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Irvin Petsch said that during the past decade of low cattle prices many feedyards expanded their operations to include services beyond cattle feeding. For the Petsch family, who operate Y6 Feeders near Meridan, Wyo., providing replacement heifers seemed a natural expansion of their business. They have been in the ranching business for four generations. The feedyard was an expansion of their ranching business. Initially, they fed only their own cattle, then they began adding cattle for customers. With their own cattle grading well, Y6 Feeders began offering replacement heifers, both from their own herd and from others with whom they contract through Agri-Plan, a Georgia-based heifer improvement program. "We farm 1,700 acres of irrigated farmland," Petsch said. "We produce a lot of our own feed stuffs." They've been feeding their own and a few custom cattle at their Y6 Feedyard since 1950. "We just built a new complex in the last two years," Petsch said. "It's pretty much state of the art feeding operation." The lot capacity of the yard is 5,600, but the mill has the capacity to feed 12,000 head. "We have about 2,100 head of mother cows," he said. So the heifer development business seemed like a natural extension of their operation. Petsch said they usually keep about 200 to 300 head of replacement heifers for their own herd. He's also developed his program where other people can bring in their own heifers for development. "The ideal situation for us is they'll bring their calves in as weaning calves," Petsch said, "and we'll feed them on a growing ration until they reach about a 750 pound level." Then, they'll sort the best heifers out for replacements using ultrasound. The other heifers will be finished. The replacements will be fed the growing ration rather than the finishing rations. The development heifers are then synchronized and bred. "We can keep them through the summer," Petsch said. "There are a whole bunch of different options." One of the options is to keep them there after they've had their first calf and breed them back. Then the producer can pick them up and have a calf and a bred cow. Petsch can also provide replacements from his own herd. "We mostly have straight Angus cows," Petsch said, "or Maine Anjou Angus cross cows." It is essentially an English base with a Continental cross to get a little more size. Petsch said they enjoy about a conception rate in their heifer development program above the 80 percent mark. "We've got small enough pens, and it's not as hot there as it is in a lot of locations," Petsch said. What Petsch said he's offering through their replacement heifer program is basically what they are doing within their own herd. "That's what we're offering to our customers," Petsch said. "They can benefit from our experience." According to Petsch, feeders these days are offering more perks and benefits. "I think the reason for that is when the cattle market was really down, there were a lot producers that were having trouble making ends meet," Petsch said. "There were a lot of producers that started to feed under retained ownership and things like that. In order to attract those type of people, you had to do different things for them." Due to electronic ID and ultrasound, Petsch can provide a rancher with very detailed records on the heifers. "If they bring their cattle to us and feed them, we can pretty well tell them what they've done all the way through." Then they can make better genetic decisions on their own herds. |
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