And the final results on THAT experiment...

Sold KK today.

In April, a few days after coming home, LDA scar on her side from surgery.


This morning before I loaded her up.


LDA surgery cost me $185, plus meds and various other things I did to her (worming, etc) came out to a grand total of $255.54.......

She went through the auction and I watched her sell. At first they didn't know what to make of those knock knees (if you want a pic I believe I have one somewhere) but they bid her up to .21/lb. That was what I thought was my breakeven point, but I'd also thought she was a little heavier than she turned out. She weighed in at 1120lbs for a total of $235... minus auction fees of ~$15...

comes to $220. I needed $255 to break even on the cow herself. So I'd call it a loss of $35.... EXCEPT that I had 3 calves on her and she fed them for virtually nothing. I didn't put any money into feeding that cow, and she put a total of 480lbs of weight on the calves over 3 months time, which works out to a feed bill of $0.07/lb of gain on those calves, which is cheaper than what I'm feeding the others for.

So I guess it wasn't a complete loss, in the end. *shrug* Sure learned a lot in the process. :nod:

You did alright in my opinion, those calves count for something. ;-) If that's the least amount that I'd ever lost on a cow, I'd be tickled pink! :nod:

cfpinz

It sounds to me like you did alright - as cfpinz already pointed out, the calves count, too! The differences between dairy and beef never fail to amaze me, though!

MM, you did very well on that "experiment".

So you didnt get full price you wanted on auction. But just look at those big healthy calves you have. Heck I wish mine gained that much in three months time off a cow (which we dont have :lol: )

What about her being knock-kneed? Cant be anything like my steers..

I can't believe how cheap dairy cows go for. I sure would have expected more, but I don't know a thing about dairy either. I think you did good on the whole deal though. Why didn't your boss want her back since you got her all fixed up?

Would the selling price of your cow have anything to do with the time of year and amount of feed out there? Seems like when feed gets low and people start dumping cows the price drops, just wondering if it is true for dairy cattle?

Alan

The main reason you had her was to nurse the calves (I assume) - if they did OK (which they sure did), then overall so did you.

I also would have thought she would have brought more. I checked my local sale prices for last week & the low end for cows was 27 cwt ("Slaughter Cows Lean 85-90% Lean"), of course that doesn't mean there weren't a few low fliers. Was she in the range of cows sold or for whaterver reason fell below the average range for a lean cow?

She was given to me with the (obvious - LOL) condition that she had to have surgery for an LDA. I picked out the smallest calves I had at the moment and grafted them on because I feel a cow HAS to have calves on or she's not "paying her way".

It really was just an experiment - I was told I could have her, and so I said OK, took her to my vet, and crossed my fingers that he was as good as everyone said he was. LOL. And he was. She recovered fine, although she didn't put that weight back on. I think there was two reasons for that 1) she was lactating, and it is nearly impossible to get weight on a lactating cow, and 2) those knock knees obviously caused her pain, and my vet informed me that "pain takes energy" -- which IMO explains why I could not get weight on her. Probably couldn't have even if I'd never put calves on.

She was about average cents/lb for holstein cows going through. I watched several sell and most were right around 21. Saw one go for .2/lb -- infected eye that was swelled shut. At first they wouldn't bid on KK and they dropped down to 15...10...oh I was worried!

Turns out the good picture I have of her front end is on the laptop computer, which my Dad has at the moment. I'll have the 'puter back on Saturday and I'll show ya'll what I'm talking about then. Bet you've never seen anything like it.

Once again MM you did well.

I also have to agree with cfpinz, if 35 bucks is all I ever lost on a cow, I'd be doing a jig followed by some flat-footing.

Katherine

Those calves are worth a lot, you did good, seems like 21$ is a bit low for that type of cow. :?:

mnmt

What is an LDA surgery?

Ya' win a few, ya' lose a few...and some get rained out.

I'd say you came out better than gettin' rained out, darlin'.

Alice

Milkmaid, you did well with the cow. The calves paid the way and you got most of your money back on the cow. Sounds like the experiment turned out well. Congrats

You did fine. If you didn't count the calves as part of the cow profit you will see that ever cow in a pasture comes at a loss. Think about it for a minute. Keep a cow 5-6 years and think of all her expences, now sell her, it don't add up to the expences. Not until you figure her calves into the equation. You got more than $35 dollars of "feed" for those calves.

Fred":1a59umui said:

What is an LDA surgery?

Click to expand...

Left displaced abomosum

dun

sidney411":39h6b6ow said:

... Why didn't your boss want her back since you got her all fixed up?

Click to expand...

Because she was so structurally unsound. I didn't want to keep her too long either - looked like a disaster waiting to happen. lol. I didn't need a downer.

Posted a picture of her on the boards for those who are interested. http://cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic. ... highlight=