Steering in the Wrong Direction?

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We decided in February of 2018 to purchase two heads of cattle and two piglets. The piglets were a worthwhile and delicious investment. We sold one and a half of the hogs to family members, and we have the other half hog in our freezer.

The issue is we now have one steer and one heifer in our back field, neither is growing as quickly as we’d hoped, and every day they’re costing us more money to grow them. We were faced with a choice: either 1) keep feeding them to bulk them up over the next several months. (This option would entail investing in more cattle feed than ever because we’d have to increase their protein intake. Also, because it’s January in New Jersey, they’re losing access to grass as the winter wears on.) Or 2) make a trade with our livestock buddy who was willing to take these guys off our hands and finish them himself in exchange for two half steers at a later date.

We chose option 2. We knew we were going to lose money either way, and it was becoming more evident with time that finding buyers for the meat was going to be a struggle. Because we have a lot of other stressors right now, we decided eliminating two skittish heads of cattle from our daily list of issues was probably a good decision.