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Lander, WY | Jim - 11/17/2010 11:05
My simplified way of looking at it is that each of these cows has a certain value TODAY, Nov 17th. If we assume each cow has the SAME value on May 1 next spring it makes things simpler.
Talking like an engineer... AgE buddy of mine I took heat and mass with was having issues until he realized you could pick your boundry conditions...after that he said you could find the volume of a cow if you assumed it was a sphere... :-P
For your assumptions, your conclusion is correct. BUT, you don't sell the calf in May when you stop feeding, so the conclusion is not correct for your production system. Make your boundry conditions a one year period and I think you would have a more accurate picture. Make it 5 years (or whatever you want to assume for a "useable life" of the cow, and you get more accurate yet.
And BTW, I would agree with your assesment that a bigger cow (especially if as I recall you found they do not wean bigger calves) will not put as much money in your pocket at the end of the year as a good, smaller frame cow. Mom and Dad calved a lot of calves in their years, and that's the conclusion they came to. At one point running 500 pair, selling calves in the fall/winter. | |
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Cost to raise a calf
