Price of calves need to double!

[The Don]

Where are you located (province)?
What weights?
Steer price?
Steers vs heifers price difference?
Cull cow price per pound?
What do you use as a cost of production (roughly)?
Did you make money on that group of cattle for the year?
You kept heifers for the future, you are optimistic!
I am attempting to eliminate the parasitic draw on my wallet by eliminating the cattle. This year I will have dropped about 1/2 the cattle. Next year the remaining.
Lots of questions. Share as much information as you feel comfortable doing.
Thanks
The Don

[WiltonRanch]

Where are you located (province)?
What weights?
Steer price?
Steers vs heifers price difference?
Cull cow price per pound?
What do you use as a cost of production (roughly)?
Did you make money on that group of cattle for the year?
You kept heifers for the future, you are optimistic!
I am attempting to eliminate the parasitic draw on my wallet by eliminating the cattle. This year I will have dropped about 1/2 the cattle. Next year the remaining.
Lots of questions. Share as much information as you feel comfortable doing.
Thanks
The Don

I’ll pm you

[The Don]

I made time and put a pencil to paper to calculate the cost of production for the 2022 calves. The year of drought had a big impact on feed stuff in my operation.
Cows on average ate a bale a month during the winter feeding period. Average bale cost was $81.43 average consumption was 3.5 % of body weight. That included waste and transportation costs for all feed stuffs.
I fed grass hay, corn stover,3 types of green feed, wheat straw and a 14% ration.
I used a bunch of wheat and oat straw for loose housing. There seemed to be a weather event every couple of days so I went through a lot of straw.
Total cost per cow $1897.75 call that $1900
I got a $270 per cow payment for drought assistance.
That dropped the cost of production to $1630.
But it seems the market is capped at about $1400 - $1500 for a 5 weight steer. Consider the heifer price and the picture looks worse. Those numbers are what the industry posts. You never know what you will actually get paid until you have that cheque in your hand.
Biggest drought in... well forever! Costs have doubled or tripled. Interest rates have tripled. Check out the price of tires for that tractor now, if they are available! The price of cattle is up maybe 10%. WTF
Smallest herd since 1988 and cattle numbers dropping like a rock. Statscan keeps pushing out numbers that make no sense to me and are not supported by observations of the world around me. There are a lot less cattle and producers out there. They keep showing producer and cattle numbers in Manitoba increasing?
The encouragement to keep on in the business is to pay 2 or 300 dollars below the cost of production?
I know a bunch of guys are thinking that my cost of production is way too high. They have trained their cows to eat recycled newsprint and mucilage glue left over from the Sunday school... and gain weight doing so! But my cows don't work that way. I'm making payments on the money I lost last year so that interest rate increase is a real concern. Looks like cattle sales won't pay much of that.
This looked like a time when the beef "industry" would stand behind the original producer and they should have. Instead of helping the cow - calf producer by paying a fair price for the product, they are busy deducting their added cost of transportation and feed from the cow - calf producer. Doing that while pocketing the increased profit from the price of meat in the stores.
$70 / hundred weight for cull cows matches what was paid in 1990. Even if you got a dollar a pound consider the inflation rate. That should be $1.65 / pound.
I haven't heard much from any of the groups that get paid to represent the "Producer".
The price of calves needed to double!

[DaneG]

MBP district meetings are happening with elections in odd numbered districts, might be time to get elected and make a difference while getting paid for your time.

[The Don]

I'm in an even number district. Unfortunately.

[The Don]

I should clarify the cost of production number that I posted does not include labour or a profit margin.
I sold the 2022 calves and I'm waiting for the cheque to arrive.
Watching the posted market prices I see there is a huge spread between male and female. The posted prices don't show much incentive to be in the cattle industry. This could be another wasted year.

[The Don]

Well I'm looking at the cheque and no real surprise it's not the prices I needed.
Cost to produce (less labour , profit and I don't have a final number on interest paid on operating) $1,630 per head. Gross income $1,258 per head. A loss of $371 per head. Average weight was 460 pounds. I chose to sell the calves right off the cows. I had vaccinated a bit later and that delayed calving by 2 -3 weeks so the calves were lighter. I chose not to do a vac-45 program it would be a waste of my time and money. The big spread between male and female took a lot away.
So for that block of 50 cows I lost $18,569.
The final tab will increase that loss because there was a shortfall last year that carries forward. Last years $32,500 + this years $18,569. Carrying forward a debt load of $51,069. @ the current 8% interest it will cost $4,085 to service that debt.
I can't afford to be in the cattle business.
One disappointing aspect of this is that in a year where the price of meat has been at record highs they still choose to make an additional profit by underpaying the cow calf producer. They are pushing their source of the product out of the business.
I saw a headline the other day stating that there are 8 billion people on the earth now. They were wondering how they were going to feed them all. As a producer I wonder why the industry doesn't want to pay a fair price for the food I have produced. There are a lot of cow calf producers who have left the business, the number of producers is dropping all the time (contrary to Statscan numbers). It seems to me there was not a shortage of people producing the product just a shortage of people willing to pay a fair price for that product.
Now they will be short of product and the producers.

[DaneG]

The $ spread between steers and heifers is obscene up to .60 on some weights.
The cheapest money you can use is through Manitoba livestock cash advance 0% only a $250 application fee.

[The Don]

Same weight (a one pound difference) 80 cent a pound difference in price . Male vs female.

[The Don]

I listened to Corbet Wall this morning. He has it figured that if you can hang on for another year that you will be swimming in cash. I have bad news for him. It ain't gonna happen.