charge for breaking, feeding and clipping calves

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BSC

Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
8
I have been asked by a friend to take on four of his calves to help him get them sold.  I don't want to charge him too much, but i don't want to short myself either.  My costs would include feeding them, along with the time and labor of breaking, washing and clipping them.  I'm looking for some ideas on what "fair market value" would be for me to charge him.  I've thought of a basic daily charge, or possibly getting a percentage of the sale price of the calves.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks
 

aj

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Jul 5, 2006
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6,422
Location
western kansas
Labor costs are important to figure. We tend to not figure it cause we enjoy it and are promoting our program. I think the labor part gets to be less enjoyable if you are donating it for free to someone else.
 

TJ

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Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
2,036
BSC said:
I have been asked by a friend to take on four of his calves to help him get them sold.  I don't want to charge him too much, but i don't want to short myself either.  My costs would include feeding them, along with the time and labor of breaking, washing and clipping them.  I'm looking for some ideas on what "fair market value" would be for me to charge him.  I've thought of a basic daily charge, or possibly getting a percentage of the sale price of the calves.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks

I've been on both sides of this... done it & had it done.  Matter of fact, I'm doing it for someone right now & I'm probably going to be doing it for 1 or 2 others shortly.  PM me if you want specifics.   

TJ
 

BCCC

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Jan 6, 2008
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2,087
Location
Hillsboro, TX
2 dollars a head a day for board and that includes hay for the calves. Feed wise would be however much you spend on feed. I would say probally about 50-100 bucks to get them halter broke and clipped. Just kind of depends on the person
 

reno1014

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Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
166
That sounds way cheap to me.  Just to halter break a calf I would think its at least worth 200.00 dollars...rough clipping 25.00 a head finished clipping 75.00.
Depending on how big the calf is at three percent of body wieght if the calf weighs 500 pounds it would eat 15 pounds of grain a day which comes to 4.00 per day
just for grain.  Hay could be thrown in just because if you feel like you need to give the guy a break. If you want to break it down into daily charge 10.00 per day.
Depending on how long you keep them you might come out.....pending any bumps and bruises from the calves.
 

SWMO

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Jul 27, 2007
Messages
715
Location
Carthage MO
We just got finished telling a potential customer that feed alone would be $4.00 a day.
 

aj

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Jul 5, 2006
Messages
6,422
Location
western kansas
Charge what the market will bear unless you have a vested interest in the calves.
 

Alexjung13

Active member
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Messages
35
Location
SD
i have been in the same boat as you have. So here is what i did. it depend on how long you have had them, and if you broke them to be show ready, plus feed and clipping i would say you should get at least 150 bucks for each calve. which if he wanted it to be lower
he should of done it himself. Lets say it wasn't for a friend people get around 450 buck for show ready breaking and feed plus clipping so that is my opion and it works for me.
 
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