grass cattle

[kato]

That's exactly what my brother in law did. Now he spends his winters in Texas or Arizona.

It wasn't too many years ago that in our immediate neighbourhood (within 10 miles), you could put your hands on anywhere from one to two thousand backgrounded calves every spring. This was between 8 producers.

We are the only ones left. The rest are either broke or retired. All their land has been bought by two or three grain farmers.

[cswilson]

I just never could afford not to finish my calves-I've only sold a few topp drafts over the years they've never dollared out like the ones we've fed. Never raised fancy cattle but they seem to feed well.

[cowman]

Sometimes I've made money...and sometimes I've probably lost? Depends how you figure it?
In the last several years I've got this attitude of "Hey I'm not going to get screwed!" and actually have usually done fairly well by backgrounding/grassing!I like to think I don't work for nothing!
I especially never did like getting screwed on heifers! Now I know steers gain a lot better than heifers but I do believe by feeding heifers tough and throwing them out on grass I can make a good dollar? It is amazing how the old price difference shrinks between heifers and steers when they hit that 900 lb. mark?...and I believe I can get them there fairly cheap?
You know I walk into Safeway and I sure don't see any "heifer beef" or "steer beef" on the package?
I realize if I'm pounding the grain to cattle the steer will do a lot better than the heifer...but it sure as hell doesn't warrant no 15 cent discount in the fall...at least not if you are feeding them to go on grass!
I always said it sure is amazing how heifers and steers can shrink up that difference by the next fall? And also it sure is amazing how that hereford steer nobody wanted as a calf is just as worth as much as the char/cross at one year of age!

[PureCountry]

Just read through this "War & Peace" novel you boys put together, and must say it's pretty good reading. All I can say for us, is that we keep our eyes, ears, and MINDS open, through the whole process of developing our calves, so that if a chance for more profit rears it's head, we can jump on it. If a buyer makes an offer when they're 6 months old and still on Momma, then they might get sold. If that offer comes in March when they're on bale-grazing with Momma, they may get sold then. It's all aobut profit.