grassing steers?

[freewheat]

Scenario: 320 acres of pastureland,
fenced reasonably well with 4 wire barb.
High rainfall area, lots of grass, at
least in the open areas. 130 of the 320
acres open, 190 bush and water/lake.

Grainfarmer wants to throw in some
steers at 500 lbs in the spring.

How many? How much gain in 150 days? Is
there money in it? No one wants to rent
the land, most guys around have been
long out of cattle. Could a guy not make
750 dollar calves into 900 dollar calves
come fall, barring a market collapse?

Should I do it? I asked a similar
question a couple years ago, most
responses were quite negative. Honest
opinions, please...

[grassfarmer]

I think your timing is better this time around - every
indication is cattle prices in the fall will be higher
than they are now. Saying that I absolutely wouldn't
take the risk without having the cattle contracted or
forward priced in the fall. I think there is real
opportunity to buy cattle now but you would have to
keep them and feed them until May. Hard to guess
the carrying capacity without knowing the
area/land/how much grass there is in the bush. If I
was doing it I'd plan on running cattle for about 120
days - sell mid September. If you don't overstock you
should get 1.8-2lbs/ day of gain.

[wlc]

First of all .Where are you located?
Several ways to do this .Daily rate
Per lbs gain .Currently steers can be
contracted for as high as $1.39 @ 900 lbs
del. off grass .You may have to hook
up with someone who has cattle or knows the business .These deals are usually only
as good as the people involved .

[ALLFARMER]

Freewheat what happened to your sheep plan?

[freewheat]

Hey allfarmer. The sheep are a go, but in
the interim, and whilst I build fences,
and grow my flock, I want to maximize my
land useage until such time as I have a
large enough flock size.