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North Central Kansas | Do you have anybody close to you that raises good quality heifers and sells them as pairs? If you sell your heifers and get say $700 and take that money and buy a good quality heifer pair for say $14-1500 you have a cost of $7-800. If you were to keep your heifer and breed it you would have a grass bill and winter bill in her before she calved and another grass bill against her before you would wean the calf that is $450-500 easily. Plus Mineral, vaccine, interest. Those figures are pretty conservative. By buying the pair you have a calf to sell this fall and another one to sell next fall. While in the same timeframe you would only have one calf off of the retained heifer. I realize that you are not saving your genetics, but if you do your homework I think you could find some good quality pairs. I would buy off the ranch not at the sale barn. Go walk through them and see how they handle. I buy mine from my neighbor and have had good luck doing that. They are all pelvic'd and I get to pick after he has picked his. Not first choice, but his taste and mine usually aren't the same. Bought 14 pairs last spring, 100% rebred. First one calved today. Cold and Blowing hard here tonight hope the rest hold off until tommorrow. | |
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To keep or to buy???
