Everyday is an Adventure.
Everybody's Different.
Cattle feeding is not a one size fits all enterprise. Some people enjoy feeding calves on milk, some won't feed anything less than 500 pounds, and others like calving their own cows. It takes all off of these people to keep the cattle industry going. We're all puzzle pieces that make up a beautiful picture, probably of a gorgeous Angus steer.
Decisions, Decisions, decisions.
Some people have their own cows and raise their own calves.
When we first started in this industry we had to decide what we would do. Would we take dairy steers from start to finish? Would we focus on beef cattle? Would we only feed steers from 500-800 pounds? We knew the answers to some of these questions, but there were still some big decisions to be made.
In the Beginning.
We started our adventure by feeding single-source dairy steers that had just been weaned off milk that weighed around 200 pounds. We would start these calves on a palatable, high energy ration so that they would start eating grain as soon as possible. Any big change, such as moving from one farm to another, can potentially cause calves to go off feed so, with these light calves, it was even more important to keep them eating because they don't have the fat reserves to sustain themselves if they get sick. We would then raise these calves until they were 500 pounds and then sell them to another farmer. Any cattle over 500 pounds on our feedlot belonged to someone else and we would custom feed for them. Custom feeding cattle means that the owner of the cattle pays us a yardage fee (which is like rent) per head and we feed and take care of their cattle.
We started out raising just weaned calves. Now our calves are 150 pounds bigger when they go into this barn.
In the Not so Distant Past.
All of the fat Holsteins used to belong to our customers who would pay us to feed them. Now most of them belong to us!
After doing the same thing for a while we decided that we would prefer feeding bigger cattle and stopped buying 200-pound calves. We would instead buy calves around 300 pounds and feed them until they were 500 pounds before we would sell them. We also started feeding cattle for a couple new customers and tried a few groups of bigger cattle ourselves. Custom feeding cattle provided (and continues to do so) us with a steady income each month, which is a giant help to our cash flow.
During this time we also tried a small group, 20 head, of beef cattle. We had never raised these cattle before and wanted to see if they got sick, how they gained, how our proposed feed rations would work, and how they looked when they were finished. This small group of calves performed exceptionally well and acted as the gateway to one of our newer enterprises.
This was our first group of beef cattle and they did extremely well!
Today.
Our operation today vaguely follows the same guidelines we started with. We now buy 350-pound calves from multiple sources because a heavier calf is less likely to get sick and die. We still raise them to 500 pounds but, instead of selling them all to someone else, we try as to keep as many as we can to finish out ourselves.
We try and raise 200-220 head of beef cattle per year now.
Our beef cattle come in each year from October to December and then again the following March to May. The past two years we have filled the barn with 500-pound calves from sale barns all over the state. This year we intend to do a variation of that and bring in more yearlings, which are cattle who are a bit heavier and a few months older.
In addition to the cattle, we enjoy feeding two groups of pigs for freezer pork each year. We sell these pigs directly to consumers. In fact, we are currently taking reservations for our December pigs here! In addition to freezer pork, we are working on expanding our capacity for freezer beef. Currently, we are offering halves and quarters for a freezer steer in October and have future dates available for anyone who is interested! We are looking into offering freezer chickens in the near future as well so we'll have a little bit of everything.
All of our pigs come from Michigan State University as 40-50 pounders.
Just for fun, we enjoy raising a small group of sheep during the winter. They are fun animals to be around and it's something that John has always been interested in doing. We keep the sheep for 3-4 months and then resell them as finished sheep. Make sure you come back and check out all the cute sheep pictures after they arrive!
Our first group of sheep were a success! We look forward to a second group this winter.
Future Goals.
Running your own business means you have to set yourself goals and hold yourself accountable for meeting them. Where we are now is only a step in our journey towards our ultimate goal. One day we hope to have a feedlot large enough to hold 1000 cattle with a state-of-the-art working facility. We also hope to have our own cow herd of 40 cows, this is a large enough number to justify having our own bull and cow handling facility but not too many to be overwhelming for us. We know we are many years from reaching these goals but, if we don't have them in our minds now we can't measure how far we've already come.
Adventure: Usually defined as the cattle destroying something and attempting escape.
There is Never a Dull Moment.
Raising cattle is something we truly love to do. Not only do we get to work with these amazing creatures, we also get to be our own bosses; and, even though sometimes things get a bit bumpy, we wouldn't choose any other way of life for our family. We love getting up every day and knowing we'll not only get to work together but work towards feeding everyone in this great country we live in!