The beef cow-calf business is well adapted to small-scale and part-time farmers with land suitable for pasture and hay production. Cow-calf operations in the northeastern United States tend to be small. Because of the relatively small size of these operations, it is often difficult for individuals to develop innovative marketing programs. Still, opportunities exist to link directly with feeders to produce beef for specialty markets.
Cow-calf production is the first stage of the beef production process. An average of about 2.2 years elapses between breeding a beef cow or heifer and the time their offspring are ready for slaughter. Heifer calves may be retained for herd expansion or replacements, sold to other producers as replacements, or sold along with the steers to feedlot operators to grow out for slaughter.
The United States is the leading beef producer in the world. Between 25 and 27 billion pounds of beef are consumed annually in the United States. Although per capita beef consumption has decreased gradually since the 1970s, it is projected to be around 58 pounds yearly during the next decade. Foreign demand has been robust with the United States exporting record amounts of beef in recent years.
Beef cows are raised in all regions where there is pasture and hay. Currently, over 31 million head of beef cows are widely dispersed throughout the United States on almost 730,000 farms and ranches, and there are 380,000 beef cows on about 15,000 farms in the northeastern United States.
About two-thirds of feeder cattle marketed from cow-calf operations are sold as calves in the third or fourth quarter of the year at or soon after weaning. Calves are sold directly to feeding operations or marketed through specialized feeder calf sales, livestock auctions, and electronic and video sales. A limited market also exists for selling top-quality steer calves to 4-H and FFA members as show prospects.
Because of the wide distribution of cow-calf operations throughout the United States, there are a lot of local markets for feeder calves. The sale prices of calves vary greatly depending on breed, weight, health, uniformity, group size, and how the cattle have been managed. Regardless of whether the calves are sold through a local auction, directly to a cattle feeder, or through a broker, preparation for sale greatly influences sales price and profitability. Using a preconditioning program is an important practice that improves sale prices and enhances calf well-being on the farm and in the feedlot. Preconditioning includes weaning the calves about six weeks before sale time, starting them on feed, castrating, dehorning, vaccinating, deworming, and perhaps implanting them with a growth promotant. These practices help ensure that the calves will stay healthy and have a good start in the feedlots.
Most cattle feeders prefer to purchase groups of 40 or more preconditioned calves separated by sex, breed, and weight. Market outlets such as graded sales are popular because calves from different farms can be combined and sorted into uniform groups for purchase either by brokers or through traditional auctions, tele-auction (buyers bid by participating in a conference telephone call), video auction (buyers bid after viewing cattle via a satellite downlink), or online auction (buyers bid after viewing cattle on the Internet). If producers market through a tele-auction, video auction, or online auction, their calves do not have to leave the farm to be offered for sale. Uniform sale groups require tight breeding and calving seasons (all within 60 days), proper nutrition of the cow herd and the calf, and strict selection of replacement heifers and herd sires with desirable genetic traits. Another possible marketing niche is the selling of high-quality calves to 4-H and FFA members at prices slightly higher than for commercial feeder calves. However, this market is very small and unpredictable.
Retained ownership is another production/marketing option. Retaining ownership of the calves from the cow-calf herd and either feeding the calves on the farm or having them “custom fed” at a growing or finishing operation may be advantageous, but it also has its risks. Retaining ownership allows the herd owner to profit from the cow-calf operation and the finishing enterprise. These potential benefits will also expose the owner to falling prices and death losses.
Cow–calf operations are widespread throughout beef-producing countries, and the goal of a cow–calf operation is to produce young beef cattle, which are usually sold. True to the name, farm and ranch herds consist mostly of adult female cows, their calves, and young females, called heifers, which will produce calves once of breeding age. Some operations may raise their steers until slaughter weight, others sell them as weaned calves. They may have a few herd bulls and utilize natural mating, but may have no bulls and rely primarily on artificial insemination. Cattle from a cow–calf operation may be sold after they have been weaned to be matured elsewhere, such as at a feedlot, or may be raised to near-slaughter weight and sold at the age of 1–2 years. Older cows and bulls, if kept, may also be sold to slaughter after their reproductive years have ended.
Cow–calf operations generally raise their stock primarily on pasture and other forms of roughage rather than grain feeds, though they may provide vitamin and mineral supplementation. For this reason, they require more land than other cattle operations, such as feedlots, veal and dairy cattle production, or breeding operations that focus primarily on managing bulls for artificial insemination. Pastures may be native or “improved,” with forage designed to withstand grazing pressure and help animals gain weight. During periods of shortage, supplementary feeding may be carried out, but it is by no means universal. In some areas, pasture is supported by crops for fattening. Intensive rotational grazing systems can reduce the amount of land required; an acre or an acre and a half, in some climates, can support a single cow–calf pair for an entire year. Conversely, in countries such as Brazil and Argentina, cow–calf operations may be forced to use more marginal grazing because of changes in land value due to high prices for cash crops like soybeans.
Auctions are a common means of sale, although in some cases, prospective buyers inspect sale cattle on the producer’s property with the price negotiated either by weight or on a dollars-per-head
basis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow%E2%80%93calf_operation
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