MB, Canada | Macttle - 3/3/2021 20:52
That is a good thread, seems the liquidation has taken longer this cycle. Cattle business is good if you have the ability to find value. Too many do what worked for prior generations or what the status quo is.
Also this isn’t farming country, we have flat deep soil ground in native grass. No ones frothing at the bit to pull a plow over sod.
Exactly. The problem isn't that running a cow/calf is inherently unprofitable, it's just that it's near impossible if you're still using the old methods. Doubling the stocking rate of your pasture with reels and poly posts is profitable--putting up 4-strand barb wire fences with posts every 16 feet for continuous grazing is not. Growing crops or pasture with manure and stockpiling it for fall/winter grazing is profitable--harvesting $300/ac input corn and feeding it with a new FWA tractor and mixer wagon is not. As a younger guy, I'm not afraid of the old-school grind if I'm actually going to get paid for it--I pail-fed 180 calves this fall for 2 months and got paid decently for it, but had the market not jumped 10 cents in the meantime it likely would have been a waste of time and calories. I wish this was a business where we could reliably get paid for hard work, but that's just not necessarily the case anymore, and I can't sit around and complain about that or I'll get left in the dust by those who are figuring out how to make a go of it. |
Interesting Cow Calf Operation Post in Market Talk
