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NE Iowa | I'm just a small time part time farmer with a cow herd and feed out all my own calves. This run up in prices seems a little different then other cycles but I am still pessimistic that it will last. If you can find existing pasture to rent or have some owned abandoned pasture that needs new fence you can probably buy high priced cows and make it work. If you have a bunch of cornstalks you can graze in the winter then maybe dry-lotting cows could work. Graze rye cover crop April 1st to mid May. Chop rye and double crop to beans makes cheap summer feed. Then cornstalks for fall / winter if the snow doesn't get too deep. If you dry-lotted say 50 pairs in an old farmyard / couple acre pasture the numbers probably work but not sure it will if making payments on a big confinement building for 500 head. Converting marginal cropland to pasture might payout over time but doubt converting 250 bushel corn ground to pasture will work long term. Personally I save the same number of heifers as replacements every year no matter what the price. My cow numbers are higher then they have been in 10 years. If that 15 year old cow comes up bred in the fall it is hard not to say let's giver her another year. That cow that comes up late bred gets to stay. I feed out my own calves so a couple month later calf is not a big deal. Selling a $2200 cull cow and having to buy back a $3800 bred cow isn't worth it just fit a tighter calving window. That cow that gets mean when she calves but is fine 51 weeks out of the year gets another year in this market. If a young cow or heifer loses a calf I will give her another chance. If it cost $1600 to sell a cull and buy a new heifer to replace I will just keep what I have and hope for better outcome next year. A years worth of feed is way less then $1600. | |
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Expansion? Grass or building?
