Feedlots short ?

[Guest]

this Sask party needs to go , we need a new one. strayed too far from the provinces backbone
sadly there are no options for us and they know it . best alternative maybe buffalo party?

[bucket]

Trying to educate myself, how many acres equivalent does it take to feed a 40000 head feedlot?

[burnt]

Trying to educate myself, how many acres equivalent does it take to feed a 40000 head feedlot?

I was trying to figure that out as well this morning.

Would it be accurate to estimate that for every 10,000 hd, the requirement would be about 250,000 lb/day based on 25 lb/hd?

That would be heavier animals.

If so, that's about 3 trailer loads per day? For each 10,000 hd?

I'm just going by what I put into our few finishing animals.

[Retired]

Trying to educate myself, how many acres equivalent does it take to feed a 40000 head feedlot?

About 1.5 acres per animal x a turn around of 2.5 x would be 40000 animals x 1.5 acres = 60,000 x 2.5 turnaround = 150,000 acres to feed a feedlot of 40,000 animals . this is rough off top of head but i think is in ballpark about 6 or 7 townships.

[Sheepwheat]

Anything I can do about my November contract that they won’t take still? I could use a cash injection by now.

[riders2010]

Sorry bud, you just can’t see the big picture. My point isn’t about the funding, it's the fact that when there is simply not enough feed to go around, no amount of money will solve the problem, no matter the timing or the amount.

If you think animal owners are waiting for a handout before they source feed you’re fooling yourself. If it’s not there, it’s not there, no amount of money can fix that problem.

I’m in no way saying they shouldn’t help, or that it shouldn’t be more dollars. I’m just saying there are some things money just can’t fix.

There was lots of feed maybe some miles would
Have been involved but there needed to be some
actual dollars And some foresight involved to acknowledge
The situation. No non livestock producer is going let
Anyone cut their barley or oats for the shit
Price per bushel that crop insurance was at.
If there was a top up lots of acres could have been
Cut.

But our at minister barely wanted to acknowledge
The drought at all. When the feds asked if help
Was needed there was no reply.

This could be a major disaster unfolding.
There are some yo-yo guys around that have
Thin cows at the best of time I doubt those
Animals will fair very good now for sure is another
Issue.

[Blaithin]

1. Maybe they should have their needs filled in August for the following year. physical inputs are to be on site on a grain farm or you are considered an idiot that lacks planning.

I hope you aren’t being serious with this one. You expect feedlots to practically have their own elevator worth of capacity?

A 40,000 head lot of animals on full feed is looking at feeding roughly 363 tonnes of grain a day depending on their rations. 40,000 head on a 125 day full feed program is 45,375 mt of grain needed.

Note that this is not a years worth. Some animals will be done quicker than 125 days, some will be longer.

Feedlots also get jerked around by packers not taking their contracted animals on time. A 400 head pen being delayed a week could cost another 25 tonne of feed. How delayed have packers been the last 12 months?

Anyone that lives near a feedlot knows they’re usually on call for emergency loads when trucker logistics, weekends/holidays and road conditions align and make feed supplies run short. And that’s on good years. This year would be a nightmare. Primarily because they can’t just switch from barley to wheat to corn to wheat to corn to barley because that’s what they could get when they needed grain. They commit to transferring half the lot over to corn and keeping half on barley then they need the corn to show up. They can’t switch back over to barley in 3 days, even if they had enough of it, just because the corn is late. And most lots won’t have much more than a weeks worth of storage space. I know some that will pile grain or bag it in times of surplus and good pricing but even that tends to have a limit for capacity.

[Taiga]

My experience on a normal year is feedlots take trucks between 8am to 4pm. Closed for delivery Sat and Sun. Timed to avoid paying employee overtime, no doubt.
Not very many 40,000 head feedlots.

[Blaithin]

My experience working on feedlots is the staff are there Saturday and Sunday too. Cattle eat on the weekend just as much as the weekdays. Cattle arrive weekends. They depart weekends. It only seems to be grain deliveries that want weekends off. Even my experience with the elevator side of the equation is it generally being the trucking that doesn’t want the work on the weekends.

So cut the amount down. 20,000 head needs to have 22,687 tonnes of storage for 150 days. 10,000 head needs 11,343 tonnes. 5000 needs 5,671… is this a realistic expectation? At what size should a feedlot expect to have storage capacity for a year of grain? And apparently cattle producers should have a years back up too, just in case.

I can think of multiple cases of feedlots in the 10,000-20,000 size range where the owners have multiple lots in this size range bringing their animal capacity to well over 40,000. Just because there’s not 40,000 on a single lot doesn’t mean they don’t have that kind of grain requirements.

[Dirtfarmer1]

Whats feed wheat worth in Alberta now, just wondering.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

And apparently cattle producers should have a years back up too, just in case.

I was under the impression that most dryland/drought prone cattle farmers do ( or did) routinely stockpile a year of more of feed. Straw and grain specifically, or hay if it rains enough.

Around here where rain almost always bails us out, we tend to be more hand to mouth, then get really offended when mother nature doesn't cooperate.

[flea beetle]

Whats feed wheat worth in Alberta now, just wondering.

$11.43/bushel at Richardson Lamont.