Livestock break-even calculator
Buying store cattle, lambs or goats to grow out? See the sale price you need to cover what you paid and everything they cost until the truck leaves - and what you'd make at the price you expect.
Sale price you need
That is $1,483 a head at a sale weight of 435 kg - 9.1c/kg less than the 350c/kg you paid.
At 330c/kg: loss of $45 a head, $4,471 on the 99 head sold. Sale value $1,436 a head before selling costs.
- Cost a head sold
- $1,389
- Weight gained
- 135 kg
- Cost of gain
- $2.22/kg
- Money tied up
- $137,500
Where the money goes (a head sold, at break-even)
- Purchase $1,050 71%
- Buying costs $25 2%
- Feed & agistment $270 18%
- Other costs $30 2%
- Deaths $14 1%
- Selling costs $94 6%
How we work it out
- Sale weight: buy weight + daily gain × days. Cost a head: purchase (kg × c/kg) + buying costs + daily cost × days + other costs.
- Deaths: the ones you lose still cost money, so their cost is shared by the ones you sell (cost ÷ the share that survive).
- Break-even c/kg: (cost a head sold + freight and yard fees + your margin) ÷ what you keep after selling costs ÷ sale weight. Cost of gain is the feed and other costs per kg put on.
This is arithmetic on your own numbers, not a price forecast or advice. Real results depend on the market on the day, weight loss on the truck (curfew and shrink), grading and the condition of the stock. Selling over the hooks on a carcase price? Convert with the livestock sale value calculator. Check how fast they are growing with the weight gain calculator, and budget the feed with the feed budget calculator. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.
Buying or selling stock?
Cattle, sheep and goats from farmers and agents on the REALM Marketplace.