Two animals sold on the same day at the same price can make very different profits. The difference is almost always cost — and most of it is invisible unless you add it up animal by animal.
What goes into an animal's cost
- Purchase price — what you paid for the animal.
- Its share of the lot's extra costs — transport, brokerage, market fees.
- Feed — its share of everything fed to its pen while it was there.
- Health — vaccines, dewormers, treatments and vet fees.
- Shared overheads — labour, electricity, rent — if you choose to load them onto animals.
Splitting shared costs fairly
Lot costs are best split by weight: a 400 kg animal cost more to buy and transport than a 250 kg one. Feed is best split by each animal's planned intake — especially when the ration is a percentage of body weight. Overheads are usually split per head or by weight.
Worked example
A lot of 10 animals weighing 3,200 kg in total was bought for 1,500,000, plus 20,000 transport and 15,000 brokerage. One of them weighed 320 kg — 10% of the lot's weight. Amounts are in your own currency.
| Cost | How it's worked out | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase price share | 10% × 1,500,000 | 150,000 |
| Transport & brokerage share | 10% × 35,000 | 3,500 |
| Feed (90 days) | its share of the pen's feed | 34,200 |
| Medicines & vet | doses given + share of vet visits | 2,100 |
| Shared overheads | per head | 4,500 |
| Total cost | 194,300 |
After 90 days the animal weighs 401 kg — a gain of 81 kg, or 0.9 kg a day.
The three numbers to watch
1. Feed cost per kg gained
34,200 ÷ 81 kg = 422 per kg gained
This is how efficiently feed turns into weight. Compare it between pens, rations and seasons.
2. Break-even price per kg
194,300 ÷ 401 kg = 484.5 per kg live weight
Below this price, the sale loses money. Knowing it before you go to market changes how you negotiate.
3. Profit
Sold at 520 per kg: 401 × 520 = 208,520 → profit 208,520 − 194,300 = 14,220
Add the same up for every animal in a lot or pen and you see which purchases, rations and pens actually made money.
In FarmoraX
Lot costs are split by weight when you record the purchase, feed cost is shared from the daily feeding log, doses and vet fees are added as you record them, and expenses can be shared into animal cost per head or by weight. Each animal's page shows its cost to date, and the accounts show profit by animal, lot, group and label.
Related: how to track average daily gain.