Recip Cow Program?

[blackcows1]

Hello all,
I am doing a project for college and am in need of some help from those of you that have Donor Cows and/or buy Embryos.
My scenario in a Recipient Cow Program.
In this program, I run a herd of good mamma cows.  I basically lease the cows to people with Embryos that want them to be implanted.  Thus eliminating the need of recip cows on your farm (so you can support more Donor or just show cows).  You ship me your Eggs, I have them implanted, I KEEP THE COW during the whole process, deliver the calf, and sell the calf back to you upon weaning. 
My Ideas...
    20% premium over market price
    I cover all vet costs and implant fees
    I send the customer 2 bills
          1 at the time of implant; simply covering vet costs (non refundable)
          1 at weaning; for market price of calf + 20% premium
Your Input?
    What would you, as a producer, think about a program like this?
    Are my costs reasonable?
    Guarantees?
    Contract?
    Anything else you can think of?


I appreciate all input and comments
Thank you all in advance   

 

[hamburgman]

I don't know if 20% is enough to justify the time and cost of what you are doing.  There are people on here who do know better than me tho.

 

[Earthmover]

Too bad your scenario isn't real, I would send you 20 eggs tommorow.  Your to cheap. Always have a contract on any deal like this. As frustrating as it is trying to raise and sell club calves I have been contemplating doing what your talking about.

 

[ZNT]

Too bad your scenario isn't real, I would send you 20 eggs tommorow.  Your to cheap. Always have a contract on any deal like this. As frustrating as it is trying to raise and sell club calves I have been contemplating doing what your talking about.

I agree.  Too cheap.  I think you need to be in the $1000-$1200 per weaned calf to really make it worth your time.  Here are a few things that will drive up your costs versus just breeding and calving out your cows yourself.

1. Embryo tech to implant embryos.
2. Drugs for synchonizing your recips.  Can't have a tech out every day to do 2 or 3 at a time.
3. Vet or tech for additional preg checking.  You will want to ultrasound your cows, and rebreed those that missed ASAP.
4. Additional record keeping
5. Less calves per cow production lifetime.  Lower conception rate vs natural breeding equals less total calves per cow you run.
6. Increased vet costs during calving for pulls and c-sections.    Too much invested to risk losing calves, or calving clubby embryo calves.
7. Additioanl feed cost for cows, and creep feed for calves.  Owners have high expectations of the condition of the embryo calves.
8. Additional facility expense to be set up to facilitate the extra handling of the cows and calves.

I think you get the point.  Not cheap to do things right.  Good luck with your project!

 

[justintime]

I had a group of 30 black recip cows that I sold to a neighbour before the end of the year, several years ago, because he found out he was in a serious tax situation . I told him I would keep the cows from him on a lease arrangeent. I got my money out of the cows and also was to get 2/3 of the proceeds from the calves except if the cow had an ET calf, he also got $200 more than what his 1/3 share would have been. This deal seemed to work good for both of us. It saved him a bunch of income tax and it saved me from having my money tied up in 30 cows.

I will agree that your deal is not good enough for you. When I first read your plan, I got pretty excited as I thought I had finally found a great recip herd. Having a recip herd, is just like leasing cows. It has to work for both or it doesn't work. If one person feels unhappy with the deal, then both will be unhappy ... sooner rather than later.

Iam just going into a deal where I will pay $1100 for every weaned ET calf. The recip owner is paying the cost of implanting and creep feeding the calves. I am paying $1100 at weaning. There may be better deals out there, but I am at a place where I do not want to have a pile of recips to look after any more. I will have some but this allows me to still produce calves and I can still market them.

 

[blackcows1]

We have a lot of donor cows and absolutely no room for recips.  i know many people are desperate to get eggs in cows.  does anyone know how much it costs to implant the egg??

 

[texas111]

To get a good idea on your project youshuld contact an embryologist in your area.  They will be able tl give you a good idea about how much you expenses will be throughout the process.  I think yur original ide4a is great but you are cutting yourself out of a profit.  I would think that this idea of yours would be great for some producers but not all.  Get a good idea of expense from your local embrylogist.  Good luck!!!  We need more folks like you out there to think outside the box.

 

[Jenny]

we run some receipts for one customer.
they pay all costs of implantation, furnish embryos.
we take care of the cows just like our own.
we pay calving vet bills if there are any.
what we get at weaning is variable depending when they get out and pick them
up....ranges from $950 to $1000.

one hidden loss of putting in embryos that drives me nuts is you get a
few that become pg for about 45 days, then sluff the embryo, so you have
set the cow back at least 60 days before she comes back into heat to be
rebred.
that is probably the loss that drives me the most crazy.

 

[hamburgman]

That is why well managed dairies do a 60 day preg check after the 28-35 day preg check.  Seems to be always around 5% that come back open, especially in the heat.