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How much is your cost to feed a brood cow for a year?
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17821x
Posted 4/16/2014 18:55 (#3820339 - in reply to #3820250)
Subject: RE: How much is your cost to feed a brood cow for a year?


NE Iowa
I'm in NE Iowa and if you can find pasture to rent it usually goes for about $150 a pair for the summer and most years you are doing good to get 150 days of grazing. So that part is $1 a day. When it comes to winter feed my cows get free choice hay and cornstalks. Probably 80% hay and 20% stalks. My cows don't get much stalk grazing, maybe 2 weeks. So I have to feed for 200 days a year. I personally feel it is necessary to value the hay at what you could sell it for. Stock cow hay is down to $80 ton right now in my area but most of the winter it was around $120 per ton. Stocks are maybe worth $50 per ton. So my guess at 80% hay and 20% stocks works out to $106 a ton on average. My big Simmental cows eat 40#/day so that works out to $2.12 per day for the winter. So winter feed to grazing in summer average out over the whole year comes out to $1.57 or so per day on average. That doesn't account for any salt / minerals or any labor / fuel to feed them. I could probably save more money by grinding everything and using higher percentage of stalks and supplementing with by-products. But everything is just fed in a conventional bale rings or a feeder wagon for me. No custom grinding fees or vertical mixer payments and less labor at the price of slightly higher feed costs.

Edited by 17821x 4/16/2014 19:06
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