How much to charge for a weanling (4-6 month old) steer?

[Julie]

Hello,
I wondered what the "going rate" was for a weanling, unregistered Dexter steer that will be raised for beef.

[ctownson]

We charge about $450 but that includes some handling of the calf - basic halter breaking for example just to make the animal easier to manage.

[kansasdexters]

We normally pay $1.25 to $1.50/lb live weight, whenever we buy weanling Dexter steers. But we want steers that have been castrated at 5-6 months and then left with their dams and weaned at 8-9 months.

Weaning a beef steer at 4 months can be detrimental to the quality of beef from the finished steer -- because it takes much longer to finish a steer on grass without supplemental feed, if it has been weaned too early (4-6 months). A "normal" lactation for a Dexter cow is 9-10 months, and if you leave the castrated calf with it's dam until it is 8 to 9 months old, then you can get the maximum gain and optimal health in the calf. Since most breeders don't/won't do this, we prefer to raise our own Dexter beef steers.

Patti

[Gorignak]

HEY Patti.....I can just barely see you in that chest high grass you're in. Wow what a year.

Implicit in this question....but not wanting to hijack it beyond the scope of "how much $$$ is the calf worth"....is the codified and developing concept of "grass fed". Your answer sparked a search of the quickly available standards...USDA 2007....Whole Foods....The Grass Fed Associations and marketing bodies.

I am going to pursue this in another thread. I already see some inconsistencies and "hard to digest" concepts. It holds great interest for me, as we would like to market the milk and milk products. This swings wide open the question of suitability and formulation of milk replacer. A little closer to the original question, is the question of the ability to bring a healthy calf to full potential on forage...obviously forage of the highest quality in the early stages, but none the less, forage based feed.
The conundrum is ....how much in return is sacrificed by moving the calf off the mother. Is there time and quality lost.....and, is there a valuable certification lost. Is this loss able to be recouped in the value of the milk.

Our immediate answer is nurse cows. We have our Guernsey/Jersey heifer who will calve at the same time as our heifers. Not caring if the calf drank A1/A1 milk....any breed would do. But, it is sound economics to maintain a high level of A2 in your herd, no matter what breed.

Hey...I'll join you in singing a chorus to the song Dexter owners know so well...you can cover..."There ain't no beef like Dexter beef", and I'll sing, "There ain't no milk like Dexter milk".
Like "Row, Row, Row your boat".... I need to make those two synchronize and  harmonize.