Replacement Heifer Cost

The calculator applies death loss as a multiplier on the entire subtotal — purchase price, feed, vet, and breeding combined — via a factor of 1 + deathLossRate/100. At the default 5% rate that means the subtotal is inflated by 5%, spreading the sunk cost of animals that die before calving across the heifers that actually make it to production, which is the standard way ranchers convert herd-level mortality into a realistic per-head cost.

Feed cost per day gets multiplied by total days to first calving, which the calculator computes as months × 30.44 — so a modest $3.50/day figure compounds to well over $2,500 across a typical 24-month raising period. Because that total accrues over nearly two years while purchase price, vet, and breeding costs are one-time or short-window expenses, feed is almost always the largest slice of the total cost per heifer.

The monthly cost timeline only adds breeding cost once the running month reaches monthsToFirstCalving minus 3, reflecting that most heifers aren't bred until they're close to target service age and weight. It's a simplification for charting purposes — actual breeding may happen earlier or take multiple cycles — but it doesn't change the final total cost per heifer, since breeding cost is added in full regardless of timing; it only affects where the cumulative-cost line jumps on the chart.

The monthly timeline multiplies total vet cost by (month / monthsToFirstCalving), which linearly accrues vet spending from zero up to the full amount by calving. Real veterinary costs actually cluster around birth, weaning, and pre-breeding vaccinations rather than accruing smoothly, so the monthly chart understates vet spending early on and overstates it just before calving — the final total-cost figure is unaffected, only the shape of the cumulative-cost curve.