Last month, I posted an update about how my wife and I are raising a cow for beef. This is a summary of our activity and costs for month 4. First, let’s check Bambi’s growth. Here he is at three months old:
And here he is today at 4 months old:
It’s difficult to tell from that picture, but Bambi is filling out nicely and gaining weight steadily. He’s getting big enough that it’s difficult to handle him when I try to take him from the barn to the grass.
Costs & Time
There hasn’t been any change in the amount of time it takes to care for Bambi. It takes me about 5 minutes to feed him every day, and about forty-five minutes to an hour to clean out his stall. The only other time I spend on him is making the trip to buy his feed, but that’s only about 15-20 minutes once a month.
We spent about $30 less than last month because we didn’t need to buy any more hay or straw. Here’s what we spent this month:
- Calf Feed – $40.31
- Time – 6 hours
And here are our total costs over the past four months:
- Cost of Bambi – Free!
- Castration & Dehorning – $16.00
- Milk Replacer – $45.54
- Miscellaneous – $39.90
- Calf Feed – $82.50
- Hay – $31.00
- Straw – $9.00
- Total Spent – $223.94
- Time – 42 hours
So after four months we’ve spent a total of $223.94 and 42 hours raising a cow for beef. I doubt the total cost will increase by much over the next month, and I expect the total time to stay the same.
That’s it for this month. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. And make sure you sign up for free updates to Provident Planning if you’re interested in knowing what it takes to raise a cow for beef!
Pingback: Foreigner's Finances