Do You Know Your Cost?

Feed cost is the biggest cost to raising livestock. It is also the most ignored cost of most producers. Keeping track of feed cost is not why most of us got into raising livestock. To stay profitable you must know your cost to know if you are making a profit. This is how I keep track and monitor my livestock feed cost.

[@SkippingCalvesFarms-je2cb]

Hey Greg:
This is great stuff. I was watching a you tube the other day and she said that if you don’t have measurement you don’t have management. You cannot manage what you do not know.
We keep track of what goes into and out of our paycheck. If we want our farm income to replace our town job we had better know what is going in and out on the farm too. Keep up the great work. It is very encouraging to listen to someone who is simply telling it like it is. God bless you for it.

[@grandviewlivestock3936]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

[@pbunderscore]

Great to see the nums. Ive been doing similar and then running those nums into profit per acre by animal to track.

[@ks_hunter7327]

I wish more ranchers and regenerative farmers released their numbers to encourage more people to transition into regenerative agriculture

[@savageairsoft9259]

We appreciate the information!

[@FantaLaStrada]

Thanks for the in depth video! Definitely gives me ideas on how to tweak my expense spreadsheet. One of our bigger costs is dog food and I noticed you pay a lot less per head than me. You pay $240 per dog/year and I pay about about $460 per dog/year feeding them about 2 pounds of dog food a day. I pay 50 to 65 cents per pound for dog food and I can't find anything cheaper than that. Do you buy it in bulk and where do you get it?

[@grandviewlivestock3936]

Last year we were buying in bulk at .35 cents / lb. but that dried up. We made a deal with a local supplier for 44 cents/lb. so will be higher this year. It seems to come out to about a bag/dog/month. Also depends on the number of dogs you have with the number of livestock. When we are keeping them in smaller paddocks and rotating them daily we need fewer dogs to cover a smaller area.

[@FantaLaStrada]

Thanks for the info. I might try talking to a feed store here in southern Missouri to see if I could get a bulk deal. Our Anatolians eat a lot, but our Spanish Mastiffs seem to eat quite a lot less. The Mastiffs stay close to the goats and the Anatolians run for miles at night all around whatever paddock they are in. @@grandviewlivestock3936

[@EHSTexas]

That was very impressive.