Calculating Your Next Move

Breakeven calculators offer assistance in calculating whether to buy, sell calves.

Story and photo by Shauna Hermel, editor

Summer grass is starting to wane and decision time for weaned calves is fast approaching. Breakeven calculators can be used to calculate the price a cow-calf producer must receive to clear the costs of producing a calf, the potential to add value through a backgrounding/stocker phase, and potential to break even by retaining ownership.

A variety of calculators are available online. Here are a few to explore.

The Certified Angus Beef Calf Price Breakeven Calculator helps cattlemen who raise Angus-type calves with detailed records that document no implants, antibiotics or animal-derived feeds used in production and still meet all brand specifications and qualify for Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand Natural. Currently Tyson, National Beef and Niman Ranch produce the more than 6 million pounds of CAB brand Natural sold each year.

This tool helps:

• Discover fair market value for your calves or feeder cattle.
• Decide if cattle should be sold or if retained ownership offers more profit potential based on market conditions, cattle genetics and management background.
• Calculate backward from a projected fed-cattle price while including normal or expected feedlot costs to arrive at the value of the cattle upon entering the feedlot.
• Assist buyer and seller in establishing a breakeven price at the time the calves or feeders are being sold or entered into joint ownership.
• Project potential carcass quality of the cattle and also adjust the values that are being paid for quality grade, yield grade and weight.

Iowa State University also offers several calculators through its Iowa Beef Center:

• The Backgrounding Breakeven Calculator contains Microsoft Excel^® spreadsheet budgets and a breakeven purchase-price estimator.
• Cattle Feeding Budgets includes Microsoft Excel spreadsheet budgets and a breakeven purchase-price estimator.
• Feeder Cattle Bid Calculator uses a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to calculate feeder cattle breakeven purchase prices across a user-defined range of corn grain prices and finished cattle sale prices. Learn how to use the calculator here.
• Grid Marketing Calculator (full version) helps determine any marketing advantage from selling cattle on a quality grid over selling “in the beef” or live. It’s offered in a full version or a simple version.

The Kansas State University Beef Cattle Institute offers several calculators, including

• Cattle-feeding breakeven worksheet for cow-calf producers
• Value of heifer development worksheet
• Stocker cattle calculations to estimate potential return on owning stocker cattle
• Evaluation of buying feeders
• Evaluating Marketing Options decision tool

Most are downloadable Excel files. The Evaluating Marketing Options decision tool provides a comparison of selling calves at weaning vs. backgrounding vs. feeding calves out.

North Dakota State University offers several tools to help cattlemen estimate budgets and calculate breakevens. Pertinent to this conversation:

• Backgrounding 550-lb. Steers — The downloadable Excel file helps calculate a ration cost, then calculates a return to labor, management and risk.
• The Calfweb Breakeven Calculator can be used to establish a breakeven purchase price calculated as (Gross sales per pen – total feeding costs) ÷ (cattle head count * purchase weight). The web-based calculator lets the user fill in input costs and three projected selling price scenarios.
• The Calfweb Closeout Analyzer allows the user to specify inputs and outputs, then calculates milestones per pound of gain, per head sold and per pen. The tool calculates an annualized return on equity.

Oklahoma State University published the RanchCalc spreadsheet in 2017 to assist cow-calf producers in deciding whether to retain ownership of calves for a period after weaning. The spreadsheet allows the user to plug in various “what if” scenarios, evaluating the economic effect a change in marketing, feeding, stocking density, labor, etc., could make to profitability. Authors Damona Doye, Eric DeVuyst and David Lalman provide an overview and explanation of the program here.

The Purina Projected Breakeven Calculator allows producers to estimate profitability or loss when finishing cattle. Inputs are adjusted weekly based on market conditions. Producers can select starting weight, adjust futures or selling price, and change total cost of gain to determine breakeven prices customized for their situation.

Cattle feeders Irsik & Doll offer a Cattle Breakeven Calculator to estimate per-head profit or loss for feeding cattle. The online tool allows the user to insert purchase date, weight and cost per hundredweight, as well as the number of days the cattle will be fed, a projected average daily gain, death loss percentage and cost of gain. The user can add interest rates for financing cattle and feed, as well as a projected selling price. The calculator figures an estimated cost of gain including death loss and interest.

Fairleigh Feedyard of Scott City, Kan., a founding member of U.S. Premium Beef, offers a breakeven calculator that includes premiums for age and source verification, as well as a natural premium.

A farmer-member-owned and operated cooperative, United Producers Inc. (UPI) offers a Feedlot Enterprise Budget to determine cash flow on an individual animal basis. The analysis calculates a breakeven selling price per cwt., a breakeven cost per cwt. less marketing cost, and a breakeven feeder purchase price per cwt. depending on the feeder-calf purchase weight.

Certainly not a comprehensive list, the breakeven calculators listed above are available to anyone online at no cost to the user. If you know of another resource that should be added to this list, email your suggestion to the author at shermel@angus.org.

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