Had a man offer to feed out some longhorn calves for me. 500-600 lbs calves for .72cents per day for 300 days then sell them fat. wonder how this would work out for me? Does anyone think this offer is any good & for whom, Me or him never fed any thing out myself Don't have the feed. your opinons are wanted Thanks..

I prefer do do it myself. You can quickly turn a friend into an enemy. I like to keep my friends.

K.C.,

I've been looking at similar propositions myself. 300 days x .72 is $216/head. The variables are the calves' average daily gain and what prices are 300 days from now. You can't control the future price, but the person doing the feeding has some influence on the rate of gain. I would make sure I had a clear understanding of how that was going to be done. Also, spell out who is responsible for expenses if a calf gets sick and/or dies.

It may be best to sell them to the guy and then buy them back in 300 days or weigh them before and after and pay based on the amount of gain.

Just some thoughts.

Good Luck!

If those calves are back grounded and ready to hit feed then 300 days on good feed and they will be 1500 lbs steers if they are decent steers. If you are feeding hay that is about 20 lbs of 75 $/ton hay. I don't think you are getting much feed for $0.72 per day.

Them longhorns will still be able to walk through a keyhole. Dont do it take your licking now.

It would take some real good breeding for longhorns to hit a rate of gain as suggested by KM. Put me down on the pessimistic side, but I don't think you'll get much for .72 per day

I will say KM seems to know his stuff and my experience with Longhorns is minimal. Most good feeders should hit 2.5 to 3# per day of gain though.

I am not that familiar with long horns but if a calf that is 600 lbs can't hit a market weight in 300 days on feed you best cull him now and save the feed for an animal that is built to use it. My boys have 3 calves on feed that are not quite a year old and are 1000 lbs and would be ready for the freezer at 13 to 14 months. They will have to weight until they are 16 because that is when the fair is.

A straight grain diet that would be about 6 to 8 lbs of feed and not include any hay or labor. Either he has a smoking deal on feed and labor or not much feed is going to hit the steers. Then it is what the steer can do with the feed. KM

Is he guarenteeing them to grade what? And if they don't meet that grade, then what is the cost?
Someone is going to get screwed on this deal unless there is more to the contract.

I'm going to check this out more because I know longhorns feed out slower them other breeds. Just wanted to find out what others thought. You guys just confirmed what I thought. thank you all.

I have never fed longhorns; has he? I can't say what your cattle will do by breed . I have black angus but not all black cattle have angus in them. A lot of variables in this mix. I suspect longhorns are like herefords, aka more feed efficient. They would be on the rail about the time people are trying to pay off their xmas bills. Check last years prices for grade and yeild at that time for a ball park price.
I don't know what he has to feed; but with 3 dollar corn and say purina accuration at 14 cents a pound, that would be at least1.06 a day. Several years since I priced accuration, at that time it was 14 cents a pound. I just used it for example because I could get close to a balanced ration easy.
If I were you,I would ask Janet for costs if she knew what he was feeding. We had a fellow from texas up here and the death loss if he didn't owe you money was much worse on your calves than people that he borrowed money from. Go figure! He got nailed; but kept his mouth shut about several things that could have nailed several of his speculators.

I don't think it'll pay for you to do it, especially with longhorns.

At that rate he can't be putting much on them. That sounds too good to be true.
As for longhorns, the order buyers and feedlot men I've dealt with will turn inside out at the mention of a longhorn in bunch. They just aren't feed efficient cattle. They are a great breed for calving ease and great in rough, dry country and thrive on marginal feed though.
Like Smith says, even after that much time on feed you still couldn't land a snowflake on their back without it sliding off (no meat).
Lot of variables there too, yield grade, quality grade, etc. I'm conservative and would unload them without putting any money in them.

K.C...I have worked in several feedlots in the past,big and small. The smallest,15000 head, the largest,112000 head and I have fed out cattle of my own in them. There is no way possible those figures he gave you are going to work. The last cattle I fed were costing $2.25 per day for feed after they got up towards a 1000 lbs or so. The feed price varied with the price of grain but that was back in the early 90's. Don't know his setup but a feedlot charges yardage per animal per day plus any doctoring and the cost of working the cattle when they come in. I seen a lot of longhorn cattle fed out and it will vary with the quality of the cattle,good genitics or not so good. Most longhorn steers will feed out around 2 lbs a day, some a little more and some a little less. The heifers feed a little less. That is only part of your problem. When they get fat you have to sell them to a packer. Those packers and the packer buyers are a ruthless bunch. They take no prisoners. When cattle are fat and finished they have to go and you are at the mercy of the packer buyers. Not like having them on pasture, the price isn't right just hold them a while longer, your window of getting rid of fat cattle is small. The best gaining cattle I seen was some cattle that we got in from a ranch in Utah and they gained 4.5 lbs a day. On the average most of the english cattle gained 2.75 lbs to 3.25 lbs per day, some a little better some a little worse. If the packers are really needing cattle you could sell the longhorns over the scale but if they have a big supply of english cattle available they would want to grade and yield the longhorns and then you are really at their mercy. I had a dose of that, they can really rob you and don't even need a gun to do it. To sum it up, it looks to me like one of you would get the short end of the stick and I would bet it would be K.C.

Messed with longhorns for 20 years. If they are crossed on a beef bull they will do ok.They will finish at 1100 pounds. If there pure longhorn dont do it. Smith had it right, they will still walk through a keyhole.

Kent and T.Nichols and Wes are probably right. Most of the crosses up here were a longhorn bull on angus or hereford heifers. If straight longhorn, they would be hard to market. I bet they would be great eating even if they didn't grade.
to qoute an old saying; better to take your licking and keep on ticking.

How is the market for roping cattle in your area?

havent found a market for roping cattle yet. this would be for this spring calves some are bred black angus, some red angus & some bred longhorn. Just thought you people would have different thoughs on this got till fall to do anything. thanksfor your input.