This year is relatively unique for wheat calves. Very little wheat is available on the Southern Plains. Even where irrigated wheat has come up, the current value of wheat sent many winter stocker calves through the sale barn relatively early this year.

It’s that time of year again. Young calves on the ground, ranchers exhausted, wondering how they ever got through calving season in harsh winter weather.

Many of us are feeling the pinch of increased input prices this year. Add market instability into the equation and it makes for a difficult decision-making process buying stocker or backgrounder calves in 2022. Use these tips to identify leverage points in your stocker/backgrounder business.

Have you ever sat down and figured out what it costs to breed a cow? It might seem like an easy number to calculate, since we can add up all of our natural service bull purchases and subtract out the salvage value of any bulls sold.