Management of Preconditioned Calves and Impacts of Preconditioning

When studying the practice of preconditioning (PC) calves, many factors need to be examined to determine if cow-calf producers should make this investment. Factors such as average daily gain, feed efficiency, available labor, length of the PC period, genetics, and marketing options must be analyzed. The health sales price advantage is an additional benefit in producing and selling PC calves but not the sole determinant of PC's financially feasibility. Studies show that a substantial advantage of PC is the selling of additional pounds at a cost of gain well below the marginal return of producing those additional pounds.