Cow-calf profit per head in Louisiana

Louisiana cow-calf operators generated roughly $960 in gross revenue per cow in 2024, driven by historically strong feeder calf prices. With 500 to 550 pound weaned steers bringing $2.80 to $3.20 per pound at Louisiana auction barns, a typical calf crop grosses around $1,100 per calf sold, but the 85 percent weaning rate assumed in LSU AgCenter budgets pulls effective revenue per cow exposed down to the $960 range.

The LSU AgCenter cow-calf enterprise budgets assume an 85 percent weaning percentage as the realistic Gulf Coast baseline, reflecting losses to calving difficulty, scours, and predation in wet bottomland pastures. At this weaning rate, cash costs of approximately $795 per cow leave about $165 in net cash income, but once non-cash charges for owned pasture, unpaid family labor, and capital recovery on the cow herd are applied per USDA ERS methodology, total economic profit swings to roughly negative $95 per cow.

Louisiana's cost structure is dominated by feed and forage. Producers feed hay 90 to 120 days per year, adding $150 to $220 per cow in winter feed costs that Southern Plains ranchers largely avoid. Parasite control, mineral supplementation for the region's selenium-deficient soils, and higher veterinary costs for humid-climate diseases push total cash costs to around $795 per cow, meaning even in a strong calf market the state's producers earn a positive cash margin but fail to cover full economic costs, according to USDA ERS regional cost and return estimates.