

Gotta go with just one, getting to be too much work with both, plus the crops, a family, and a poultry operation. Love having cows and calves around, but I can raise better corn than hay, even picking up 50 acres of pasture, I think I am better off pasturing 400#er's for the summer and fall. Then there is the issue with having to get a bull and deal with him. Not sure what to do. My heifer calve in the next 30 days, cows wont be til late may, early June. Frustrating.

Ralph wd45 · Feb 14, 2011

If you have some good nutritous grass, and we get enough sun, then feeders sure beat taking care of cows. Just plenty of water, and a mineral block! Of course there is always the fall market to consider.

Pair-a-dice farm · Feb 14, 2011

I've been doing both for a few years. I've got 100+- momma cows and usually buy 2-300 feeders a year. Year in year out I usually make more off of the feeders. This year has me nervous because the feeder market around here is getting pretty high but there is still room for some decent profit. I figure I can run at least 2 feeders for every cow/calf and buy steers at around 425-450# and sell them at 800#. However, I've decided to increase my cows and cut back on my feeders because of the 5 year outlook but I usually do the wrong thing :?

tjdub · Feb 14, 2011

The way the corn price is going, it's going to be hard to feed it to feeder calves

Fat cattle price is up, but nowhere near what corn is. Who knows where the prices will go though. They're moving fast right now.

kyhayman · Feb 15, 2011

For me, I like cows and calves. Its a question of what is the most limiting resource in your opertation. To me, labor is more limiting that capital. With cows, I've got a lot of money tied up in long term capital assets (cows). But, other than calving time, they take very little labor. I calve two groups, one spring and one fall. Then I may or may not background my calves.

With feeders, I see a lot of labor demands. Daily feeding, lots of watching for sick ones. It only takes one snotty nose to turn into a train wreck in a week. Then there is the market risk. If I was doing feeders I'd sure not do them in the summer. Historically, the market spread trends negative spring to fall.

I normally sell my fall calved calves at 8-10 months of age, right off the cow. Spring calves I try to carry through the winter on silage, sell the steers and keep the heifers for replacements. Then breed the heifers to calve first in the spring at around 20 months of age. Try to carry them forward to fall for calving again. My spring herd is mostly heifers and old cows that missed the fall season but managed to rebreed '1 more time' into spring.

M Nut · Feb 15, 2011

No advice to offer, but I hope which ever decision you choose, you'll be happy with it.
P.S. 3 calves in the last three days, and seven more that I'm sure will be in this week sometime.

Erik Ks farmer · Feb 15, 2011

I am sticking to cow-calf,just brought in 25 more bred mamas Saturday. I prefer to have the animals on the farm, then if I choose to feed calves I can feed my own. We also calve 1/2 fall and 1/2 spring and that works out pretty well. My goal is after this purchase to raise replacement heifers from my own stock and avoid buying outside animals with the exception of bulls. I don't see that cow-calve is as labor intensive as raising feeders, as a guy can control his work meet his schedule with calving and there is a little more marketing flexibility.

Erik Ks farmer · Feb 15, 2011

Hayman, do you bred the heifers at 20 months or calve them then? Just curious, I tend to lean towards breding them at 18 months.

JDseller · Feb 15, 2011

I have done both. Over the long haul my brood cows make a more consistent return. I have a lot of pasture ground that would go to waste without cattle on it. My cows are much better browsers than feeder calves. Plus feeders take a lot better fence to keep them in.
The feeder calves are a hit and a miss thing, income wise. You can hit a home run if the market is right but you can bust real easy too. Right now I think it would be a bust to try the feeder calf pasturing. There is too few feeder calves to get them bought worth the money.

400-500 lbs feeders are bringing $145 to $165 per hundred around here. That make that calf cost you $675 dollars. Then sell the 800 lbs for $110 per hundred for a gross of $880. Not much of a profit in there for me.

Tough decision to make, cow/calves or feeders

Dave from MN

Well-known Member

Ralph wd45

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Pair-a-dice farm

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tjdub

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kyhayman

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M Nut

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Erik Ks farmer

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Erik Ks farmer

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JDseller

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