Beef Cattle Advice

[greasemonkeyok]

Whoever told you that about one acre per head will work, just might be setting you up to purchase part of your herd at a discount when your grass is all gone.

If you severly over-graze your pasture, it could take 10 years for your grass to recover. Remember, you are in the forage business, and cattle are just the containers that you send your forage to market in.

Talk to these folks:
Cooperative Extension Service

 

[Ted Summey]

I agree with Western. That's a high number of cows for your acreage. You will find the grass will go quickly and you will need to feed hay or other feed. We have a cow/calf operation here mostly run by my BIL with various contributions fom the rest of us. We put up around 1500 bales of hay for the winter for around 25 brood cows. We have a large barn for working the cows and calves for things like worming, dusting for flies, separating sick or injured animals, castrating bull calves etc. We rotate pastures every three or four weeks with four pastures in the rotation - about 100 acres total. My BIL feeds twice daily starting around November and going thru at least March and sometimes into April.

You will probably find that raising the calves to 500 to 700 pounds will be most profitable. That is the point where feed to weight ratio begins to tip the wrong way - they begin to eat more and the price per pound begins to decline. There's more weight with larger animals but you have more invested in feed to get to that weight.

Is your goal to run a cow-calf operation or a feeder type operation? 17 heifers become 32 to 34 animals once they all calve. That's a lot of animals on 16 acres!

 

[Bison]

375lbs is rather light for a weaned beef calf,if they were the bottom ende of the herd good luck on making money on them,..they would make poor replacement heifers for breeding either. Heifer calves for herd replacement purposes should be selected from the top 25% of a herd and not from the bottom 25%/
I think an acre of grass per calf would be plenty with grass to spare till fall.( maybe put a crossfence in so you can rotate.Maby feed them freechoice oats to make them gain faster.
If you want to breed them put a bull in there,saves a lot of hassle and costs

my 2c

 

[jkk]

Carl,
Thanks for your input and advice. I will have to see how things go here for a while and maybe sell off a few of them if the pasture is suffering from excessive grazing. They are a nice group of small calves and are Angus mix, 12 are black, 4 are white, and 1 is red. I will check with my county Ag. office for breeder info.

JKK,

I thought the same thing others posted 16 ac is right for 6-8 head when planning breeding and gives you annual turnover as well of calves and being able to grow them up on your land without a lot of purchased feed. That alone could take a big bite of your profits.

On the AI, depends on your stock, are they angus, or a crossbred like charolais/angus. The AI route is not cheap but feeding, buying and housing a bull is an expense as well - I dont have $$ numbers - i was in this years ago..

The hard part of AI is knowing when they are in estres or ready to be bred, there are signs, but you can read about this or contact a local AI or your Ag extension office and get information on local breeders.

Another option is to "borrow a bull" for a month or two.

 

[Western]

JK, I think if you sell all but maybe 6 this summer, earlier if it gets hot and dry (drought), then think about borrowing/renting a neighbors bull (providing he is proven and throws a nice calf) keep those ladies and sell as cow/ calf pairs, you should do OK. If you can manage to keep your feed bill down, that is key. (not to mention any other things that pop up,,, vet bills, Ivermectin for a couple)

Couple of points from my experience. Dont get yourself caught up in a "homeowners" version of a feed lot, cow buyers get there feed much cheaper per ton than we ever could, which effects your bottom line. Protein or "feed tubs" are usually to get cows to eat ALLOT and generally less agreeable food, the protein is so high, it burns their stomach, so they eat to quench it (not text book, but a nut shell) also always provide plenty of water. White face cows or calves seem to bring more at auction.

There are many ways to do it, your odds will be great thinning you heard as I mentioned in my 1st post,, but it is only an opinion:thumbsup:

 

[PMA]

I cut hay for a guy that has 9 cows on 14 acres and I still cut 65 bales [4x5] on the

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[PMA]

On the 2 pastures.

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[farmgirl19]

Arrange to "borrow" a bull for around 60-70 days. As long as you have pens for working, you can get him back home, when his job is finished. That lets you calve out at about the same time, and haul to market in one trip. Not a bad plan, with the fuel prices. Less expense, and hassle with the bull too.

I did cow/calf for years. Now, I just buy a few calves at the market, and raise them as long as the grass holds out, then look at selling them, or putting one in the freezer. Not for everyone, as being weaned and going through the market is stressful and can lead to illness, but I find, (for me) I stand a better chance of making a few dollars, than trying to carry a herd of cows through, no matter the rain, pasture, etc., conditions.

I'd rather have a pasture undergrazed, that can carry me into the early winter, than one overgrazed that has me putting out hay by the end of summer.

One of my neighbors has 65 acres, and he gets 5 replacement heifers delivered to him every April 1, and hauled off every Nov. 1. Keeps his ag exemption on the land, and has him raising from weaning to market. He got his new 5 yesterday, and they were "bellering" all day and last night too! I love Spring!

 

[texasjohn]

AI...good in theory, impossible to do well in your situation. A bull will ALWAYS be smarter than you about when a heiffer is in standing heat and get the job done faster. Get a bull..cheaper by far in long run. Get bull, fertility test, keep 3 to 4 months, sell bull along with any that you did not observe him breeding because they are not cycling.

With AI, compute costs of:
equipment
classes for you to do it
a chute to do it in
time spent in heat observation, rounding up within 4 hr period, 24/7
figure at very, very best a 50% success each time
figure opportunity cost in months for each failure attempt
personal injuries from handling so many heifers so close and so frequently given your experience and pens

I could go on, but if this doesn't convince you, it'll be an educational experience.

Net is, you won't break even for several years...it's very hard even for large experienced operators who are already all set up. Heifers are the most expensive part of a cow operation...you buy by the lb and sell by the lb...either the heifer or the calf. Weight added has to come from grass and or feed which costs less than it takes to put that lb on. Cheap feed does not come in a bag, bulk feed requires storage facilities and vermin control. Vet bills are greatest on first calf heifers also death loss for calves and heifers. For that sized herd, figure 1 dead heifer, 2 dead calves. A dead animal has a distressingly slow growth rate! The weight you bought, fed and lost has to be offset by the remaining animals growth before you break even.

IMHO, the best strategy is for you to gain experience, grow them up and sell before winter comes and leave the breeding and feeding to the next owner.

If I keep these calves and breed them I would rather AI than have a bull I think. What are the advantages of AI, cost etc.?

 

[KYErik]

As to the AI question- 13 months ago, I paid $125 total for synchronization hormones (I injected them) and the vet to come out and breed one cow. That AI didn't take so I paid another $80 for a local guy with lots of experience come out to do the AI when I saw that she was in heat again. Although I am sure there would be a "group discount" to do them all at once, a bull would likely be much cheaper. Maybe you could board a neighbor's bull for "free" when the heifers get old enough to be bred.