How much can you afford to pay for a bred cow?
Enter the bid price, the discount rate, and the financing terms: the tool projects 7 years of cash flow and calculates Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, and payback period — just like the A1 spreadsheet, but recalculating live.
Herd & bid price
The bid price is the central variable: it's what you're willing to pay per head. Move it and watch how the result on the right reacts. Drag the steer/heifer/cull-cow weight sliders below to auto-fill the matching price from the Sept 2026 Texas auction price slide (amber fields below, in "Year-by-year prices") — you can still type over any price by hand.
Year-by-year prices & calf crop
Year 1 operating cost is filled in automatically from the "Cow Operating Cost" card below. Steer, heifer and cull-cow prices (amber) start from this week's USDA Texas auction price at the weights set above (interpolated along the auction weight curve), then change by the yearly percentage below from year 2 on. The default −5% a year assumes prices ease off today's highs over the cattle cycle; set 0% to keep today's prices every year. Type over any amber cell to lock in your own number for that year; it stops following until you reset.
| Variable |
|---|
| Calf crop / weaning % |
| Steer price ($/cwt) |
| Heifer price ($/cwt) |
| Cull cow price ($/cwt) |
| Operating cost / year ($) |
Financing
If you finance the purchase, the initial outlay is only the equity percentage — the rest is repaid as principal + interest over the loan term.
Cow Operating Cost (BCU)
BCU = Breeding Cow Unit (≈1.6 AU; includes a share of replacement heifers and the herd bull). This feeds "Year 1 operating cost" in the grid above. It's a shared number now — entered once in the "Cow Operating Cost (BCU)" calculator on the home page, so every tool on this site that needs it reads the same value from there instead of asking you to re-enter it per page. Update it on the home page any time; to override just this page, type a different number directly into Year 1 in the grid below.
Result
Shocks steer, heifer & cull cow sale prices together across all years, ±10% from what's entered above; operating cost, bid price, and financing stay at today's values.
Differences from the A1 spreadsheet: four formula errors are fixed here. The IRR is solved on undiscounted cash flows (why); the year-6 loan payment is no longer dropped on 6-year plans; a 1-year plan is no longer discounted twice in the NPV; and a negative year-7 cash flow is now flagged. With the spreadsheet's own inputs, NPV is unchanged and the IRR is −1.7% instead of −6.4%.
Net cash flow by year
Your cash position over time
Running total of cash in vs. out, starting from your equity down payment — the same "payback" idea as the Result card above, drawn out year by year.
What calf price do you need to hit your target return?
Enter your herd's costs, investment, and your target Return on Assets: the tool works out your current Total Unit Cost and ROA, then the average — and separate steer/heifer — calf price you'd need to reach that target, just like the A2 spreadsheet, but recalculating live.
Herd & weaning basics
These set your revenue side: how many BCU you run, your weaning percentage, and the current weight and price of your steer and heifer calves. Drag a weight slider and its price field (amber) auto-fills from the Sept 2026 Texas auction price curve, re-centered on the Rolling Plains District 3 budget's current prices, interpolated between the nearest reported weight classes — type over the price by hand any time to lock in your own number.
Land
This tool models leased land only. The investment value below (for your asset base and ROA) still counts land's market value, since it reflects capital your operation is using regardless of who holds the title.
Feed & other direct costs
All figures are $/BCU per year unless noted.
Indirect costs & finance
Repair/maintenance and equipment depreciation are filled in automatically from the "Capital assets" card below.
Breeding stock investment & depreciation
Cow and bull depreciation, and cull revenue, are calculated here and automatically feed the cost and revenue lines above. Drag the cull cow weight slider to auto-fill its price (amber) — interpolated across the three condition grades reported (Lean/Boner/Breaker). The bull weight slider auto-fills its price too, but the report only has one grade for bulls (no weight breakdown), so that price stays at the current cull bull price from the weekly USDA Texas auction report, no matter where you set the slider.
Capital assets — vehicles, machinery & equipment
Just enter what your pickups, trailers, tractor, feeders and other cattle equipment are worth in total — we'll do the rest. Depreciation, repairs, and investment per BCU below are estimated automatically from that one number, using typical replacement-life, salvage-value, and repair-cost assumptions for a mixed equipment fleet. Depreciation and repairs feed "Repair & maintenance" and "Vehicle/equip. depreciation" above; investment feeds the return-on-assets calculation below.
Opportunity cost of capital
The tool above only charges you for interest actually paid on debt — same as the original spreadsheet, which notes "no economic or opportunity cost for capital is included." It doesn't charge anything for capital you already own outright (your cow herd & bull, your equipment — not leased land, since that's not your money). Set the rate below to what that same money could earn somewhere else, and compare it directly against what it's actually earning in your herd — shown side by side in the Result panel, without changing any of the figures above.
Result
Shocks steer, heifer, cull cow & cull bull sale prices together, ±10% from what's entered above; all costs stay at today's values. ROA shown is the return actually achieved at that price level, not your target.
At your herd size
Every figure above is per BCU. Here's what that means in whole-ranch dollars, at your herd size.