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204: 5 Hidden Cost Traps Every Cow-Calf Operation Misses · CattleUSA Daily

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  Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast.
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  Your go to source for the latest.
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  Livestock markets, industry insights, and the update shaping
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  agriculture today. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a
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  passionate advocate for agriculture here.
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  To keep. You informed and connected, now
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  let's dive into today's episode. Every rancher can tell you the
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  price of hay, diesel, and that exact number on the ear tag of
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  that neighbor's cow. That will not stop slipping
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  through the fence. But the biggest profit leaks on
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  your cow calf operation, They're rarely the ones that are talked
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  about or with receipts attached. They're the quiet ones, the ones
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  you've normalized, the ones that you mentally file under.
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  That's just ranching. Well, today I want to walk
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  through 5 cost traps almost every operation has, no matter
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  how long you've been in business.
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  And I'm going to breakdown why they happen, how they hit your
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  bottom line, and what you can do this week to plug them.
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  Let's start with the sacred part of ranching equipment.
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  We all love our toys. A shiny new loader, the backup
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  side by side for the days, the first one just, you know, isn't
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  running right or it gets cold outside and that one's battery
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  just gets a little funky, right? The Baylor that gets used, you
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  know, maybe once every few years, maybe not even once a
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  year. But here's the truth.
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  Equipment sits way more than it actually works, and parked
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  equipment is still costing you money.
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  Depreciation alone will gut you if you're not careful.
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  A tractor that runs 60 to 100 hours a year is one of the most
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  expensive things you can own, even if it's paid for
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  maintenance, repairs, oil, filters, insurance, opportunity
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  cost, value loss. University numbers put machinery
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  ownership at 15 to 25% of annual Cal calf operation cost, which
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  means in a 200 cattle operation, you could easily be bleeding
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  $1000 a year into iron you're emotionally attached to.
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  Now, I fully understand that this isn't always an option for
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  everyone. We need tractors, we need our
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  four Wheelers, our side by side, things like that.
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  But if it makes sense for you, sometimes situations like
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  renting or custom hiring, especially per hay or different
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  things like that may make more sense for you and your operation
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  and actually make you a more profitable operation at the end
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  of the day as well. Let's dive into #2 the second
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  trap is going to be labor. And I'm not talking payroll, I'm
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  talking your time. Ranchers love to say if I didn't
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  do it, it wouldn't get done. That's true, but it doesn't mean
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  that you are doing the right things.
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  Look at the last week that you spent.
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  How many hours were spent checking waters that could be
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  monitored with a camera or a float sensor?
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  Feeding hay because stocking rates weren't adjusted for
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  forage supply? Running to town for parts you
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  needed three days ago? Moving cattle because the
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  rotation wasn't planned ahead? Fixing the same fence spot you
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  fixed every 3rd week. Standing around waiting for
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  someone to show up. That is not working harder.
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  That is leaking time. If you put a fair wage on your
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  hours, even just 20 to $25.00 an hour, most producers are
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  donating thousands of dollars of unpaid labor every month to
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  tasks that don't improve profitability.
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  You don't need to work more hours, you need to work fewer
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  hours on the wrong things. You need to ask yourself what
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  would would break if I stopped doing this chore for a week.
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  If the answer is nothing, it's probably busy work disguised as
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  responsibility. Or go back to things like that
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  fence that you have fixed every 3rd week.
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  Maybe it's time to spend a few extra hours on it this week and
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  get it fixed for good, and then you don't have to keep on going
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  back every 3rd week. Where are you disguising busy
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  work as true responsibility on your operation Now?
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  This one hurts because it's true for everyone #3 we're talking
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  feed waste. You can nail your nutrition plan
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  by great hay and still lose 20 to 40% of it, depending on how
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  and where you feed. Here's the reality.
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  If you're feeding in mud and wind, in open rings or straight
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  on the ground, you are losing money before your cows ever take
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  a bite. Studies across the Midwest show
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  ranges from 5 to 10% in cone feeders, 15 to 20% in solid
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  bottom rings, 30 to 40% in open rings, and up to 50% on the
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  ground in mud. That is half half of your feed
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  bill gone. If hay is $120.00 a ton and you
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  feed 2 tons per cow, that's 120 to a 240 per dollars per cow per
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  winter in pure waste. Multiply that by your herd size.
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  It is not a rounding error on a balance sheet.
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  This is a true gut punch, and feed waste is honestly one of
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  the easiest and quickest fixes that you can do on your ranch.
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  Some of you might just need to pour a concrete pad.
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  You might need to rotate feeding sites to avoid mud pits.
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  You might need to use a cone feeder or a covered feeder.
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  You might need to limit access to different feeding areas at
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  different feeding times. And another option is to feed
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  smaller amounts more often. This is the fastest place to
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  find profit you already earned but never got to keep.
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  Now let's talk #4 this is 1 nobody wants to talk about
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  because it's extremely emotional, but open cows and
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  lake calvers are one of the biggest silent cost traps in
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  ranching. Everyone focuses on the cow that
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  didn't breed, but the late calvers are the sneaky ones.
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  The cows that give you a calf but cost you $80.00 to $120.00
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  and lost weaning weight every year because they're a month
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  behind everyone else. If your calf crop is
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  consistently late heavy, your entire revenue shifts down.
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  And then there's the opens. The cows that cost you summer
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  grazing, fall forage, winter feed, labor, full exposure
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  mineral, every ounce of care that you give her, all for zero
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  return. The average cost to overwinter a
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  cow is 300 to $500, depending on the region.
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  That is money you simply don't get back in a calf at the end of
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  the year. But the fix is simple.
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  Prank check early, tighten your breeding window, don't
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  overwinter an open cow if you can help it.
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  Track cows that slip later each year and cull on reproduction,
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  not on emotion. Cows that don't breed on time do
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  not pay their spot in your operation, and ranching is far
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  too expensive these days to keep on feeding on.
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  Hope that she will breed back next year.
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  Now, this last one is subtle and expensive.
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  It's cutting quarters on nutrition.
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  Most producers focus on protein and energy, but the losses
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  happen in our trace minerals and our vitamins are copper,
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  selenium, zinc. That is where immune function,
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  reproduction and calf vigor live.
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  University research shows these things.
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  Marginal copper deficiency drops conception up to 30%, Selenium
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  deficiency slows uterine recovery.
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  Calves from deficient cows have weaker immune systems, and
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  mineral deficient cows breed back later.
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  So yes mineral feels expensive, but open cows are far more
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  expensive, sit calves way more expensive.
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  Have you seen a bottle of drugs in these days delayed breed back
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  that is more expensive? The solution is simple, test
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  your hay, match your minerals to the deficiency that you need to
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  fill and don't guess, verify. And finally, don't buy the
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  cheapest tub on the pallet. Buy what works for your
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  operation and what fills that gap.
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  Good nutrition doesn't cost money.
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  It prevents expense in the long run.
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  So here's the bottom line. The biggest cost traps in
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  ranching aren't traumatic. They're quiet.
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  They blend in and ranchers learn to accept them because that's
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  just the way it's always been. But you can't fix what you
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  don't. Measure your audit list and from
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  today for you guys, number one, equipment you don't need #2
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  labor you're giving away for free.
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  Both your time, which is what our major focus was on today,
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  but also higher labor time as well #3 feed you didn't know you
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  were wasting #4 cows costing you money every single season, and
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  #5 nutrition programs that look cheap but cost you in the long
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  run. Plug even one of these leaks and
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  your margins will dramatically change.
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  Now plug all five. You're running a completely
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  different operation than you were when you started.
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  Without buying anything new, this is the Cattle USA daily
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  podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan.
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  Thanks for listening to another episode with us this week.
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  I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode.
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  If you did, make sure that you like subscribe, rate and review.
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  We appreciate all of it here at the team and we will see you all
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  next time on another episode. Have a great day y'all.