calves on grass

[chaffmeister]

Speaking as a dedicated Scotch drinker, that doesn't count.

I doubt the volume is worth talking about with regards to barley consumtion - also likely all from eastern Canada anyway.

[greybeard]

Last year was my first experience grassing my own steers. Of course, it was a learning experience. Jerryk sums up the important points nicely. I was hopping to see this topic come up, as it will be much more common as we move to bigger herds and grass calving.
I can’t afford to let the calf leave my place with almost half the value left to be earned. If calving in May and selling in the fall, the calf will only be 150 to 180 days old. Worth maybe $600 of a possible $1350 finished value? I need more of the total or a lot more cows. Simply put, cowman’s 150 cow herd at $600 is $90000, but at $1000/ calf it’s $150,000.I think sometimes we try to calclate out cost of gain to the penny, and lose sight of the $60,000.
I agree with Jerryk’s point about having a good set-up to handle and sort. Yearlings seem to be in demand at about 900 lbs. That means sorting off loads into marketable groups. The feedlots won’t pay much for any weight after that as they want to feed for at least 100 days?
Has anyone ever contracted to take some of the price variation out that jerryk mentions?
To any of you feeders, am I correct in assuming you want an 850 to 900 lb calf?

[grassfarmer]

greybeard, not sure if I'm understanding you right. You say you need more than $600 of a possible $1350 finished value, but will taking calves to greater weights achieve greater NET profits? A 550lb steer last October was around $1.35 or $742. An 850lb steer is now @$1.05 or $890. So you need to put 300lbs on for $150 - $.50/lb. Do the feedlots want 900lb versus 500lb calves? They seem to pay equally for them currently. Keeping later born calves through the winter and summer grazing them will reduce your daily cost of gain - but will also screw you on the yardage as you are talking about keeping the animal so much longer to get the same total weight gain.
I don't see how we can "beat the system" within the current thinking - you need to be able to feed cattle cheaper than the feedlots to make any more money. I think the real opportunity is not limiting ourselves to the excellent $1350 value cswilson is getting for fats but rather target the $2000 value that animal becomes when it hits the next rung on the ladder.

[PureCountry]

I agree with quite a few of the points brought up on this one. Next year we're hoping to carry our calves through to grass, since we have extra pasture. We may try leaving them on the cows to get through the winter as cheap as possible, depending on swath-grazing yield and other conditions. With our June calves, they were alot heavier than I expected them to be. With our steers averaging 640lbs the 22nd of February, they'd be 800lbs easily by the time they hit grass in mid-May.

So, it'll be interesting to see what comes of it. Hopefully by the time our next 'batch' is ready, this little Galloway beef enterprise'll be swingin' high.

[PureCountry]

I forgot....I wanted to also say that I'm not really happy with giving my profit potential away either. We averaged $700 for our calves, but that won't happen every year, and neither will the $900 my neighbour got for his 700lb January-born calves when he sold last October. By keeping costs to a BARE minimum, including debt, interest and depreciation on iron, I think we can see a fatter profit margin by retaining ownership through to slaughter.

But, I agree with grassfarmer that there's still more money to be made with retaining ownership through to the plate, be it burger, jerky, steak or Prime rib.

[cowman]

I have always carried the smaller steer calves and all the heifers through and put them out on grass for varying lengths of time. In my experience sometimes you win...and sometimes you lose! You seldom make a lot of money!
Last year it was very profitable...without a doubt...this year I don't think so!
I think the calf that makes me the most money is that big steer calf that comes off momma in the fall, goes on the trailer and is sold! Definitely a lot less work and a lot less risk?
One year I fed a group of char cross heifers through the winter and sold them in late April. They were big and they looked good. I was paid a premium by someone wanting to breed them. Those heifers made me money, without a doubt.

[cswilson]

when the market tanked in 1996 we made oput like bandits on grass cattle-bought a bunch of third cut cattle in june-cleaned them up and went to grass with them-we doubled our money on some of them in 85 days. There's been alot of ranches paid for in my country on grass cattle-that four months on grass can heal alot of wounds from bad management.

[cowman]

The problem I see with grass cattle is quite often, come spring they are so darned expensive, you have to wonder if you can make a dollar on them?
Maybe a better solution for someone just getting started would be to custom graze some? Some of these big outfits,like Weiller and Williams, are always looking to put out steers on grass? I would think you'd want to be real clear on the terms of weighing and shrink as well as vet costs and losses?
I know of a family east of Red Deer who sold the cows and just custom grazes steers now. They seem to think they do a lot better with this than running cows...of course they have also kind of turned the whole thing into a dude ranch too! They get a good cliental who want to play cowboy! They built a chuckwagon and set up campgrounds back in the hills and without a doubt have done well selling the sizzle!

[cswilson]

If your grazing for WW or Neilson's I'd go with a flat charge per day-they sometimes just 'store' cattle on grass and will do you dry if you graze them on a payment for gain deal-I've never had that pleasure but some neighbors have. Breeding heifers on grass works out pretty well-you get the gain plus some value adding if you breed the right kind of heifers.

[gopher]

I appreciated the comments and it did touch on some things that never occured to me. One thing I really noticed is the differences between true ranching and raising cattle on smaller irrigated farms. When people drive by my place and see all these cattle on 4 to 7 acre plots they think this guy is one brick short of a load.In this area (feedlot ally)most good irrigated land is used for silage or alfalfa not grazing cattle although a few are doing it and appear to do well. I did look into renting the place out but after hearing some sad stories I think I'm going to go it alone.Hope you all have a good summer.