Non-Environmental Cost-Benefit News

After a couple of years of better cattle prices, it's easy to think about updating cattle facilities. Whether or not that's the best decision for an operation depends on a number of factors.

Dave Kesteloot, Form-A-Feed, Inc., of Marshall, Minn., has spent over 30 years promoting beef solutions - from building new facilities, to updating current facilities, to increasing efficiencies for better profitability.

The following are some of his suggestions when considering a new facility or making some changes to the existing feedlot operation.

A cattleman with fantastic facilities that are fully depreciated earns 10 cents per head per day more than the cattleman who is paying for new facilities.

"Every 200 days, they are $20 ahead of the rest of us that have to spend money on new facilities or some major improvements," said Kesteloot. "Hopefully, our investment is taking us in the right direction."

# Getting the cattle comfortable is the number one concern, especially in mound yards.

If cattle are walking through mud and manure, the cattleman needs to look at that situation and see what can be changed.

Research out of Carrington, N.D., shows using bedding will impressively improve gain, feed efficiency and grade. In 2003 and 2004, bedding paid over no bedding about $45 per head.

Many cattlemen can improve cattle care by working on small changes each year. Kesteloot has the following suggestions:

1) In mound yards, try to get rid of muddy areas right behind the bunk by extending the apron. Kesteloot sometimes advises producers to slope from the bunk down and then come back up again so the water funnels off the end of the pen rather than where the cattle walk.

"Bedding on the apron is best if it's wide enough because you can clean as needed in real wet conditions," said Kesteloot. "Sending 1,200- to 1,300-pound cattle to the same place you have an extra 5 to 10 inches of rain going off isn't a good combination."

2) Use a box scraper with a front-wheel assist tractor and bar tires to clean up mound yards.

3) Keep the manure pack just off of a narrow apron. If the bedding pack is too far away from the bunk, the cattle will be less likely to make the trip to the bunk as they get bigger.

In addition, a muddy area can develop between the bed pack and the bunks, and that just leads to problems.

"You get the wet conditions and get the bruising right after it freezes," said Kesteloot. "You can get foot rot following that in some cases."

4) If an area turns into a "big muck hole," consider dumping Hesston stacks of cornstalk bedding in the muddy areas. It's a quick fix that works well and is inexpensive.

Keeping yourself and employees comfortable will result in more comfort for the cattle.

"It's sure nice when I can work in a little bit nicer conditions," said Kesteloot. "If I'm 50 or 60 years old and it's handy to take care of the cattle, I'm going to do it. I'm a little less interested if it's not so easy, and I have to push hard."

Mound yards are less expensive to run, but can lead to less market predictability.

"Your target marketing and timing can vary - you're less predictable - with the mound yards," said Kesteloot. "You can miss the market by $20 to $30 per head because you are more vulnerable. It paralyzes your ability to make some marketing decisions when you're not quite sure when the cattle will be ready."

# Covered facilities offer market predictability that help you lock in market prices.

They are more expensive, and a few cattlemen may risk losing their facilities if they lose money on cattle just after a large investment.

Covered facilities also need to be kept full year-round. The roof facilities also minimize pollution with clean water running off the roof and away from the feedlot.

Kesteloot recommends bedding in the center of covered facility pens and scraping down to the concrete every six to nine months. The rest of the time, just clean the outer 6 to 10 feet to maintain a quality bed pack.

When he first put up covered facilities, Kesteloot was scraping the entire pen every 10 days. Now he's learned that a manure pack will work just fine. The pack is not bedded as often in the summer to keep it from getting too high, which may cause more ammonia concern.

"That bed pack is saving 60 to 70 percent of our labor time instead of cleaning and scraping the pen constantly," said Kesteloot. "On a 35- to 40-foot square pack, cattle move the manure to you so nicely as the center starts getting looser. We're learning it's a little bit of an art to manage that bed pack."

# Concrete pens work best if the farm or ranch includes a good northwest grove.

The feedlot needs to be a flat surface with good black soil.

"Give me 10 rows of trees on the north and west and put my feed yard 150 to 200 feet inside that," said Kesteloot. "There's a little more weather to deal with, but the grove is a tremendous asset to the concrete pens."

Concrete pens will not work if the feedlot is located too close to a river or a road, said Kesteloot, adding that it will cost about 30 to 40 percent less to install concrete pens versus covering the feedlot.

A north half of a pen covered with the south open offers a compromise between cost and comfort, but needs good management.

Cattlemen can often improve market predictability by going with half-covered facilities. Cattle get more outside air when it's nice out, and that leads to good health. But half of a solution still includes half of the problems. It's often hard to develop a bed pack, so more cleaning is required.

"Our cattle and our bedding were drier, but still not quite dry," said Kesteloot. "The problem is it costs the same as a fully covered building, and I still have to fight pollution. That's the real issue with a lot of facilities. They still get wet. I still push a little too much soup."

Costs and benefits

Kesteloot thinks the covered barn is often the best solution for many cattle producers. He figures the cost of an open yard is $150 to $300 per head, while the cost of a half-covered or all covered barn runs $250 to $300 per head. In an easy winter, Kesteloot achieved 7 percent better efficiency in covered facilities versus open yards.

A covered facility leaves the cattleman with something to leave for the next generation. Projections can also accurately be made based on the cost of grain. Covered facilities offer quality control, cattle performance and superior profit margins.

"I can build a building and feed 10 percent less feed year in and year out," said Kesteloot. "If I feed outside, I can wind up feeding 10 percent more feed so fast, because it's so easy to drop the ball."

By Andrea Johnson, For Lee Agri-Media

Tri-State Neighbor