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| I am looking into custom feeding cattle to help generate some income on the farm, but I have little to no experience with it. I am comfortable around the cattle and the day-to-day, but the $ I don't know. I have been talking around locally and it seems like 0.28-0.37/hd/day is the range. Looking for advice as to how that breaks down. Basically, of that price how much should I set aside for supplies, (ie medicine, water, etc.), machinery, fuel, labor wages, feedlot usage, ect.?
Also in this situation I would own the feed. I know most guys mark this up but I don't really get a good answer on how this is done or what is an acceptable/normal mark up?
Trying to make the best educated decision before I make the leap and I appreciate input/advice! |
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East central SD | .50 a day yardage plus feed costs. |
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NE Indiana | We get $1.85 a head per week min. that number can go up if we have good gains. Our last group came in around $2.25 a head per week. We supply labor, facility, equipment, water, and shavings. This is mostly dairy replacements. and some cross steers. |
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| How do you break down that rate though?
IE.
.15 - feedlot usage (Water, facilities, etc.)
.15 - labor wage
.15 - equipment
.45 - total/hd/day |
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| Yardage is going to vary from yard to yard according to how much or little they mark up feed, chute charges etc. The final number that really matters is cost of gain, yardage and feed markup are just puzzle pieces. Your likely going to have to atleast own some of the cattle if I were to guess. It would be a hard sell to get someone to put $100k in your yard if you don’t have any past performance, experience, or skin in the game. |
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| I can appreciate that. It seems like everyone has their own way of doing it.
The question I am really trying to answer is how many cattle do I need to feed to make X dollars for a living. I understand that can fluctuate, but just trying to find a range. |
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Badger State | You'd be better off to go to the salebarn and buy a dozen head to feed yourself for yourself. |
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Iowa | Do you have any yards any feeding equipment?
If answer is no then your in for a long haul. I'd say a nice open yard is going to cost you 400per head space from scratch.
You'll need a reliable loader, a reliable mixer with a nice scale head with printer(more for your customer than you), a good chute and working facilities. Oh plus a spreader or hire someone to spread
All to put maybe 5 to 10 cents in your pocket a day and that's usually not 365 days a year
So let's say you make 10 cents after everything which I wouldn't think you would make that much. If you get a 1000 head for 365 days you'll make 36,500$ then you need to find someone to fill a new feeder with a thousand head.
Unfortunately there isn't a lot of room for new custom guys |
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South West MN | Rick is fudging the numbers. He forgot to throw in free manure!!****
There is no shortage of bunk space in the cattle industry.
You need to find a niche. Make money doing something different then everyone else. They are out there if you pay attention. |
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West central Ohio | CIH Farmer - 9/24/2018 09:25
The question I am really trying to answer is how many cattle do I need to feed to make X dollars for a living. I understand that can fluctuate, but just trying to find a range.
You sound like a crop farmer thinking too hard. If your yard holds 100 head, have 100+ at all times. Hard to make any money with an empty lot and the owner of the cattle won't be too happy when you say "i can't take any right now because I'm taking a 3 week vacation to Florida" |
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NE NEBRASKA | First is do you have connections to find customers or customers lined up? If not you can forget about trying without any experience. The cattle business is kind of like a good old boys network, customers and custom feeders tend to be in it for the long term together (decades)... |
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Southern kansas | +1 do the experience. |
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Beresford, SD | Hahahahaha. |
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Beresford, SD | Custom feeding is breakven.......sit in the house all winter. |
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Breckenridge, MI | We get 40¢/head/day plus feed at a 7.5% mark up (using local elevator price or invoice price). Drugs, vaccine, implants, etc are billed at cost. No chute charge, no bedding charge (already figured into yardage).
I think the better way is to look at your cash flow backwards. Figure out how much you're going to spend a year on equipment, fuel, labor, overhead, and then divide that back over how many "head days" you think you can sell in a year (number of head x number of days on feed). Subtract that from your yardage and figure on making that much.
To make a living custom feeding you're going to need a big feedlot, a long call list of customers, and a few good employees; however even on a small scale it can be nice to help with your cash flow. |
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all over Iowa | Yardage depends on your facilities and what the rates are in your neighborhood. Around "here", typical yardage is 28-32 cents for open yards with concrete aprons and 35-40 cents for confinements. Mark-up is usually 10-15 cents on corn, corn silage is 10X the marked up corn price (at 35% DM) 10% on wet co-products and ground hay, 5% on dry co-products and balancers, $2/head for chute charge. In a way, it doesn't matter how the yardage gets divided up - either you can do it for that or you can't and only you and book keeper can answer that. Regardless of your expenses you can't charge more than the competition, especially when you don't have already have a customer base and a reputation. Which brings up the other challenge - don't bother unless you know you have guys that will place cattle with you. Without any closeouts or cost of gain history to show people you can't do a "build it and they will come" thing. Most guys that are custom feeders started by feeding their own cattle first and then expanded the feedlot to custom feed (more cattle reduces fixed costs per head). Another way to gain customers is to be willing to partner with them on pens of cattle. Good luck. |
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custom feeding cattle
