“Time is money” is an expression most of us know well — and for the cattle industry, that phrase has taken on even greater meaning over the past decade. As feedlot operations grow increasingly complex, labor availability, reliability, and cost have become key drivers of management decisions and closeout success.
The USDA reports workforce constraints are limiting throughput and operational flexibility across feedlots, signaling that labor is not just a challenge but a bottleneck tied to workforce experience, training, and consistency.¹ That pressure is intensified by the growing need to manage higher‑risk, more variable cattle — particularly sale‑barn cattle — that require closer monitoring and timely, consistent decision‑making to maintain performance.
The real cost of labor
Labor cost is not as simple as hourly wages; it’s part of the total cost of production. Rather than viewing labor as a standalone expense, think of it as one of several inputs that drive profitability. As an operation’s workforce tightens, having fewer employees doesn’t necessarily lower costs — it shifts more responsibility and risk to those who remain.2,3
This is where labor becomes a performance variable that contributes to your bottom line. Research has shown labor requirements are a significant component of animal health costs, in some cases equaling or exceeding the cost of medicine itself. When workers are stretched, the impact shows up indirectly — through missed pulls, delayed treatment, increased retreatments, and lost performance. These outcomes raise the cost of gain and reduce closeout profitability, even though they are rarely labeled as “labor.” In that way, labor is not just a fixed cost — it is a driver of variability in closeouts on a per-1,000-head basis.4
CALCULATE THE COST OF BRD ON YOUR OPERATION
Implications of animal health
In every operation, every preventable sick pull matters — not just for cattle performance, but for how effectively labor time and attention are used across the yard. The industry average for morbidity has been reported from 15% to 45% across U.S. feedyards.5 Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) leads the charge, accounting for about 75% of morbidity cases.6 Each morbidity case requires observation, pulling, handling, treatment, documentation, and follow‑up. For cattle that require retreatment, labor demands increase due to repeated hospital visits and extended time in recovery or chronic pens. Research published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association found that the median labor cost to treat a BRD‑affected calf was approximately $15 per animal, highlighting labor as a substantial — and often underappreciated — component of total BRD cost.⁴
