What's a steak?, lol

Eating pork, chicken, and some deer, buy chopmeat only on sale, sometimes 3.99 at the local supermarket...I'm getting by...

These are the numbers from my farm, it wont be the same everywhere.

Need 4 acres per cow here 400 acres @$3,000 an acre is 1.2 Million, bred cows $400,000, Need a skidloader or tractor to feed, 4 wheeler, fencing, etc. Realistically $1.5 million is low, I just managed it by getting two really great deals on farms (were at 70 cow capacity but I upped the numbers to 100 to make it simple)

I figure 5 tons of hay per head, we should use a little less but that is not something you want to run short on. So 5 tons of hay $150 a ton =$750.
My land cost is $90 per acre (yes I own the land but that's what it would rent for) so $360 in land cost.
Add in some wormer, ear tag, vaccines, vet visits, fence and gate depreciation and our cost is around $1,200 to produce a calf.

I've had people tell me I shouldn't add my "land cost" in but to me that's just lying to myself on my actual returns, I like my numbers to be as close to correct as I can.

I was raised on Hamburger, but it wasn't $7 a lb! Haven't bought any cow in a couple of years.

Ok so it cost you 1200 according to you and your selling for 1800 to me that's 50% on your investment.when you retire or get tired of doing it you still have the land which you admit getting a good deal on(will more then likely go up in price) plus the machinery and whatever livestock you have left.maybe iam missing something but if every farmer were selling calves for less then 1750 roughly (which by the way a couple years ago they were alot less) every farmer would of went bankrupt.

50%!? My brother in christ please make sure you hire a good accountant for taxes.

You're on the right track there.
I remember when the government gave home and farm loans out like candy.
Didn't care about how it would be paid back.
The goal was to get rid of small farmers, and back huge farms , while selling the reprocessed land/farms at cheap auctions.
Now you see nothing but housing developments where farms were.
More tax money for a home than a farm. Now put 100's of homes on that farm land, who gets the profit?

Best value in beef right now is prime ribeye loin. That's what I'm having for dinner.

1200 for investment 1800 selling price.1800-1200=600,1200-600 =600 that's 50% in my books.

Let me do this simpler...

$1.5 Millon invested
$60,000 yearly profit
4% annual return on investment and you have to actually do the work

Would you invest $1.5 million dollars to buy yourself a $60,000 a year job?

Cattlemen are finally making a good wage after many, many years of struggling. The guvment should keep their noses out of the cattle market. Free trade will take it where it should be.
My daughter and son in law have a 100 mama cow operation on top of both working good full time jobs. We all voted for Trump 3 times, but he’s screwed the cattlemen big time with this beef deal.

Heck I eat a lot of what we kill wild pigs, deer, rabbits, squirrel and dove.
I’ve tried beaver before but I think I may start trying it more often. The bobcat meat looks good but I haven’t went there yet.

That may be, but didn't he also find ways to help the farmer?

Remember farmers aren't the only ones being effected by what's going on.
And inflation started long before he took office.
I still say let it ride out, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Donner and Clay have nailed it here. Markets go up and down, when grain was high and cattle lower years ago it cost a fella more to feed them with extremely tight margins. In my area I don't know of a cow man that's benefiting from any subsidies either. Anytime farming is mentioned on this site somebody hollers welfare lol. All of those $2000 calves yall are counting going down the road don't live to maturity with sickness and such. Not trying to offend, carry on and always remember you can go to the sale barn and get in on the action also.

I don’t have much sympathy for big farmers in my area as they are definitely living well. But for average size (500 head or less of steers) farmers who need to buy at these prices carry a high risk factor. It takes about 18 months minimum to get a steer to market. Market can change a lot over that time. Something to remember is just because prices are high that does mean the profit is high, buying Holstein calf at $2k does not equate to record profit. The bigger farmers can ride market fluctuations but at these prices a market correction can easily sink the “average” farmer.

Grain farmers get price support. Livestock producers do not.

80 acres of river bottom ground east of town here just sold for a little under a million dollars.

There is a shortage of it in my freezer. but it's never down to none.

Local store has ground chuck @$4.69 lb , bonless ribeye steaks @$9.99 lb.
Hereford USDA certified beef.
Big box stores around here want $ 7.69 lb ground beef, and $19,99 lb for ribeye steaks
Have no idea if it's shipped from South America or not.
I'll find out if I can.
Brother said it's good tasting meat.
I'll stock up on it as best I can.

Pork under $ 2.00 a lb.

High incidence of mad cow in SA beef.

Do Canadians get mad cow ?
Seems I remember Canada was where it came from.