Replacements...Raise or Buy

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

I went to a replacement heifer sale here while back. Minimum price was 1350.00 a head for 2 months bred 2 yr olds. I can't put an exact amount on what it costs us to raise a replacement heifer to the age of 2 years, but it's no where near 1350.00!!! We usually only feed hay in the winter,(November thru the end of February) and cubes when it's super cold. Yes there's the cost of vaccinations for 2 years, but again, that's very little. And I agree with soapweed. Them that are home raised know your ways of working them, they are calmer in the pens, and pasture as well. One of these days I'm gonna put a pencil to all this, now that I'm not working out in the public anylonger, and our herd has turned more from a hobby to a full time job for me. But it's minimal, our hay costs are minimal since we bale our own. Our biggest cost is fuel, then fertilizer, then I'd say Vaccinations. Ya'll got me real curious now as to how much it actually costs us to raise a replacement, and how much the older cows cost us to maintaine each year.

 

[sw]

We raise our own, we have bought before, only to be dissappointed in the results. The ones we have bought never perform as well as those that we raise and they never last as long. We end up with cows that are 12 and 13 years old that are raised here that still do very well. The ones we have bought rarely make it to 10, most of them are gone by 6 or 7. I have gotten to where we don't buy bulls either, we get them in a straw or raise them. Go to the sales and see lesser quality for twice what it costs to raise them and I know the history of every one of the cows that the bulls and replacements came from. Just sorted our replacements out last week, sorted by sight then got out the Cowsense report and pulled more of them out based on their mothers history. Anything that had an attitude, a bad udder or horns in their history went to the feedlot. BTW, did this sort with only Corky to help me, if they tried to run over me they made it to the truck for a ride to Soapweeds country!

 

[TSR]

We raise our own and try to raise some good ones for other people. Our bulls are selected on MATERNAL Traits. The steer calves are more or less a BY-PRODUCT; although they really weigh up good in the fall.

We are breeding for a good functional FACTORY.

FH That is what I am trying to do also. When I find a bull that sires good replacement females in my herd I stay with him for quite a while. But as some say, " beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
If I ever get all my cows the way I want them, I think then, I might experiment a little, going more toward a registered, terminal, type of sire, at least on some of my cows. That is one thing I like about ai there's lots of choices out there, especially in the angus breed.

 

[Jinglebob]

Biggest advantage of raising over buying replacements is, when the wrong bull gets in the hiefers, you know about it and will write the date down so as to watch your heifers closer. When you buy them, the guy selling forgets to tell you when the wrong bull got in! :lol:

 

[Soapweed]

The day I dread the most all year is the day we pick our replacement heifers. Ideally, I would like to keep them all til they raise one calf. We just don't have the pasture to do that. So, we use all the tools we can, but selecting replacement heifers at weaningtime is basically a crap shoot.

We have culled our cows really heavy, so the heifers should ALL be good ones. Of course there are always a few that we don't like as well.

Interesting, they had a 4H judging contest in town on Sunday and we were asked to take some yearling heifers in. They wanted 8 for a 'Pick and Cull' contest. (Pick 4 and Cull 4). We had a hard time getting 4 and 4, or at least that was our opinion. We selected a heifer with a high tail head as a 'cull'. The judge picked that heifer as the fanciest heifer in the pen!! Goes to show what one person likes, another does not.

So, it is hard to say whether or not you keep the top 20%. Everyone sees cattle different.

What we do is take out so many, let the buyer take out so many and then we take out another draft, then they do. That seems to work really good when we sell replacement heifers, being fair to all.

You're idea on "the day I dread the most all year" is sure different than mine. :? :???: For my nomination of the "worst day" (actually two days) is when I have to put the hay processor on the bale hauler in the fall, and taking the danged thing off before haying in early summer. I just hate playing mechanic and getting all greasy and mad.

Picking replacement heifers are actually some of the real fun days each fall. We pick them before we wean, while they are still sucking their mothers, and eye-ball both the cow and the calf. If a few wrong decisions are made, its no big deal. The best part about the whole process is that it is all done horseback.

Seriously, if I were you folks with the very high quality of cattle that you produce, I would breed them all. Pick your keeping heifers when you preg check in the fall, and sell the rest. Bred heifers of that caliber would bring a lot of money, and you would have a waiting list year after year. Take them to a sale barn, and they would command a very high price.

Remember, free advice is worth what you pay for it.

 

[Northern Rancher]

I just keep heifers off our most trouble free sound cows-we breed any cows i don't like south devon and feed all the calves out. I breed probably half our heifers every year I guess. I used to have a very good bred heifer business till this whole BSE business.

 

[Maple Leaf Angus]

Speaking of buying replacements, which is worth the most, a package of bred heifers or a package of bred, proven third calvers?

Any word on what the market is for young black and black baldy commercial cows? These girls came from Southern Alberta and landed in my yard on May 20, 2003. Now it's time to move on to other things.

Just bad timing, that's all. :?

 

[Soapweed]

I can't put an exact amount on what it costs us to raise a replacement heifer to the age of 2 years, but it's no where near 1350.00!!!

Ya'll got me real curious now as to how much it actually costs us to raise a replacement, and how much the older cows cost us to maintain each year.

There is hardly any "extra" expense in raising a replacement heifer over just a plain old stocker heifer of the same age. There must be money to be made in keeping a heifer over until they are a year and a half of age, and selling them to go on to a feed lot. Plenty of ranchers do this, year after year, with either home-raised heifers or heifer calves that they have purchased.

Use the same wintering and summering program with "replacement" type heifers, but just turn some cheap light birth-weight bulls with them for the summer breeding season. The right kind of bulls don't cost that much, and they can gain weight all summer while they breed the heifers. These bulls can be sold as "cutting bulls" or make steers out of them. Either way, they will sell well enough that the breeding expense on the heifers can be next to nothing. Preg check the heifers, and the open ones will be just as valuable as if you had intended for them to be open in the first place. The bred heifers can be retained, or sell them for a premium over what feeder heifers of the same weight and quality are worth. You are a winner either way.

 

[Soapweed]

We moved our replacement heifers to a fresh pasture this afternoon. Here are some pictures of "the girls".

Replacement heifers on the move

These girls will make good mommas

They are gentle and easy to handle

Saddletramp and a Sandhills scene

 

[Cal]

With the exception of a couple registered rip-offs my brother and I bought in the '70s for some 4H project, there probably hasn't been a boughten cow on our place for 40 years anyway. Haven't bought any outside bulls for going on 4 years, all AIed.

 

[Denny]

I've always kept every heifer some of my best cows were the little dink heifers so you never really know.You can always sell them later pretty tough to get them back.

 

[Shelly]

We moved our replacement heifers to a fresh pasture this afternoon. Here are some pictures of "the girls".

Replacement heifers on the move

These girls will make good mommas

They are gentle and easy to handle

Saddletramp and a Sandhills scene

We moved our replacement heifers today, too. They weren't quite so cooperative as yours, though. Husband's cousin wanted the bull with them, so I hired a guy to come and round the bull up, and bring him to the corral after we loaded up the heifers. Heifers have never seen a horse before, so they took turns chasing after the horse instead of heading to the corral. So with two people on foot hollering obscenities and the guy on the horse, we finally got them caught and loaded. When we left with the trailers, I sent the guy out looking for the bull because he never stayed with the heifers from the last day the last one was bred. He always wanted to be visiting the neighbour's. Anyways, we were gone half hour max, and when we got back, the bull was in the corral and the guy was sitting having a smoke. I was so amazed and impressed. Anytime we need a feller and a horse, he has a job here! Oh, and BTW, this guy takes problem horses and turns them into good usable horses with alot of time and patience. He works wonders!

 

[Northern Rancher]

Can't imagine the 'premium' a set of heifers bred to bulls that should of been steers would bring. I get alot of customers who've bought heifers from those kind of deals. Shelley what's the name of your hired buckeroo-if you know somebody needs some good young cows-I know where there are some-I'll even tell you what brands to pick lol.

 

[Soapweed]

Can't imagine the 'premium' a set of heifers bred to bulls that should of been steers would bring. I get a lot of customers who've bought heifers from those kind of deals.

The way I look at it, the first calf a heifer has only needs to be born easy, stay alive, and give the heifer practice in being a mother. Look at all the Longhorn bulls that have been bred to heifers for that reason.

It hasn't been too many years ago when nearly all Hereford heifers were calved as three-year-olds, not as two-year-olds. Any live calf a two-year-old had was purely an added bonus.

Guess we all like to make our own adjustments on this low-input ranching concept, eh? :? :???: :shock: :wink:

 

[Faster horses]

That's sure what we like for our heifers, Soapweed. Easy calving, a live calf and the chance for a good breedback since the heifer isn't hurt calving.

And thanks for the compliment by the way. I would really like to keep them all, just as you suggested; but we just don't have the pasture to do that. Now that we sold some cows, we will keep all the heifers this fall and breed them all. The man that bought our cows is interested in some kind of deal where he runs the heifers for us. He seems to be a super guy, so I think we will pursue that thought.

Now days, by watching lineage of cattle, there is no need to use a longhorn bull to get easy calving, IMO.

When we first started in this business, back in the early 60's, the outfit we leased from (share lease) ran 3 year old herefords and we calved them out. That was something else. They were BIG and DUMB. I never saw so many heifers that didn't want to take their calf.

Luckily, they soon started breeding the heifers to calve as two's. Seemed like that sure helped their 'mothering instinct'.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Well I sell breds about 200 bucks over the market so I can afford to breed them to bulls not steers lol. I actually buy a pretty good heifer bull -draw himand then use the crap out of him. We have a standing offer that we'll buy back the heifer calves from our sale heifers at steer price-as yet we haven't been able to get one bought. The heifer calves off our first calvers quite often turn out to be pretty useful cows.

 

[Soapweed]

The heifer calves off our first calvers quite often turn out to be pretty useful cows.

Believe it or not, so do mine. My point is that a person can watch for opportunities, and buy pretty darned good bulls for quite reasonable prices. Fancy registration papers really don't count for much on the dinner plate.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Just thinking here Soapweed-your bull pics look pretty good-how cheap are you getting them bought-maybe your just a better bull shopper than me lol.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Too funny-great minds must of been thinking alike-our postspopped up at the same time lol.

 

[Soapweed]

Most of the bulls I bought this spring cost $1200 delivered in the first week of May (35 head). The bulls I sold last week brought $1200 each (34 head) and two went for $950 each. These sold to a gentleman who will put some feed into them, test them, and either re-sell or lease them to other ranchers.

I did buy seven bulls for $1500 each, and I bought seven others for $1000 each. The $1000 bulls weren't the greatest, but they brought back $885 selling by the pound. The $1500 bulls went on the bull deal, and I only got back $1200 each on them. I still have on hand five yearling red Simmental bulls that cost $1100 each, and are of superb quality. Also there are still three red Simmental two-year-old bulls held over from last year, that cost $1300 each at that time.

Four or five bulls were sold by the pound during the summer for injuries and other reasons, since I am on the "self-insured" bull plan. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Next spring, I will just buy some more good "cheap" commercial bulls. Also, we kept seventeen head of home raised Angus bulls out of some high quality cows I bought. These had January calves, which came during some very nice weather by the way, and are big and stout because of coming early.