community pastures

[cowman]

My neighbor sent 25 cows up to a community pasture in northern Alta. last year. It cost him about $105/cow with the trucking. I believe the pasture supplied the bull. He thought this was a pretty good deal even though the calves weighed a little less.
How many of you have had experience with these pastures? Is this price pretty reasonable?(He trucked these cows about 100 miles). I believe he had a tough time getting into this pasture because in Alberta there is great demand for every blade of grass!

[surespendalot]

How many months did he have the cows on the pasture, and how far did he truck them? Did the cows have lots of good feed, or did they come home on the thin side?

[cowman]

I was a little off on my numbers. It was $21 dollars per month but only for 4 months so should have been $84. I had assumed they were up there 5 months. They went into the pasture near the end of May and out the last week of Oct.
I estimated about 100 miles. The pasture was at Buck Lake and he is south east of Red Deer. They took them in a liner.I think he said $6/cow each way. That cost was included in the $21/month figure(as was the breeding charges).
The cows came home in pretty good shape. Better shape than cows he had on rented pasture out east along the river. The calves never did really well. I guess this community pasture has a lot of bogs and muskeg. The mosquitoes are a problem. Apparently it was not dry up there for most of the grazing season.

[surespendalot]

$21 per month is cheap, but if the calves didn't grow very well then maybe it is expensive. The important thing is how much it costs to put on a pound of weight. My cost from a neighbour is between $30 and $35 per month and I have to supply the bull, salt & mineral, but my calves weigh out at 650 to 700 lbs by the middle of October

[cowman]

The going rate around here is $25/month but I am beginning to suspect that is too cheap. There is a fairly good lttle atricle in the last issue of grain news that suggests pasture rates need to go up.Written by Stan Harder.
In reality $35/month is not at all unreasonable. When you consider the calf is putting on 2.5lb./day at $1.50/lb.!
$35/day works out to slightly more than a buck a day. What did it cost you to keep a cow this winter(and remember a cow without a calf!)? If you say $1/ day you are one hell of an operator!

[surespendalot]

I would think that $2.50 to $3.00 per day would be fairly close.

[cowman]

I sat in at my local mart this morning and cattle were cheap 700 lb. hfr. $1.15/lb. or $805/head. Now if those heifers cost $1.30/lb and they weighed 500 in Oct. =$650. Feed costs for 180 days...Say 8 lbs. of rolled barley=$0.64
10 lbs. hay at $100/ton.=$0.50 and a couple of pounds of straw =$0.04. Throw in a dime for supplements, vitamins,salt and mineral. Total per day $1.28 times 180 days=$230.40. Grand total invested in that heifer is $880.40! Without any yardage, interest or labor(or selling expenses!)!
Now I'm no rocket scientist but this sort of thing just isn't sustainable??
Now consider your cow...$2.50/day to winter her. Say 200 days $500! Pasture her $35/month say for 165 days $192.50. Something has to breed her say $30. Salt and mineral ? Say $7/yr. Little fence upkeep? Say another $7. Vaccinate the calves, cows, ivomec, implants, eartags, occasional help from the vet, preg check? Say another $25? Do you want some interest on your money? Say 6% on $1400=$84. Some cow depreciation? Say $50. Do you like to get paid for working ? say $25/cow. Do you use a tractor or feed truck? Fuel, oil, repairs, license etc. say another $25. Utilities, taxes, land and building insurance= $15

Grand total cost for this cow=$960.50 And that includes no death loss and no profit. Now when I do contract work in the oil patch I like to figure all my costs, add $20/ hr. for my time. 5% for adminstration costs and on top of everything, 15% profit. I think this is pretty standard operating procedure? Now because we love the cows we'll just forget the 5% administration fee! But we still insist on a profit? So we need $960 times 115= $1104/calf! 650 lb. calf needs to sell for close to $1.70/lb. this fall!! If we forego our profit we only need $1.48/lb. Now we all know hfrs. bring about 10 cents less than steers so we are going to need about $1.58/lb. to break even on that steer calf. Do you think this will happen? Can you actually tell me why there is even one cow left alive in western Canada? Have cattlemen become the playboys of the farming world? Right up there with the horse people?

[ianben]

Good to see some real figures, cowman.
This is the way for us all to realise the true value of our products

[surespendalot]

There sure has been a lot of talk around the coffee table here this spring as to if we really want to keep on raising calves at the present costs and returns.I don't think that we have ever gotten better total returns, but with the very expensive inputs, We aren't sure that we are making anything. I know several times this spring I sure have been wondering why I'm bothering calving cows... Then along comes a nice day and the calves go to playing on the hill above the house and we decide to do it another year. # inches of wet snow and another scoured calf and one wonders again. I guess I just keep on farming with my heart rather than my head.

[cowman]

surespendalot: There is the damned problem! We are all suckers for a way of life. Too bad we all didn't have hearts like a banker??

[surespendalot]

Wouldn't it be a rotten world if we did!!! We should enjoy each day as if it were our last. Keep smiling, be happy.

[dfarms11]

I sent my calves there too. My calves came home with more pounds than the ones I have at home, I was quite impressed. The only thing is my first year there, I lost a cow and a calf so that took away a bit of profit.

[surespendalot]

I'll bet that everyone of us has lost a cow or calf right at home at one time or another. Anyone that has livestock will eventually have dead stock.

[jdavis]

I find it quite interesting the different cost of pasturing cows I did not have any water on the pasture last yr but if I did I was asking $1 per day for cowcalf pairs and the neibours all hollered that at that rate there was nothing left for them but I feel itis realy to cheep. But when you compare what grazing lease holders in Alta pays I guess it seem high . The rates are 2.79 in southern alta 1.39 in northern (thats per mo per cow calf) and along with that they are intitled to resource revenue At present in excess of 40 Million $ per yr devided between app 3600 lease holders. And our politicions want to go fight the yankeys over unfair trade practices I think they should level the playing field right here at home . Do any one know what the rates are in other provinces.