LINCOLN, Neb. (RFD News) — Strong cattle prices are giving producers some breathing room, but controlling costs remains important.
Nebraska Extension Livestock Educator Brock Ortner says producers can limit feed costs by making the most of available grazing and avoiding unnecessary harvesting or processing.
“The more pieces of machinery you put between that cow and that grazable forage, the more costs you’re going to rack up in feeding. With the price of grass in Nebraska, adding cost to that by harvesting or processing the feeds to get it to that cow would probably not be a good way to go about reducing costs.”
Ortner says herd management can provide another opportunity to cut costs.
“Really, we see cows leave the herd about, on average, about four calves that they produce. Everyone can point out their 10-year-old cows, but it’s such a small percentage of the overall herd, so we see a lot of fallout early. They hit their prime, and they tend to stick around, and then there’s another batch of fallout. I think maybe capitalizing on when those cows still have some value, selling those as breds would be another way that I might go about cutting costs.”
Ortner also recommends caution with major purchases and borrowing money only when absolutely necessary.
