Percy asked a real good question in the downer thread

[JRthe original]

I thought it deserved some more discusin and cussin here. is his question.

Speaking of heifers...can anyone on here raise a heifer for $2/day or less? I know the air is free, but nothing else, unless you catch rainwater.

Thoughts guys?

[JRthe original]

I had a guy who wanted me to raise some custom heifers for him this fall. Problem was he wanted me to do it for 1.25 a day. WHen I figured the costs I was at 1.75 and that was using sweet corn silage as a large part of the forage. Also was going to use 2 lbs of dry distillers and round bales of hay free choice. The hay was a grass hay with some alfalfa and it was 129 a ton delivered to the farm.

Now I feed my heifers way better forages than that and I couldn't do it for less than 2 a day per head.

[PERCY]

Ain't that sumpin'; with free wife and mother labor,and 'one end good' WOOD posts, 2 bucks doesn't work? So does that mean we have to give our heifers a manure/fertilizer value, just so we can sleep at night? We're farming ours out at 1.95/day, cuz we can't do it for that...plus it exports manure.

[JRthe original]

THe manure value thingy is gettin to be outa hand! Yea it has nutrient value but it doesn't mean that it is always going to be a value added enterprise. I feel like by the time I pay fuel and labor and breakdowns that easily eats away about 75% of the adjusted value of the fertilizer. Also don't forget that you spend time on the manure mgt. plan and many other mgt. things that just don't get figured in.
SO maybe giving yourself the 25% of fertilizer value credit si the best you can do. And I do not think that cheapens up the price of those animals by much!

I also think you and I and all others need to be realistic about the price of these animals. There certainly are some very fancy top enders that bring big bucks but there are a heck of a lot that bring 25% less than top price.

[JRthe original]

Ain't that sumpin'; with free wife and mother labor,and 'one end good' WOOD posts, 2 bucks doesn't work? So does that mean we have to give our heifers a manure/fertilizer value, just so we can sleep at night? We're farming ours out at 1.95/day, cuz we can't do it for that...plus it exports manure.

HEy who said the wife was free? ! LOL Black friday was kinda spendy round these parts!

[dairyfarmmn]

What does everyone use to figure the value of there forages? CS is pretty simple. But what about Hay/haylage? $1/RFV??? What do you use for "yardage", I has some one tell me that they have used $.25/hd/day for buildings, waters, elec and all that for 30 yrs.! Well energy cost have gone up since then, maintenance cost have gone up. Curios as to what others use. Is $.40 reasonable?

JR, you better raise your labor rates for all those Jacksons you people from your kitties getting stepped on.

[Kinghere]

Jr I'm glad your wife made a major contribution to the US economy.. At this point letting her spend justifies the fact that you used those wood posts

I get the manure to apply to my fields, when I raise calves and heifers for my brothers. After calculating the value of the nutrients compared to the cost of loading and spreading the manure, I would be much farther ahead buying HIGH PRICED?? fertilizer and not having to move that manure. Since we are running an overcrowded pack system which is bedded with corn stalks and sawdust. This does not go thru our liquid system, so I get the daily haul or pile and spread later. We injected the manure in out pit We put 12,000 gallons/acre only pumped a one half mile and it cost $110/acre plus fuel. not a profitable endeavor

[JRthe original]

DF your 40 cents is reasonable. I think with newer setups it mioght be higher as the buildings also cost more today than they used to.

THe RFV value when including freight is closer to 1.25 per point.

[PERCY]

A couple non sarcastic points...1,we figure it costs us a minimum of $1.50/cwt to dispose of the manure, mostly liquid, sprinkled/injected. 2, this year, with 300/ton hay, figure $2 a point. We paid $1.65/point in the field for corn silage this year, chopping, trucking, packing, and shrink are almost free, right?

[whistle pig]

5 years ago it was probably cheaper for most of us to buy feed than raise it. I dont see how raising heifers is any different, its probably cheaper currently to farm them out, but Next year?

Its easy to crunch numbers on paper, but the reality is you either have facilites and feed or you dont...thats the real dealbreaker, not what a paper and pen have to say.