When is it better to buy replacement beef heifers rather than raising your own?

Taylor Grussing, a South Dakota State University Extension cow-calf business management field specialist, offers a guide.

Consider raising your own replacement heifers when:
• You want more control of the genetics, background and disease.
• Quality cannot be outsourced for the cost.
• You are confident that your heifers will be productive in your environment.
• A large number of heifers are needed.
• You have high-quality resources available — especially pen space, feed and equipment.

Consider buying replacement heifers when:
• You lack resources and/or experience selecting and raising heifers.
• New genetics/quality can be outsourced for less.
• You prefer to expand your herd with mature cows and use terminal sires to maximize pounds of calf.
• Fewer head of heifers are needed.
• You want to reduce bull power and maintenance costs. If you buy your replacement heifers, you don’t need calving-ease bulls.

Run the numbers
It’s important to be realistic about how many replacement heifers you need because usually the more heifers you need, the more economical it is to raise your own if you have the skills and resources, she says. A budget that Grussing put together based on fall 2016 costs indicates buying 15 heifers would cost about $12,000 less than raising 15 heifers. But you’d save about $30,000 if you raised 100 replacement heifers rather than buying 100 replacement heifers.

The following is a sample budget and a comparison:

You can develop your own budget each fall by calculating how much it would cost you to raise heifer calves from birth to weaning, and then estimating how much it will cost to own and develop the calves from weaning to pregnancy check.

Self-assessment
Honestly assess your own heifer development skills and resources, Grussing advises.
• Do you have the skill set, experience, resources, technology, time and farming schedule to raise replacement heifers right?
• What would it cost and how much time would it take to acquire new skills or resources such as AI, facilities and feed to produce heifers in-house?
• Could the time and resources involved in developing heifers be reallocated to improve other enterprises in the operation?

It’s best to get an unbiased opinion when deciding whether to raise or buy heifers. Grussing says. Having an advisory team that you can ask is a good idea. The team might include family members, other beef producers, financial advisers, veterinarians, nutritionists or Extension specialists. For more information on heifer development, contact Grussing at 605-995-7378.

SDSU Communications contributed to this article.