STEINBACH, Man. – What’s black and white and different from most beef cattle farms in southeastern Manitoba?
Wes Reimer’s operation. He feeds and markets about 2,000 head of Holsteins a year from his 42-acre farm.
Reimer said he grows Holsteins because he likes the color: “The color of the bottom line, actually. It’s black,” he quipped.
As well, he likes the breed’s docile nature, its penchant for eating and the high quality meat it produces.
Reimer, a feed sales agent for Cargill, grew up on a dairy farm in Alberta. Five years ago, he decided to buy land for a hobby farm. He originally planned to feed 30 calves at a time.
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Bigger and better
“Once I got into it, I realized that to do my best, I needed to get to a large size to maximize some of the marketing options and maximize some of my skills as far as the management end went,” he said.
Reimer now takes in about 150 calves per month. Half of them come from a neighbor, who grows them until they’re about 300 pounds. He buys the rest from auctions.
He has worked out a least-cost feed ration system, and moves animals through several stages of pens, depending on their weight.
Reimer said he takes care to minimize stress for the animals. He lets them settle in for three or four days before vaccination and branding, and gives them three or four weeks to get up to full strength before castrating or dehorning.
His system seems to be paying off. The cattle gain an average of 2.75 pounds a day until they’re finished at between 1,250 and 1,400 pounds.
He said he has a 61 percent yield, and 75 to 77 percent of the carcasses grade U.S. Choice.
He sells the cattle to U.S. plants with the help of a broker.
Right now, he has 1,450 cattle on feed. He said he plans to expand a bit, and has some other business ideas he wants to try.
Until last November, Reimer took care of the whole operation on his own. He hired one employee then, and another last week.
“I promoted myself to management,” he said. “No raise, just more headaches.”
Reimer said he has used two important strategies to succeed:
- Risk management. He books exchange rates, pre-books barley, and if prices are good, locks in some cattle prices.
- Cost management. He carefully analyzes all inputs. “I will not buy something that doesn’t give me a great return.”
For example, Reimer runs his operation with only two 60-horsepower tractors, a roller-mixer and one grain auger.
“I’ve analyzed that machinery thing to death, and it just doesn’t pay,” he said. “Whereas a lot of farmers like machinery, and they will buy for the fun of it. I don’t do that.”
