Anyone who knows me understands I am “thrifty.” I love saving money, and this mindset fits well with my career working with beef producers. What is the number one correlation to profitability in the beef business? Being a low-cost producer. Now, have I seen producers take that concept too far? Absolutely. Sometimes you must spend some money to make some money.

When I ask my producers to share their best returns on investment, these are their responses.

Improving my pastures

Hay is expensive to make. Equipment and fuel are costly, and the time it takes to cut, rake, bale, haul and store hay (and then haul it to the cows and clean up the waste) is time and money that could be used elsewhere.

July is a perfect time to have a forage expert come to your farm and make suggestions that will extend the grazing season, help you feed less hay, and potentially increase the number of cows on your farm without adding any acres of pasture.

We are at the lowest number of beef cows in the U.S. in the past 60 years, and states out west, which are much more susceptible to drought than we are, will not be building their herds when they are running out of grass. We here in the Midwest can build the herd.

One of my cow-calf clients contacted a grazing specialist, and after two years of improvements, they were able to have 40 percent more cows on the same acres as before. Dedicated hay fields became one-cut hay fields and then were grazed the remainder of the year. Soil tests were taken and the appropriate nutrients were added. Temporary fence was used to divide pastures for better forage utilization. The owners told me a few years later that contacting the grazing specialist was the smartest thing they ever did for their beef business.

We have excellent resources in our area with Extension, NRCS, private consultants and other beef producers. Call someone today and improve your forage.

Upgrade facilities

I have a client in Iowa that I have worked with for years and he upgraded his handling facilities a few years ago. He called and said it cost the same as it did 27 years ago – the value of three finished steers. That put the “cost” in perspective. Instead of complaining about how much more it cost, he changed his mind set and realized that he was also receiving more for his “product” than he did 27 years earlier.

Never in my 43 years of being a veterinarian have I had a client say, “I wish I would not have spent that money to upgrade my facilities.” What I do hear nearly every time is “I should have done this years ago.”

The only negative I generally hear is that they are disappointed with the brand of equipment that they purchased. Before you spend your well-earned money on a chute or other equipment, talk to your herd health veterinarian, beef extension specialist, and/or other producers that you respect.

My grandfather always said, “If you want something that is going to last a very long time, buy the best you can afford. If you expect it to be temporary or last a short time and be replaced frequently, buy the cheapest.”

Please pull up some videos of a “Bud Box” before you start designing a new plan for handling cattle. This system works much better than a tub or funnel system and is less expensive. One hundred percent of my clients that have put in a Bud Box are very pleased with the system.

Improving water supply

This improvement is closely tied to improving pastures. The number one roadblock to dividing pastures for rotational or management-intensive grazing (MiG) is lack of water supply in the pasture.

Please check with your local NRCS office to see if EQIP funds are available for cost-share on these projects.

This is another area where 100 percent of the beef producers I work with say, “I should have done this years ago.”

We know that to achieve optimal utilization of your pasture, cows should not have to walk more than 800 feet to reach water. Adding water lines and tanks can be a real game changer in forage utilization.

I work with a producer in northern Indiana who fabricated a trencher that is attached to his tractor to bury a water line. He has added many miles of water line to his pastures that then feed his numerous tanks across the farm. Please contact me if you would like his contact information.

Testing hay and silage

While the first three suggestions for improvement may take some time to pay off, spending $20-30 for a hay or silage test will give an immediate ROI. 

When we look at the cost to own a beef cow, the number one cost is winter feed. If you have already harvested hay, get it tested now to reveal the quality. While 95 percent of the hay and silage fed to dairy cows is tested before feeding, only 5 percent of the hay and silage fed to beef cows is tested. This is an area where being frugal is also not smart.

Call your nutritionist or feed supplier today to get your hay tested (and write on the calendar for September to test silage if you use that feedstuff). If your hay is of superior quality, plan to limit feed it. If it comes up short on some nutrients, have your nutritionist, feed sales team or herd health veterinarian help to formulate a ration where you add whatever nutrients are lacking to the winter diet.

Improve herd genetics

The team at CattleFax examined the relationship between bull cost and herd profitability and found that producers who spent more on quality genetics improved profitability. These producers were also more likely to keep back their own replacement heifers, precondition their calves before selling, and feed their calves out to slaughter. All of these “extras” allowed them to reap more benefits from the improved genetics.

What does “improving genetics” really mean? Dr. Bob Weaber at Kansas State University published a paper where he outlined some of the keys and his No. 1 recommendation was to optimize hybrid vigor in the cowherd.

A crossbred cow lives about 1.5 years longer than a straightbred cow, so getting a little over one extra calf was worth the most. Wouldn’t it be nice to only need 10 replacement heifers in a herd of 100 cows instead of 15? The dollar savings are significant.

The goal of incorporating heterosis is to identify cattle breeds that complement your current genetics. Do your cows produce calves that grow very well, but the fertility of the replacement females is not what you want? If so, you need a more “maternal” breed.

Dr. David Lalman at Oklahoma State University has spent years studying what makes a profitable maternal cow. The answer lies in reaching optimums and not maximums. We need moderate mature size (big cows eat a lot), moderate milk (too much = poor reproduction and udder issues), excellent foraging ability, calm disposition, easy calving and high fertility (high breed-back rate soon after calving).

Notice that extreme growth was not on the list? Bulls with extremely high yearling weight EPDs (Expected Progeny Differences) tend to produce very large cows that eat too much. We also do not need tiny cows whose calves lack growth. In this and many areas, moderation is the key.

Beef cows should be low-maintenance animals that mostly take care of themselves. 

I hope this list is helpful for your beef business. If you need the contact information for my “inventor” producer to learn about his trenching system, please email me at wmarkhilton@gmail.com. If you have other questions or have suggestions for future articles, please reach out.