Every beef producer I have ever worked with takes great pride in their herd and wants the best for their cattle. In fact, a recent survey of cattle producers showed that profit is not the No. 1 reason some producers own cattle. That was not a surprise to me, but the percent was much higher than I anticipated. Many said they loved working with their herd.

The most stressful day for a beef calf is the day of weaning. Anything we can do to lessen that stress is our obligation to our cattle.

Want to wean calves with the least amount of stress? Vaccinate against Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) with a vaccine that your herd health veterinarian recommends, castrate all bull calves and dehorn any that need it well ahead of weaning, start feeding creep feed 15-30 days preweaning and wean across the fence from the dams.

There has also been a fair amount of research on an analog of Maternal Bovine Appeasing Substance that shows it reduces stress at weaning. I have been using one of the three available products on my own cattle for the past three years and continue to use it. Contact your herd health veterinarians for product recommendations.

If you did not get your calves castrated ahead of weaning, giving oral meloxicam is a proven way to mitigate pain. Again, I use this product when I castrate my calves at 2-3 months of age. Never castrate and wean calves the same day. This is way too much stress.

Selling calves the day of weaning or even in the next 30 days is very stressful for the calves. Sickness and death rates of your calves double if sold unweaned or with less than 30 days of preconditioning/weaning. Again, we all want our calves to make a successful transition to the new owner.

If improving profit is a goal, keeping your weaned calves for 45-60 (or more) days after weaning is paramount. I have studied the profitability of preconditioning calves for over 30 years and 2026 looks to be the highest ROI I have ever calculated.

I used prices from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for Oct. 1 and Dec. 1 calves. So that you don’t get bogged down with a bunch of numbers, the additional return to labor and management is predicted to be $450-670 per calf for preconditioning for 60 days (I did a research study when I taught at Purdue in the late 1990s, and the average was $81/calf in this 11-year study). As I said, this is the highest profit potential I have ever seen.

Here are the details. The owner weaned calves on Oct. 1, 2026 that averaged 550# and they have a predicted value of $410.93/cwt (total value $2260), sold 60 percent steers, 40 percent heifers on Dec. 1 that averaged 714# at $394.67/cwt (total value $2817). The ration cost $1.24/day; calves gained 2.73 pounds per day at a cost of gain of $0.62. I included a 0.3 percent death loss (what my research project showed), charged interest for the 60 days ($10/calf), and a vaccine cost of $10/calf. Total feed cost was $74/calf.

Side note: I still see preconditioning projections that have calves gaining 2#/day or less and I always think, “Is this 1980 when our genetics were much poorer than today? If we can’t get 2.5-3.0#/day in a 60-day PC program AND have zero get a “fleshy discount,” we either have the wrong genetics or the wrong nutrition program. One of the drivers of PC profitability is efficient gain.

The ration I put together was very simple with good quality grass hay, DDGS, soyhulls, cracked corn (starting on week three) and a salt-mineral mix with Rumensin. Your nutritionist or feed supplier can develop a ration for you. Most have a complete feed you can purchase that is made specifically for preconditioning calves. If you have high health and high genetic calves, you can expect 2.5-3 pounds/day gain without making the calves fleshy.

The total cost of preconditioning for 60 days was $101.

With zero bonus for a preconditioned calf, the return to labor and management is $456/calf. Why the tremendous ROI? Feed costs are lower than average, cost of gain is tremendously low, the calves gained efficiently, and most of all, the value of feeder calves is near an all-time high. Adding a pound for $0.62 when the value of that gain is over $3/pound is very simple math.

With calves near record highs, buyers are paying a premium for the health advantage of these preconditioned calves. Buyers are willing to pay more to get half the sickness and half the death loss compared to unweaned, unvaccinated calves. I don’t know what the premium will be for these calves this fall, but I expect them to be in the $10-30/cwt range. When I check prices at Midwest feeder calf auctions, the premiums for “value-added” calves are more often than not toward the $30/cwt range.

At a $10, 20 and 30/cwt premium for these calves, you add $72, 143 and $214/head profit, respectively, to each calf. The best way to get this premium is to sell at a sale where they are featuring preconditioned calves. Buyers want to buy a truckload of these calves at a time, so selling them at the same sale as others can be a real plus. Have your herd health veterinarian list all the vaccines the calves received and take that paper to the feeder auction so the auctioneer can report what has been done. Also include how many days calves have been weaned and watch the hands go up to bid on your high-health calves.

You can also capture value by implanting calves with a medium-dose implant (ask your herd health veterinarian for recommendations) at weaning, along with feeding Rumensin in the preconditioning ration. The implant will add about $57 profit for a $2-3 investment and Rumensin adds about $31 for a $2 investment.

Did you also know that an unweaned calf will shrink about 7 percent while a preconditioned calf only shrinks 3 percent? That is 17 extra pounds to sell at zero additional cost.

Do you want the best for your calves? Do you want to improve profitability? I hope the above recommendations help you say “yes” to both questions and give you a roadmap to achieve both goals.