Although the hurricane's wind and rain have passed, major health and safety hazards remain. Serious injury can result for anyone dealing with the aftermath of a major storm, so it's wise to be overly cautious.
As the feed supply dwindles so does milk production. Early weaning calves (those 300 lb or more) can help by reducing the nutritional requirement of the cow herd, and early weaned calves make "two-way" cattle because:
Prices are still high, with 4-5 weight steer cattle selling about $5 or $6 per hundred higher than one year ago. Slaughter cows, of the utility class, are bringing around $2 more than last July.
As an example, a 180 day-old calf should still be in good condition. If he weighed 70 lbs at birth and gained an average of two pounds per day, that's 430 lbs, which last week averaged $97.50/cwt, to return $419.25 per steer to the owner.
If the steer was held another two months under these conditions, an average daily gain of one pound would be good. Further, the market is not expecting higher feeder cattle prices in the near future, for several reasons. For one, the fat market has already broken about $10/cwt. For another, the flooding in the midwest already is causing concern about this year's corn crop. And, the economy is still in the doldrums, which is raising questions about the demand for beef.
If that steer put on another 60 lb, how much will we have to sell him for to get the same $419.25? The answer is $85.56/cwt (419.25/390). But that's only $4/cwt less than what 5-6 weight steers were bringing last week and almost exactly what the 6-7 weights were trading for. In other words, a $5-6 break in the market would wipe out any additional gain.
Also, if we sell early, we can get our mama cows through a difficult period at considerably less expense. We cut her protein needs in half and reduce her energy requirements by about twenty percent. When we consider potential profits, a one dollar savings in cost is just as helpful as a one dollar increase in returns from cattle sales.