Bullocks

Summary

The Bullocks program does for non-breeding cattle what the Cowtrade program does for breeder groups. Although the focus of the Bullocks program is on selecting the most profitable turnover cattle, it may also be used to evaluate forced sales options. The gross margins calculated in the Bullocks program for non-breeders may be compared with the gross margin for breeders as calculated in the Cowtrade program if they are compared on a per adult equivalent after interest or capital invested basis. The Bullocks program requires data for purchase and sale dates, weights, prices (landed and net respectively), expected mortalities, variable costs, interest rate and purchase and sale price increments for the sensitivity tables.

Using the Bullocks program

The program is located with the [Breedcow and Dynama] software, within the Tools tab, which can be accessed after registering or logging in to use the free software. Figure 1 below displays the Bullocks scenario list page.

• A new scenario can be created by clicking the Save button beside a blank yellow name bar and can be named by typing in the yellow bar. This scenario or previously created scenarios can be edited by clicking the Open button.
• To open an example scenario click the Copy button beside the example scenario and it will be copied into your scenario list where it can be opened as your own scenario.
• A scenario can be shared with another user by clicking the Share button then entering in the email address for the user you wish to share it with. Note that this must be the email they have used to register their account with at https://breedcowdynama.com.au the shared scenario will appear in their scenarios list for the relevant program.

Figure 1 - Bullocks scenario list

Firstly, enter the start date and expected end date of the steer fattening enterprise.

Dates are entered using the dd/mm/yyyy format and entering 01/07/2017 will show as 01-Jul-2017.

Next, decide the average opening and closing weights of the steers. In this case the gross margin uses the same weights for both paddock weights and traded weights. If the traded (or sale weights) are going to be significantly less than the paddock weights, then it is important to use appropriate traded weights as they are the ones used to calculate the gross margin. The traded weights are entered by default using an allow override formula but should be changed where paddock weights at sale time are different to the actual weight at the point of sale.

Mortalities and variable costs are for the duration of the fattening period, not per year and the interest rate is nominated as an annual rate.

Sale weights can be specified as dressed or live weights and to specify live weights set the dressing percentage at sale value to 100 percent.

The input data is combined to calculate the measures of gross margin per beast purchased, gross margin per adult equivalent, gross margin per adult equivalent after interest and the percent return on livestock capital. Each of these measures is adjusted to a yearly equivalent by taking into account the number of days on feed.

The return on investment is calculated as the average of the starting and finishing value of the beast (less mortality allowance), plus half the variable cost (assuming costs are distributed evenly over the fattening period). The capital calculation for the return on investment is done on the same basis.

Adult equivalents are also for the duration of the fattening period and are calculated as average weight of the animal over the fattening period divided by the default adult equivalent standard (455 kg) multiplied by number of days on forage and divided by 365. Thus an animal of 455 kg or less can have an adult equivalent rating of more than 1.00 if it is on forage for more than a year.

To facilitate the calculation of carrying capacities when animals are carried for more than a year, the adult equivalent rating over the fattening period can be split each side of a nominated date. This allows for the increase in adult equivalent rating as the animal gains weight.

By default, the Bullocks program calculates the average daily gain from the sale weight and end date entered.

Sensitivity tables are calculated in the Bullocks program to show the impact of a change in any of the key variables used in the analysis. The range of values shown in the sensitivity table can be set by changing their incremental change.

Sensitivity table input from Bullocks

The sensitivity tables show the calculated values in the blue cells, surrounded by deviations from those calculations for different purchase and sale prices.

File:Sensitivity Tables.PNG

Sensitivity Tables from Bullocks