Cowtrade
The Cowtrade program is used to calculate the prospective profitability of breeder groups (i.e. some of them will have or already have calves) while the Bullocks program is used to calculate the prospective profitability for groups of steers and empty cows or heifers.
The Cowtrade and Bullocks programs can also assist with decisions where sales are forced by drought or a variety of other circumstances.
Note: The Cowtrade program (and its companion program Bullocks) do not use data from or directly contribute data to any other Breedcow+ and Dynama+ program.
When buying cattle to fatten or grow out, it is logical that the most profitable options are the ones to choose. The profitability criterion for choosing between fattening or growing opportunities is nearly always the gross margin per adult equivalent after interest. If finance is tight to the degree that the feed cannot be completely stocked, then the gross margin expressed as a percent of herd and expenses capital is a more satisfactory criterion. The Cowtrade and Bullocks programs calculate both these measures of profitability.
If selling stock to reduce grazing pressure or to relieve financial pressure, the object should be to achieve the grazing or financial objective with least damage to future income. If the issue is grazing pressure, sell first those groups with the lowest gross margin per adult equivalent after interest. If the issue is financial, sell first those groups with the lowest percent return on livestock and expenses capital.
Using the Cowtrade 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.
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.
Example one
Copy the User manual example scenario from the examples list and open the scenario, this will illustrate how the program may be used in the following (example one).
Note: The yellow cells are for inputs and can be adjusted, while the rest are calculated outputs.