Does anybody see any overall cow herd expansion

[smcgrath76]

My previous post may have sounded
pessimistic, and it was not intended
that way. It was more a case of I can
readily see why you would not expand the
cowherd. As for the grain farming
investment, most grain farms are already
parts of the arms race and their
equipment can readily handle more acres
(making it cheaper for the whole farm).
The addition of cows requires more
capital, not less.
Grain farming is riskier but the risk
management products are also a lot
better in my estimation.
For those that know me I am generally
always an optimist and we continue to
work on cowherd expansion and
improvement. We have taken some licks
the last few years on different
ventures, but our costs today are at
least 50% lower than they were in 2003,
our cow herd is bigger, and the overall
quality is better. We are also starting
more diversification out of the
commodity marketplace. Things are
pretty exciting in the beef business
around here.

[ProFarmer]

S76 where are you getting your fuel,electricity,machinery,land tax,rent,labor,insurance,vet supplies, cheaper than they were 10 years ago???

[Cattleman]

Profarmer, the amount of fuel, electricity, machinary, and labour used PER cow, should all be down today compared to 10 years ago in order to maintain margins.

I think the cow herd will expand, but at a slower rate than the prices suggest, due to all the reasons mentioned above. We have land to put more cows back onto.

[Cattleman]

Just to clarify. Where I said "we" I meant our farm.

[smcgrath76]

PF - our cow numbers are up, our fuel use is WAY down, and our vet costs are under control. Our
veterinary costs are primarily vaccine only. These make big differences. 10 years ago we were
probably feeding cows 180 days or more. Now we are closer to 30 or less. We put up all our own feed
for roughly 200 cows and 150 backgrounders, and our fuel bill is right around $50 per cow per year
(backgrounders would be free) (I am expecting lower in 2012 as we didn't push a lot of snow).
We own less than $40,000 in farm equipment and have nearly 0 depreciation as a result. We are also
much more productive as we continually improve our grazing systems. We are typically taking 75 AUGD
off our tame pasture that was seeded 25 years ago, and pulling 160 AUGD on our swath grazing with no
inputs other than cultivation, seed and cutting. This drives our costs WAY down.
Some costs such as electricity are up a bunch (January will be more than our entire winter diesel
bill), but we are working on plans to change that as well. We track our labour, and we currently work
less and net more than we did 10 years ago.
I am not tooting our horn, just saying that we employ a lot of different solutions to problem solving
around here. We share a lot of the same frustrations over costs/value/etc. but we are 100% dedicated
to cost control while still adding value, and we have a family history of being adaptive and fairly
cutting edge. Running faster hasn't worked here very well, so we now try to run smarter and be
creative. We probably spend as much time reading and researching as we do checking cows.

[ASRG]

Your numbers make sense, Sean. You have your ducks in a row....you'll make it.

[SADIE]

Sean--you are certainly cutting edge inthe industry. And after meeting you in Saskatoon (2011)----young and with a young family----you got it made.

Keep it up.

[ASRG]

Sean: Just wondering how you are considering cutting your electricity bill?

[smcgrath76]

ASRG - a couple of things...
1. we are looking at our current
contract and options
2. we are swapping out light bulbs to
CFB and or LED bulbs (seems like a small
thing but it adds up
3. we are looking at alternative ways to
heat waterers
4. we are putting a $100 kijiji door on
our feedroom for the odd days we do have
to start a tractor (Bale grazing saves a
lot of block heater power)
5. we are putting switches on our
automatic yard lights
6. we are actively and aggressively
investigating going off the grid or grid
intertie power (challenge with inter-tie
is we still have to overcome the monthly
service charges)

We use a tool here that I came across in
E-Myth and it really works. If you are
serious about cutting costs, find out
your biggest cost and then declare war.
Combined with asking the "7 whys" the
results have been pretty good (if you
are doing something ask yourself why,
when you answer ask why to your answer.
If you can do that 7 times successively
it is probably a good practice to
continue).

[grassfarmer]

So what does the $100 kijiji door do? I'm curious.