Cow economics

[15444]

Hey cowman, wait a sec. I had a old cow I shipped this spring, grade hereford out of the old herefords, you know small and thick. That cow was 11 years old this spring, and every year she brought home a calf over 600 pounds. Now explain your philosophy to me when that cow weighed in at just a tad over 1000 lbs every fall? Then I also had a big purebred hereford, almost 1700 lbs, brought home a 375 pound calf last fall.
Both cows bred to the same purebred hereford bull. Explain this.

[cowman]

Actually some of those "old style" hereford cows were pretty efficient! When the hereford breed tried to chase the exotics they ruined them. They tried to add frame at the expense of milk and all the traits that made the hereford cow a tough efficient cow. To the point where a straight bred hereford calf is almost a rarity.
The cattle buyers don't want these small framed calves or for that matter small framed cattle. I sat in the mart the other day and the big exotic cows consistently sold for at least 4 cents/lb. more than the smaller cows. I asked one buyer how come. "Simple" he says " It costs the same price to kill a 1600 lb. cow as a 1200 lb. cow, so the 1600 lb. cow is worth a lot more per pound".
The same goes for the big exoticX calf. You push him hard in the feedlot and he's ready to go in a short time while the small framed calf isn't. Less time means a higher turnaround and more money for the feedlot.
When I took my AI course way back in the early eighties I well remember our instructor telling us " If you aren't crossbreeding you either have inherited the farm, have so many oil wells on it that it doesn't matter or just don't like money!" The most efficient thing you can do is crossbreed...preferably an F1 female to a terminal(read that Charlais) bull!

[Bruce14]

Cowman, the question I have is if you think the makeup of the cowherd in the drought area will change when the rains come and people restock their pastures. (Yes the rain will come some time and we will find a way to continue.) Will the buckskin cows whether char or simm cross be replaced with black or red baldies. In my mind and a lot of others the simm/angus cross (either red or black) cow is pretty darn good. If you are buying your replacements, what you use for a terminal sire is up too you. We can debate cow size however it comes down to net dollars per cow exposed during breeding the previous year. How you achieve that will depend on the area and management. Here a little larger sized cow works better due to normally cheaper and more certain feed supply.

[cowman]

Oh I definitely think the Sim/angus cow is pretty close to the ideal cow and I doubt that trend will change much. Basically this is what my cow herd is made up of with a few char/hereford cross cows that were just too good to let go. Those big monster cows were on their way out long before this drought. Now personally I don't consider a 1600 lb. cow a really big cow if she is in decent shape. Now I could starve her down to maybe 1350 if I had to! Go to your local purebred Charlais breeder and you will probably see cows pushing a ton! Pretty hard to keep a Sim/angus cross under 1400 lb. anymore! Angus cattle aren't the little runts they were 20 years ago!
Because I relied quite heavily on AI for my replacements I was getting the quality big bulls and therefore fairly big cows. They worked for me. And I sure like looking at them!