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// The model · feed sub-model · Fort Bend County, TX

Plan the feed, get the date

Set the buy weight, the target sell weight, the month you turn out, and how you're growing the calf. This sizes the days on feed and the cost of gain — the two numbers the lot model asks you to guess — then hands them straight to "Run a lot through the numbers."

⚠️ Illustrative defaults grounded in Fort Bend practice — not market quotes. Cost-of-gain math matches the lot model exactly (7:1 feed conversion, grain priced $/lb, +$0.35/lb) in drylot; grazing mode replaces that with a forage-first cost. The model informs the decision; it doesn't make it.

The plan

Turn-out monthApril
Peak ryegrass — best gains of the year on forage alone.
Buy weight400 lb
What the calf weighs the day you buy it.
Target sell weight700 lb
The weight you grow it to. 700 is a common feeder weight that ducks the steepest price slide.
Daily gain (ADG)2.6 lb/day
ADG = average daily gain. The month sets a starting default; drag to use your own pasture's history.
Grain supplement1.5 lb/day
The grain added on top of grass. On good ryegrass, 1–2 lb/day is typical — sometimes barely worth it, the grass does the work.
Grain price$0.08/lb
Price per pound of grain. (Corn runs ~$0.08/lb; a 2,000-lb ton at $160 is also $0.08/lb.) Drives the grain cost, same as the lot model.
Pasture cost basis$0.35/hd/day
How the pasture is priced. Own grazed ryegrass is cheap; a lease runs $20–30/head/month; winter hay is the dear stretch. A performance lease is already a cost of gain. Sources: Texas Farm Bureau, TSCRA, TAMU.
Own your pasture or hay? It's not free — your real cost is what it took to grow it (seed, fertilizer, land) or bale it, spread over the head you run. These presets are placeholders; drop your true figure into "Custom" once you've got it.
Yardage & vet$0.35/hd/day
Daily carrying cost beyond feed — pen/pasture upkeep and health. Interest is separate below, matching the lot model.
Interest rate (on capital)8.5%
Annual rate on the money tied up in the calf. Kept as its own knob — rates move, and it swings your breakeven. Same slider as the lot model.

The read

Days on feed
125
Sell date
—
Cost of gain $/lb
$0.60
Grain share
~12%

Weekly feed schedule

Projected weight and feed to give each week. Weigh and re-check every 1–2 weeks — total intake climbs with the calf (~2.5% of bodyweight), while the grain supplement holds steady because the forage scales with the animal.

Stated assumptions & definitions
Turn-out monthDrives seasonal ADG and forage-cost defaults. Fort Bend forage quality swings hard by season; all defaults overridable.
Seasonal ADGFeb–May peak ryegrass 2.4–2.6 lb/day on forage alone; Jun–Sep bermudagrass ~1.9–2.1; Nov–Jan hay/dormant ~1.5–1.6 (Texas A&M AgriLife, LSU AgCenter).
Drylot cost of gainUses the lot model's exact formula: 7.0 × grain$/lb + $0.35/lb. At grain $0.08/lb that's $0.91/lb — a grain-fed number.
Grazing cost of gainForage-first: grass carries the base gain, grain is only a supplement. Far below the drylot 7:1 figure — this is the assumption the lot model currently hides for grazers.
Grain shareFraction of daily feed that's grain vs. forage. Enter as lb/day or % of ration. Grazing 10–20%; drylot 60%+.
Intake ceilingAn animal eats ~2.5% of bodyweight/day in dry feed. Plans above that aren't eatable — the check that kills the "32 lb/day" error.
PricesAll illustrative defaults, NOT live quotes. Replace before a buy/sell call.
This sub-model sizes the feed. Take the days-on-feed and cost-of-gain it produces into Run a lot through the numbers → for the full breakeven and hedge read.
Built by Monte Fisher, CPA (Ret.), CFE · a Fisher Governance forensic model · © 2026 · illustrative data, not market quotes.