Would this work?

[cowman]

Say 25 lbs. of straw at 3.5 cents and 12 lbs.whole corn at .08 cents? Comes to $1.84/day. Times 240 days= $441.60/cow.
Pretty steep but a lot better than hay at $.10/lb. or barley at $.085 plus rolling.
Three years ago I fed my cows for $106 each(mind you they grazed til Christmas and were back out on grass by the end of April!) Steer calves(672 lbs.after a 3% shrink) brought $1.36 for a total of over $900 each. What will calves be this year? $1.20? hopefully? Vold says we will see $1 calves this Oct. Not very pretty, is it?
Now if you consider that a 1400 lb. cow brings $.52/lb. she is worth $728. It might just pay to put that $441 into her! If it rains next spring and the drought is broken there could be a big demand for cow/calf pairs. A lot of people would have to buy back in or take a real screwing on taxes. If you have $1170 in her come spring and cow/calf pairs go up you are going to make some money. But if you get the feed bill up in that $800 range you've got over $1500 in her and you probably will take a loss.

[paladin]

That's the premise we're working on. We're figuring about $450/hd to feed this winter as we are fortunate and should still have pasture until the end of October and have pared our rations down to the least cost (that we can estimate at this point). As we are not in a wind-down situation we figure the cost to get back into them at the same quality level might be a wee bit pricey in the spring.

[leland]

Good common sense cowman. You would just have to add a winter range mineral with rumensin for an extra 8 cents a day to make the ration work.

[leland]

cowman, I don't know where you live but in our area where is next to nothing for straw, so it would have to be hauled in. You calculated the cost of straw/hauling in another column which is closer to what would be our cost. The straw for us would be closer to.05lb.(pretty high for 1-2 % protein filler) Taking your calculation our costs would be 2.21 per day plus mineral. Then what about the cost of feeding it? Then there is calving time. The Rimbey/Rocky area had one of the worst calving springs never last year. Many lost lots of calves from scours even with their cows scour guarded.(and lots of working hours) The Vet clinics were overflowing, and the costs were very high. So now the cow isn't quite so cheep to keep any more. In every business it is the hidden costs or forgotten costs that can get a person in trouble.
How much do you think the banks/breeders co-ops will lend to a producers to buy cows next year ? Right now they are kind of capped at $1250.00.
What is happening to our beginner farmers who have money out on land,cattle,and machinery? No matter how small the amount might be. There is no doubt in my mind that farming is an extremely tough business to be in.

[leland]

Also if you have to borrow any amount for feed (as was suggested in other column) then you have the cost of borrowing as well. This has to be added to the cost of keeping the cow. Also what about the feed cost or buying cost for the bulls ? The cows have to absorb that cost because hopefully their calf will help pay for the feed the bull ate.(and they cost more than a cow to feed) There are lots of things to think about. The feed availability in your own area will play a huge part on whether or not in is viable to keep that cow.
WHO needs to go to Vegas to Gamble? !!!!