Cowtrade calculators

There are four calculators embedded within the Cowtrade program located below the summaries of runs section. Their purpose is to assist in; calculating the value of owned stock on the farm, calculating the landed cost of purchased stock, calculating net selling price of stock classes and calculating transport costs per head.

Note: It is not necessary to use the tools for the Cowtrade program to work, however, the tools can be useful for some background calculations if the figures are not already know to the user.

Calculate the value of the owned stock on farm

This tool is used to calculate the current sale value of stock owned on farm. Use this calculator to work out the Starting value/head (net) of group cell in Cowtrade if the stock are owned, not purchased. If the stock are purchased then use the landed cost calculator described in the next section. The steps below outline how to use the tool shown in Figure 1.

1. Enter an expected weight loss, if any, to get to the sale yards or meat works as a percentage of live weight (0%)
2. Enter the sale price received at yards or works as $/kg live weight ($2.55/kg)
3. Enter any commission or insurance as a percentage of sale value (3%)
4. Enter any transaction levy or yard dues from the sale as dollars per head ($15/hd)
5. Enter the transport cost per head if known or this can be calculated using the transport cost calculator ($16/hd)
6. This then calculates the value of the animal on the property net of selling expenses as $1,156 per head which is the Starting value/head net of group in the Cowtrade program if you already owned the stock in question.

Note: if the animals were purchased by you this value should be calculated as the landed cost of purchased stock using the calculator described in the following section.

Figure 1 - Value of owned stock on farm calculator

Calculate the landed cost of purchased stock

This tool is used to calculate the landed cost of purchased cattle and provides the value to enter into the Starting value/head (net) of group cell in Cowtrade if the stock are purchased, not already owned, the steps below outline how to use the tool shown in Figure 2.

1. Enter a travel cost if costs have been incurred to acquire the cattle purchased, for example attending an auction to purchase a mob of pregnancy tested in calf (PTIC) cows. ($200)
2. Enter the number of head purchased (80 head)
3. Enter the transport cost per head if known or this can be calculated using the transport cost calculator ($16/hd)
4. Enter an induction cost per head, this may be any treatments put over the cows before coming onto the property ($3.5/hd)
5. Enter the price per kilogram paid at purchase ($2.55/kg)
6. This calculates a landed cost of $1,246/hd which is the Starting value/head net of group in the Cowtrade program if you purchased the stock in question.

Note: if the animals were already owned by you this value should be calculated as the net value if owned cattle were to be sold using the calculator described in the previous section.

Figure 2 - Landed cost of purchased stock calculator

Calculate Net Selling Price/KG

This tool is used to calculate a net selling value for each of the two classes of stock in the scenario, these values fill the Sale value (net/head) of each stock class in the Cowtrade program, the steps below outline how to use the tool shown in Figure 3.

1. Enter the price per kilogram gross, this is the price received from the sale yard or abattoir $2.50 on (breeders and progeny)
2. Enter any commission or insurance paid as a percentage of sale value (0% breeders going to abattoir and 4% on progeny going to sale yards)
3. Enter any transaction levy or yard dues paid as $/head ($5 MLA levy on breeders and $15 levy + yard dues on progeny)
4. Enter the transport cost per head if know or by using the Transport cost calculator ($40/hd on breeders and $10/hd on progeny)
5. The net price per head received is then calculated as $1,155 for breeders and $455 for progeny after the selling costs incurred. To transfer these figures up into the Cowtrade tool for the net sale values data input click on the copy buttons at the bottom of the columns for Breeders and Progeny. (If the user adds a dressing % they can also see a net price per kg dressed for the animals)

Figure 3 - Net selling price calculator

Calculate Transport Cost/HD

This tool is used to calculate a transport cost per head of a class of stock, the steps below outline how to use the tool shown in Figure 4.

1. Enter the $/deck/km that the business is charged to transport livestock (in this case $2.00)
2. Enter the distance this class of animal needs to travel (500km)
3. Enter the number of head per deck on the transport (24hd), if this figure is unknown then an approximation can be found from the live weight of the animals using the table to the right of the calculator.
4. The transport cost per head is then $40, this figure can be used in the other calculators.

Figure 4 - Transport cost calculator