While vegetables are my first passion, I would like to have a diverse operation that relies on grass production as well as fresh produce. However, I have little desire to actually own the animals. I have been researching contract grazing for both replacement dairy heifers and stocker cattle for a bit now in order to formulate some sort of business plan to work from, and have found just enough information to formulate a long list of questions about the practice in general, and starting up in particular. Any discussion on part or all of this list would be most helpful. Answers to other questions that should be in here but didn't make their way will probably come up during the discussion that hopefully will ensue.
Every failure is a piece of future luck.
Following, is some common sense research that might be of interest to you. Following some background information, Table 5 and 6 provide the data generated over the Summer of 1994. The entering heifers weighed in at an average of 732.75 pounds and a measured height of 47.90 inches. So, they were about 118 pounds behind schedule, and had a height shortfall of two inches. Many of them could not be artificially inseminated for one and a-half months.