26th Annual Dakota Feeder Calf Show and Feedout set

Interested consignors will deliver 500- to 700-pound steer calves before 10 a.m. CST on the day of the show. Each producer can consign one or two pens containing three or four calves. The calves are exhibited and evaluated that afternoon and then shipped to the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center feedlot to be fed to finished market weight.

NDSU Extension and Carrington Research Extension Center partner with the Dakota Feeder Calf Show to provide producers an opportunity to experience retained ownership of calves beyond the cow-calf segment of cattle production.

During the 2023-24 feedout, the calves gained an average of 744 pounds in 222 days, with a total feeding cost (excluding interest) of $1.02 per pound of gain. The average sale weight was 1,342 pounds. The calves were fed with a market weight break-even point of $178.17 per hundredweight.

You will learn how your selections can advance your herd and how feedout is less risky and it provides a substantial amount of information about the calves.

In the 2023-24 feedout, the spread in net return per head between the average of the top and bottom five herds was $205.89. The spread between the top and bottom herd is more noticeable ($323.85 per head). Average daily weight gain in the feedlot was 3.6 pounds for the top-profiting herd and 3.1 pounds for the bottom herd.

Feedout project staff will gather data on the rate of gain, feeding costs and other characteristics during the trial. After the calves are marketed, the staff will collect and provide information to the entrants on carcass weight, meat quality, feeding expenses and value. Calves should be pre-vaccinated for BVD, PI3, IBR and BRSV, Mannheimia, Clostridials and histophilus somni. Booster vaccinations will be administered upon delivery to the show.

Producers will be assessed an entry fee of $20 per calf. Dakota Feeder Calf Show officials will present awards to producers at the end of the trial.

For more information or to preregister calves, contact Hoppe or Tobin at 701-652- 2951 (office), 701-650-8810 (cell) or karl.hoppe@ndsu.edu, or Chesrown, Dakota Feeder Calf Show Committee, at 701-448-9286.