Cattlemen (and women) how do you afford to keep your cattle

This is a response to the farming thread. I am a farmer and a cattleman. We keep our cattle going by land we have bought over the years for pasture, (which we are losing a bunch to land lords tearing it up for farming), and by using our own grain to mix feed.

How do you keep going with the high hay, grain, and care costs of your cattle?

T.C.R.,

Like you we are using our own land, I've given up ALL rental properties to the "land hogs". Some of the property we have, has been in the family over 100 years. Doing what I can with the resources I have, like you raising feed on the land we own. Keeping it simple, maintaining older,smaller, less expensive equipment. Fortunately, we are in a 5-mile block, we're evolving to more foot work, literally, (horses and cows can walk just fine). Pickups are being replaced by a 4-wheeler. There are some legal issues on roadways, but around here not to much is said if you stick to business.

Sometimes "significant others" don't understand this "backward" to basics and a simpler life, but it's working for me. I have 3 goals in life, 1. To be debt free! 2. To be debt free! and 3. To be debt free!

"When a man reaches the point in life, that what he wants, and what he needs, become the same. He will be a success!" 

                                                                                    <cowboy>
                                                                                      Lee

Lower your costs!  A cow does not have to be fat all the time.  The industry needs to move more to fleshing abilities (they say they are but I am not seeing it)!  If a cow ate just 1 or 2 lbs less forage in one day that would save us a lot.  Feed your cows only what they NEED.  
We do a lot of swath grazing in Canada.  If we try hard enough-and know what we are doing-we can keep a cow grazing some type of forages for about 9-10 months a year.  Learn how to utilize your cattle as a business and not as those darn animals you have to fork out $$ to feed every day.  Let the cows work for you, you shouldnt have to work for the cows.
Personally our cattle are not often "fat" around our place.  They work for their feed like a bovine should (grazing in large areas).  We dont often keep them in small spaces locked in the yard for the winter.  They stay on 160-320+acres year round.  We keep them healthy, but dont baby them.  They recieve Ivomec once a year, and absolutely NO vaccines.  I know....most of you are just shuttering (sp) right now.  If we dont have to vaccinate them, they arent done.  I understand for those of you who are constantly selling cattle off the farm it is an absolute necessity.  I am just curious how many vaccinations the cattle industry is going to insist our cattle NEED before they become immune-system-less!  We select cattle for structural soundness most of all.  So that we can have cows producing well into their teens.  Bloodlines dont matter too much to us, as long as they look great and have a lot of early growth.  We will not go out our way to spend extra $$ or time finding a bull that has a certain popular bloodline.  With the RA breed, the current particular bull will usually be exciting for a while, and then gets overused by everyone pretty quicly anyhow.  We also select for calving ease so that the stress, and vet bill dont get too high.  
I realize some of these scenarios are difficult to grasp in the show cattle world, but everyone can learn a little something from everyone else.  Every penny counts.....every penny counts.

"Don't mistake efficiency for laziness!"

A good friend of mine, whom many of you know real well, while in the middle of a crisis. Pulled down the tailgate of his pickup, sat down and took a break. Some one anxiously asked him, "Why don't you do something?" His answer, "I"m pondering over what Jesus would do."

                                                                                    <cowboy>

I agree completely, LOWER YOUR COSTS!  I would encourage everyone to subscribe to Pharo Cattle Company's newsletter.  Not everyone would like his type of cattle but he has some very good ideas on your cattle paying for themselves.  Personally, we are working on the rotational grazing and the only animals that get grain on our farm are the show animals.  And that is food that we grind ourselves, ear corn with Gran 4 T-fyer.  Works for us!

buying wet DGS during "fire" sales

finding new marketing avenues for cattle

baling/grazing crop residues

I like this thread...    (thumbsup)

We run 260 cows.
They run pastures from May tll fall then they go out onto cornstalks until late January when they are getting close to calving.
This is the ideal when there is not too much snow.
We feed them from late Jan. until mid May when all danger of snow is past.
Do not creep big-time.
Our cows are working girls.  We A.I. almost all of them once, put in about 60 embryos per year.

To make money with cows you need to get the maximum return out of each cow with creative marketing of the calves.
You need to have as low of cost as possible to maintain the cow but you need to maintain her adequately so she can work for you.
Around here, the cow is likened to a factory...better care you take of the factory, better the return.

One thing we do that we feel is one of the most important is we keep heifers separate from the main cow herd until they have their third calf.  The heifers are maintained alone, the cows that have had their first calf are maintained alone the cows that have had their second calf are maintained alone....the few very old cows that should have gone but are too good to go will probably go with the first calf cows.  All of this insures that the young cows get their share of the feed with minimal stress.

Jenny said:

We run 260 cows.
They run pastures from May tll fall then they go out onto cornstalks until late January when they are getting close to calving.
This is the ideal when there is not too much snow.
We feed them from late Jan. until mid May when all danger of snow is past.
Do not creep big-time.
Our cows are working girls.  We A.I. almost all of them once, put in about 60 embryos per year.

To make money with cows you need to get the maximum return out of each cow with creative marketing of the calves.
You need to have as low of cost as possible to maintain the cow but you need to maintain her adequately so she can work for you.
Around here, the cow is likened to a factory...better care you take of the factory, better the return.

One thing we do that we feel is one of the most important is we keep heifers separate from the main cow herd until they have their third calf.  The heifers are maintained alone, the cows that have had their first calf are maintained alone the cows that have had their second calf are maintained alone....the few very old cows that should have gone but are too good to go will probably go with the first calf cows.  All of this insures that the young cows get their share of the feed with minimal stress.

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Nice post!