Cost Of Home-Raised Replacement Heifers
Fall calf prices peaked in 2005 and the current beef price cycle is projected to
trend somewhat lower for a few years as the current beef price cycle plays out.
Measuring and controlling heifer replacement costs over the next three to four years
will become all critical.
Managing home-raised replacement heifer numbers has considerable impact on
UCOP - much more so than ranchers typically believe. The quickest way to increase
the unit cost of producing a hundredweight of calf (UCOP) is to hold back added
replacement heifers. The quickest way to lower UCOP is to decrease the number of
heifer calves to be held back to be developed into replacement heifers.
Cash accounting, as done by most ranchers, will lead ranchers down a prim-rose-
path over the next 3 or 4 years with respect to the costs of raising replacement
heifers. In fact, I am currently projecting that some ranchers will loose a
substantial amount of money raising replacement heifers over the next few years and
they will probably not even be aware of it!
A complete version of this article will be published in the BEEF Magazine, May 2007 issue.
How To Print The Two Input Forms:
The two figures included here are an example completed input form that I use to calculate the costs of home-raised replacement heifers. I also included a blank input form that you can print out, complete, and send to me along with a $25 check and I will prepare a Cost analysis Of your Home-Raised Replacement Heifers.
To print out the example completed input form and the blank input form, double click on the figure and it will load a larger version into your computer. Then, use your browser's print command to print out a copy of the forms.
posted by Dr. Harlan Hughes 10:58 AM
