Fontanelle, IA | cdambacher - 1/23/2026 20:05
Didn’t want to steal jaybird thread, different approach. Does this work?
For us in central IL, fly on or drill cereal rye into corn stalks about Labor Day. If corn harvest is early.
Buy 500 lb feeder calves.
Graze on corn stalks and rye for approx 50-70 days. (Nov-dec)
Will they gain 1.5 lbs a day (could run 2 acres per calf)?
Would have rye and 200 bu corn residue to graze.
End of the year gather and sell 600 pounders.
Can you net $200/ head after:
Fence
Hauling water
Commission
Death loss
I’ll go further for example. Say I’ve got 40 acres, that could do this on, 3 sides are half ass fenced, and could be temp fenced, portable corral, etc,
500 lbs x 20 head x $5/lb=$50,000
Graze for that period will they be at
600 lbs x 20 head x $5/ lb =$60,000
( market drops 10 percent, or death loss= $55,000)
Am I heavy on gain? Using 20 head on 40 acres would be stocked almost half rate if we get a rain and rye in early?
I personally don’t think you can “turn” the calves and turn the profit $$$ you are thinking in the time frame you’re considering. You’re managing their health on a set of potentially mixed herd health managed background cattle - yes - that is where the risk and opportunity comes.
You’re strategy might be correct but your “timing” might be really off.
Cover crop feed highly dependent upon enough rain during corn harvest to get the cover crop germ, establish, and growing. Rye (as said above) won’t get any taller than 3-4 inches in the fall. Biomass above ground won’t be much.
Best cover crop growing fall weather is wet and warm - which means fall weather cycles more (cool/cold to warm) -Which isn’t what is conducive to calf health…. Make absolute sure you have a corral setup /chute /windbreaks/some sort of temp shelter for the to get out of the wind /weather.
5 wts are more $$ per pound than a 6 wts are on most sale days. In my opinion, Selling a 6 wts at same price as a 5 wts later in the fall runs is really “betting on the come”. 2025 into early 2026 is really an anomaloly. For math, I’d figure 6 wts at $30-40 LESS than 5 wts price.
LRP price protection… |
Add on to Jaybird from below about stocker/backgrounder diff approach
