Economics of Developing and Reselling Heifers

This week, Shaye Wanner interviews NDSU livestock development specialist Jon Biermacher about the economics of buying weaned/backgrounded heifers in spring, breeding them, and selling them about a year later as long-bred heifers or as pairs, using an Excel-based enterprise budget tool developed from a student producer’s plan.  

The model includes key costs (heifer purchase, pasture/feed/hay/mineral, health, breeding, transport, interest, marketing) and compares AI plus cleanup bulls versus natural service, finding about a $55/head advantage to not using AI (not counting added labor) and little observed revenue premium for AI’d breds. In their projections, pairs returned about $100/head more than bred heifers. Results show costs are dominated by heifer purchase and feed, with profit highly sensitive to purchase price; a ~$0.20/lb increase can erase roughly $200/head projected net return. This conversation is helpful for anyone looking to create projections on their operation with resources from the NDSU team.  

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01:31 Meet John Biermacher 

04:54 Defining the Enterprise 

06:08 Building the Budget Tool 

13:03 Markets and Assumptions 

15:04 AI Versus Bulls 

19:48 Where the Costs Sit 

22:26 Breds Versus Pairs 

25:35 Break Evens and Risk 

31:47 Tools Beyond Spreadsheets