Having them out by October shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't have any funny rules regarding butchering age. You could have them butchered at day one if you wanted. 8 months is not going to get them looking like the one in your link. That takes a couple years.
As far as paying for themselves. Feed cost depend on feed source(s). If you have to buy everything it could be up to a couple bucks a day each. If you have your own hay and only buying grains it may be under a buck. Your going to have to do some math here. At a min (depending on the age of the animal) I would figure (on average) about 30 lbs good hay and a gallon of grains (7-8lbs) per day per animal. Lesser quality hay I bump that by half (45lbs). Basicly all they can eat. If not using any grain I make sure that hay is something like alfalfa. This is a guess as there are may variables (breed, age, goals, beef prices, etc..).
Now if you can put an average of a pound, pound and a half per day your looking to add around 300 lbs on them (8x30=240 x1=240, x1.5=360). If you up the grain and really hit them hard you might get to 4-450 lbs. So your starting point is going to mean a lot. Being they are practically free I guessing their going to start off small, as in a few months old, so you might get them to 600 lbs if starting around 250-300lbs. But there's nothing wrong with young beef. Just do not expect dinner plate sized steaks.
Only real concern I would have with your plan is the stall sharing. It would really suck to have the horses come down with something the cows left behind or vis-versa. But I have no experience with it (horses and cows). My problem was with rotation. I learned real quick you have to do one heck of a good cleaning job between sets of calves to keep the previous ones from making the next sick. But I was starting with week old calves. I sure the older they get the less of a problem it would be.
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