28 Our Advertisers Appreciate Your Business Better Farming | February 2024 pates they’ll be rewarded once they do. “The markets I believe will be there to be worth their while for several years if they can navigate through the tight feed conditions,” he says. Capturing high prices Also contributing to heifers moving to feedlots has been their high values after seven years of flat prices, Copithorne says. He recalls back when ranchers built their numbers in the strong bull market of 2014 to 2015 and were punished for it in 2016 when prices collapsed. They feared the same could happen again, so instead cashed in, paid off old debts, and cleaned up their balance sheets, Copithorne says. “Bred heifers are averaging $3,500 when they used to be $1,800; heifer calves are $1,800 when they used to be $1,000,” he points out, adding the starting cost to keep heifers or build cows has risen. “With people liquidating drought cows, it is nearly the same purchase cost to buy a cow that will guarantee you a calf the first year as a heifer calf that will take two years to materialize a calf.” Copithorne adds that high interest rates caused interest expenses to become a major factor in heifer development costs. The Bank of Canada’s overnight policy shot up from 0.25 per cent in January 2022 to five per cent in July 2023. Maximizing calf sales is a sound strategy to capture profit. Emily Croft photo Rebuilding beef cattle herds
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