This week we revisit this age-old query based mostly on the February 21, 2023 USDA Market Report. The query has been requested ceaselessly, or at the least so long as now we have been breeding cattle with a notion of attempting to make the following technology higher. It’s a traditional and timeless query. It is a crucial query. At the moment of 12 months, when many bulls are being marketed and we’re planning forward for spring breeding season, it’s the query that’s requested so much!
The Reply
I keep in mind first listening to the reply almost 40 years in the past as a scholar at OSU. “A very good bull is well worth the worth of 5 calves he sires.” I’ve heard that reply once more many occasions over time. I imagine it’s a good reply and a great rule of thumb to comply with, the issue is it doesn’t precisely slender down the vary. If we perform a little “cowboy math”, this reply could in truth result in extra questions. Similar to ………
When are we advertising and marketing our Calves? What’s their Worth?
Based on the newest USDA Cattle Market Report from Oklahoma Nationwide Stockyards:
523 lb. weaned steer calves (Massive, 1) are price about $2.31/lb. for a price of $1,208 per head. Due to this fact, if my future advertising and marketing plan is to promote weaned steers, $1,208 x 5 = $6,040 is the reply.
874 lb. yearling steers (Massive, 1) are price about $1.78/lb. for a price of $1,555 per head. Due to this fact, if my future advertising and marketing plan is to promote yearling steers, $1,555 x 5 = $7,775 is the reply.
1,400 lb. completed beef steers are price $164.50/cwt reside for a price of $2,303 every. Due to this fact, if my future advertising and marketing plan is to retain possession by means of ending and promote fed cattle on a carcass worth foundation, $2,303 x 5 = $11,515 is the reply.
So, within the present market, a great bull is price someplace between $6,040 – $11,515 to a business cattle operation. The place precisely in that vary is dependent upon your advertising and marketing plan and the market circumstances at the moment. Not an actual quantity as a result of there are “many layers to this onion.” One key level illustrated right here is that the longer you’ll personal the offspring earlier than advertising and marketing, the higher the worth of the bull to your operation. Retained possession offers you extra time and alternative to seize the worth of your funding in genetics. And we haven’t even thought-about the worth added to substitute females if we choose daughters as our subsequent technology of cows.
I encourage cow-calf operations to think about their manufacturing system and advertising and marketing plan. Doing so dictates the place to use choice stress. Genetics pay whenever you buy a bull able to enhancing genetic potential for the precise traits that can translate to added worth at your meant advertising and marketing endpoint.
Hold the next chart in thoughts as one other approach to consider possession value of bulls on a per cow or annual foundation.
Bull Buy Worth: $3,000 $6,000 $9,000 $12,000
$19.10 $38.21 $57.32 $76.43
Value/cow bred – assuming 157 cows bred between ages 1 to six (over six breeding seasons)
$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000
Value/12 months – assuming 6 years of service
Dr. Mark Johnson mentioned the worth of a great bull from SunUpTV on February 28, 2022.
