Does your fattening batch pay?
Enter your batch of cattle on feed as it is today and the goal you want to reach. You see profit, return, break-even price and cost per kg gained side by side, in your own currency.
Cattle fattening profit: today and goal
Profit today
1,840,520
5.4% ROI
Profit at goal
4,017,720
11.7% ROI
| Results | Today | Goal | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sale weight per head | 358 kg | 376 kg | |
| Head sold (average) | 9.8 | 9.9 | |
| Purchase cost | 27,000,000 | 27,000,000 | |
| Total cost | 34,296,000 | 34,323,000 | |
| Sales revenue | 36,136,520 | 38,340,720 | |
| Total profit | 1,840,520 | 4,017,720 Diff. +2,177,200 | +2,177,200 |
| Profit per head bought | 184,052 | 401,772 Diff. +217,720 | +217,720 |
| Return (ROI) for the period | 5.4% | 11.7% Diff. +6.3 pts | +6.3 pts |
| Break-even price per kg | 9,775 | 9,221 | |
| Cost per kg gained | 6,893 | 5,871 |
Fix the marked fields to see the results.
These are estimates from your own numbers, and the values above are an example of 10 steers in the chosen currency: replace them with yours. Cattle prices change every week and from one sale to the next. Taxes and the cost of money are not included.
How it works
How we work it out
- Sale weight per head = purchase weight + daily gain (in kg) × days on feed.
- Head sold = head bought × (1 − death loss). It is an average, so it can have decimals.
- Purchase cost = head bought × purchase weight × purchase price per kg.
- Feed is charged for the head sold plus half of the dead: we assume that, on average, an animal that dies does so halfway through the period. Health (vaccines and dewormers go in at arrival) and other costs are charged for every head bought.
- Total cost = purchase + feed + health + other costs.
- Revenue = head sold × sale weight × sale price per kg.
- Profit = revenue − total cost. Per head, it is divided by the head bought.
- Return (ROI) = profit ÷ total cost. It is the return for the whole period on feed, not per year: if the goal has a different number of days than today, the two returns are not like for like.
- Break-even price = total cost ÷ kg sold. It is the sale price at which you neither make nor lose money.
- Cost per kg gained = (feed + health + other costs) ÷ kg gained by the head sold. The purchase is not included.
- Weigh on the farm, after a fast, when you can. Transport and waiting take weight off the animal (shrink), often 3 to 8 %: if you are paid on the weight at the sale or the plant, use that weight for the sale.
Worked example
In Colombian pesos (COP): 10 steers of 250 kg bought at COP 10,800 per kg, 180 days on feed gaining 600 g a day, COP 3,000 of feed per head per day, COP 45,000 of health and COP 150,000 of other costs per head, 2% death loss and a sale at COP 10,300 per kg.
On average 9.8 head are sold at 358 kg. Total cost is COP 34,296,000, of which 27,000,000 is the purchase. Revenue is COP 36,136,520 and profit COP 1,840,520, COP 184,052 per head bought: a return of 5.4% over the 180 days. The break-even price is COP 9,775 per kg and the cost per kg gained, COP 6,893.
In the example goal, daily gain rises to 700 g and death loss falls to 1%. Profit becomes COP 4,017,720 (COP +2,177,200) and the return 11.7%. These are example figures: the goal is whatever you enter.
Common questions
- What daily gain can I expect when fattening?
- It depends on the pasture, the breed, the climate and the season. On tropical pasture with no supplement, 300 to 500 g a day is common; on good rotated pasture with supplement, 600 to 800 g; in a feedlot on concentrate, 1,000 g or more. You find yours by weighing a sample of animals going in and coming out.
- How much does death loss affect profit?
- A lot, because a dead animal takes with it what it cost to buy, its health treatments and what it ate until that day, and brings in nothing. In this page’s example, each point of death loss costs about COP -341,740 of profit.
- What does break-even price mean?
- The price per kg you would have to sell at to neither make nor lose money: total cost divided by the kg you sell. If the sale pays more, you make money; if it pays less, you lose. It helps you negotiate and decide when to sell.
- How do I lower the cost per kg gained?
- Raise daily gain without raising spending in the same proportion: better, well-rotated pasture, clean water at all times, mineral salt, timely deworming and not overstocking paddocks. Fixed costs per head, like transport and labour, are spread over more kg when animals gain more.
- Why is my sale price per kg lower than my purchase price?
- Because that is normal: lean stocker cattle usually fetch more per kg than finished steers. Fattening (ceba, engorde or engorda in Spanish) makes money on the kg the animal puts on at your farm, not on the price difference, which is why daily gain weighs so much in the result.