Low-Cost Cow Calf Cattle Farming Strategies (1/4)

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Low-cost cow calf producers persistently earn cash on the high AND on the backside of the 10-year cattle cycle, through the good climate years AND throughout years when the climate is awful.

After which there’s all people else… all of the high-cost cow-calf producers who suppose they’re geniuses when cattle costs are excessive after which flip to blaming the markets, the climate, and nearly all people else besides themselves and their very own cattle farming methods when earnings flip to losses throughout years when cattle costs are low or when the climate is lower than excellent.

What separates the low-cost beef cattle producers from the high-cost cow-calf ranchers?

What methods do low-cost cow-calf ranchers use that enable them to be worthwhile no matter what the markets and the climate are like in any explicit 12 months?

On this four-part article I’ll discover these low-cost cattle farming methods so you’ll be able to be part of that elite group of beef cattle producers that stay worthwhile no matter what the markets and the climate are doing!

Low Price Calving Methods

Most high-cost cow-calf producers merely select their calving date primarily based on when their neighbors calve and whether or not their calving date permits them to promote their calves in the identical 12 months they’re born.

In contrast, low-cost cow-calf producers select their calving date extraordinarily rigorously as a result of they know that calving date impacts extra than simply their beef cattle advertising and marketing technique.

Calving date instantly impacts illness pressures, fertility charges, winter feed necessities, grazing methods, labor necessities, and veterinary prices, simply to call a couple of. And that in flip impacts your value to supply beef. In actual fact, calving date is the cornerstone – the hinge – of low-cost cow-calf manufacturing.

So what calving secret do low-cost cow calf producers know that everybody else is lacking?

It is easy actually. Choose a calving date that enables calves to be born when the climate is heat and dry, illness pressures are lowest, and pasture high quality is optimum to maximise the standard and amount of milk produced by the cow.

In seasonal climates (like Canada and a lot of the USA and Europe) this implies calving in the summertime, on pasture. In tropical climates, this implies choosing a calving date at the beginning of the rising season when pastures are lush and inexperienced.

To study extra about the best way to arrange a summer season calving program (and why a summer season calving season is such a robust device to assist preserve manufacturing prices down), try my article about the benefits of calving on pasture and my article about how to choose the perfect calving date. And if you’re able to make the swap, my article about calving on pasture explains the best way to handle a calving season on pasture, as a result of it is rather totally different than calving in a calving pen!