Southern Section Interdisciplinary Beef Cattle Symposium: Forage and co-product systems for stockers in the South: have fundamental shifts in markets changed the optimal system?

Stockering calves in the southern United States has been an economically viable enterprise for decades. Historically, the system that yielded the best opportunity for profitability was to purchase lightweight calves (130 kg to 220 kg) in autumn, add 100 to 200 kg of BW gain, and sell them in the spring. In most years, the value of the BW gain was worth more than the cost of BW gain in this system. With the exponential price increases in feed, fuel, and fertilizer during 2008 and the significant increase in cattle prices, it is prudent to assess the potential for continued profitability in this segment of the beef industry. Evaluation of 37 grazing experiments indicated that the forage systems most likely to result in inexpensive costs of BW gain for stocker calves involve tall fescue with legumes or ryegrass with small grains. Even with increased input prices, these systems still yield economical BW gain for stocker calves. Likewise, many diets can be blended to produce ADG of 1 kg using co-products that are abundant across the South. With many of these co-products, the most important performance factor in determining their value is G:F. In several experiments, DMI has exceeded 3% of BW in stocker calves, and the resulting G:F has been less than desirable. Several experiments have reported G:F of 0.13 to 0.16, resulting in economical BW gain, whereas some experiments have reported G:F as low as 0.09, which could result in BW gain that costs more to produce than it is worth. From 1979, the value of BW gain for stocker calves in Alabama has averaged US$1.05/kg. However, in the last 3 yr, the value of BW gain has risen to $2.32/kg. Fundamental shifts in feed, fuel, and fertilizer prices experienced in the United States between 2005 and 2010 have markedly changed the amount of capital needed to purchase several hundred stocker calves and to provide adequate feedstuffs for BW gain. However, the value of BW gain associated with producing feeder calves from those stockers has experienced a concomitant increase. The optimal system still uses high-quality cool-season forages and supplementation with co-product feeds. With this system, a significant margin of profit still exists for the Southeastern stocker cattle production system.