What is cost of gain?

Everything it costs to keep an animal for a period — feed, grass, vet, interest, death loss and the rest — divided by the pounds it gained. It is the number to compare against what the market pays for those pounds.

What is a good cost of gain on stockers?

It varies with grass, feed prices and the year. What matters is how it compares with the value of gain the market is offering: if a pound costs you $1.10 to put on and the spread between weight classes pays $1.40, the gain is worth putting on.

Should I count my own grass?

Yes, at what you could rent it out for. Grass you own is not free — it could earn rent instead — and leaving it out makes the cattle look more profitable than the land under them.

Why include interest if I paid cash?

Your money tied up in the animal could be earning something elsewhere or paying down debt. Leaving it out understates the cost by a few cents a pound over a backgrounding period.

Cost of gain calculator

What each pound of gain really costs you, with the parts people leave out — interest, death loss, the rent your own grass could earn — each on its own line. Then send the answer straight to the Cattle Square.

Works for cattle and sheep & goats. Free, no account, and nothing you type leaves your phone.

The animal

Weight going in

Cost going in

$/cwt

Days on feed or grass

days

Average daily gain

lb/day

Cost per head per day

Grass or pasture rent

$/day

Your own grass too, at what you could rent it out for.

Hay

$/day

Grain, cubes, supplement, mineral

$/day

Yardage, if you pay it

$/day

For the whole period, per head

Vet, medicine, processing

Trucking, labor, other

Interest rate

% a year

On the money tied up in the animal — borrowed or your own.

Death loss

% of head

Cost of gain

$1.45

a pound, on 240 lb of gain a head

Feed and grass: $216.00
Vet and other: $35.00
Interest: $61.44
Death loss: $35.04
Total a head: $347.48

Breakeven sale price

$338.82/cwt

at 792 lb, just to get back what went in.

Use $1.45 in the Cattle Square

Your numbers, step by step

Gain: 2 lb a day × 120 days = 240 lb, so it goes out at 792 lb.
Feed and grass: $1.80 a day × 120 days = $216.00.
The animal cost 552 lb × $423.18 ÷ 100 = $2,335.95. Interest on that at 8% for 120 days: $2,335.95 × 8% × 120/365 = $61.44.
Death loss: 1.5% × $2,335.95 = $35.04 carried by each one that lives.
Total: $216.00 + $25.00 + $10.00 + $61.44 + $35.04 = $347.48 a head.
Cost of gain: $347.48 ÷ 240 lb = $1.448 a pound.
Breakeven: ($2,335.95 + $347.48) ÷ 792 lb × 100 = $338.82/cwt.

See a mistake, or a number that doesn't look right?

How this is calculated

The formulas

Gain: average daily gain × days
Feed and grass: (grass + hay + grain + yardage, $/day) × days
Interest: purchase value × rate × days ÷ 365
Simple interest on what the animal cost. Interest on the feed bill is left out: it is spent gradually, so it is worth pennies a pound.
Death loss: purchase value × death loss %
Each animal that lives carries its share of the ones that don't.
Cost of gain: (feed + vet + other + interest + death loss) ÷ gain
Breakeven: (purchase value + total cost) ÷ weight out × 100

Where the defaults come from, and the limits

The opening animal. A five-weight steer at this week's national Medium & Large 1–2 average and average weight (552 lb), from USDA Market News.
Every other default — 120 days, 2 lb a day, the daily costs, $25 vet, 8% interest, 1.5% death loss — is a placeholder to show the arithmetic, not a benchmark. Your own figures are the only ones that mean anything here.
Feed prices. Not filled in from USDA yet. Hay and grain reports are regional and quoted per ton, and turning them into a daily cost needs your ration; that is coming.
Limits. Overheads that don't change with the number of head — the pickup, the fences, your own wage — are left out on purpose. Cost of gain is about what one more animal costs you.

Questions people ask

What is cost of gain?: Everything it costs to keep an animal for a period — feed, grass, vet, interest, death loss and the rest — divided by the pounds it gained. It is the number to compare against what the market pays for those pounds.
What is a good cost of gain on stockers?: It varies with grass, feed prices and the year. What matters is how it compares with the value of gain the market is offering: if a pound costs you $1.10 to put on and the spread between weight classes pays $1.40, the gain is worth putting on.
Should I count my own grass?: Yes, at what you could rent it out for. Grass you own is not free — it could earn rent instead — and leaving it out makes the cattle look more profitable than the land under them.
Why include interest if I paid cash?: Your money tied up in the animal could be earning something elsewhere or paying down debt. Leaving it out understates the cost by a few cents a pound over a backgrounding period.

Related tools

Every calculator