Maximizing Profits

[Sduncan]

I was just wondering what you all do, if anything, with your heifers to maximize their profits other than just calving them out and selling the calves?

 

[LCP]

Minimize inputs.
I have my first crop of Wagyu-sired calves at side this summer. In addition to calving ease, the bull cost was less and the company I leased them from will pay 10% premium over the market to buy them back. We'll see how it goes. But it seems like a way to cut cost and increase revenue on heifers anyway.

 

[Denny]

Feed them very well as bred heifers all the way thru to grass. We breed them angus to calve a month before the cows start. I may wean their calves in mid September but most likely not they are all fat as seals right now so why bother. No sense making more chores.

 

[RSL]

We are not the greatest marketers, but we AI a lot of extra heifers and turn bulls out right away. Any opens are then sold as grass finished beef for a significant premium. We rarely sell bred heifers. Usually extra breds will enter the cowherd and we will extra trim the older cows, or expand (the last few years). We have also started using sexed semen to AI the heifers as we can pick what we want. Using heifer semen on the heifers results in a drop of 5 or so pounds of birthweight and gets us more replacements out of our genetically superior females. It also means we have to sell fewer smaller calves from heifers and instead can market heavier calves from the mature cows, and still end up in the same place for inventory.