Jim - 4/24/2025 16:45

What windfall? I sold down through 2023 and 2024 due to some health issues, now resolved. Certainly not a windfall. I sold some good young and middle age cows at the wrong time and wrong sale for $1200 or so.

So I'm now building back by saving heifers. But every time you save a heifer calf you take her out of the market, so no income from that cow this year. The retained  heifer doesn't have a calf until her second birthday and it's about another year before that calf is saleable. 3+ years of expenses before any income from a retained heifer calf.

A lot of talk about how cattle prices will collapse, like "$7 corn". But corn production can go up and down in a heartbeat compared to domestic beef cattle. Yet demand is strong  and growing for good US beef.