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| I did this for a few years. Quit it when the prices just got too high. Have you read any Alan Nation or Gordon Hazard books? You might not agree with everything they say, but you can get some good ideas. What I did was buy 300-400 lb "off coloreds". Rednecks, Herefords, Part Simmentals, Charlais cross, etc, etc, etc. Mostly came from local farmers through a gentleman at the sale barn that I trusted. I coule buy these types of calves for $.30 under the market. Ie, I could buy these cattle at the time in the upper $.70's, then resell them as fats 6 months later and still be in the upper $70's. Only problem was I wasn't doing enough of them. You've really got to watch the spreads if you are buying the cattle. Last fall, a 350 lb calf cost within a few$$ of a 500 lb calf. There's a lot of ways you can get hooked. You generally make your money on the buying end, not the selling end. A company called MLS has a receiving tub that's molasses based and has high levels of A,D,C and E. I always put double the reccomended amount in for double the reccomended time. They are expensive, but I rarely treated a calf as long as I used them.
If I was going to do this on contract, I'd be very wary. Your success will totally depend on the quality of cattle that you get put in. At the same time I was buying and running calves, another young man was taking in like a thousand head at a time on contract. Let's just say he's not in production Ag anymore.
I'd rather do something small with my own money than fail spectacularly.
I also feel that that weight cattle will be better off on grass than in a feedlot. If you have a feedlot, you may as well feed them out yourself. As long as you can put together trailer load lots, you can attract buyers. | |
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backgrounding beef calves
