Best Age?

[LandandVine]

Hello,
I am new to cattle and have about 30 acres fenced in the southern part of Indiana. I am looking to start small and get some cattle but, I am not sure what age or size cattle to hunt for? My neighbor told me to get two cow calf pairs to start but someone else told me to get about 5 yearlings of the same breed and let them grow. Can anyone provide some guidance? These are beef cattle that I intend to raise and sell for profit.
P.S. I have a multiple water sources a big barn and source of feed.
Thanks

 

[Logan52]

I would go with the five yearlings. My first improvement would be some sort of handling facility, a way to catch and doctor them. After a few learning adventures with the yearlings, I would go with buying smaller calves on such a small property, especially since you have a barn.
The need for a bull or A. I. and potential calving difficulties would make me want to avoid cows at first.

 

[LandandVine]

I would go with the five yearlings. My first improvement would be some sort of handling facility, a way to catch and doctor them. After a few learning adventures with the yearlings, I would go with buying smaller calves on such a small property, especially since you have a barn.
The need for a bull or A. I. and potential calving difficulties would make me want to avoid cows at first.

Thank you for the insight, my neighbor doesn't always make the best decisions or give the best advice, so I am leaning toward the yearlings. This is a learning adventure, thanks again.

 

[Rafter S]

I will agree with getting yearlings as long as you're going to keep them for a while and sell them instead of breeding the heifers and letting them have calves.. Someone new to cattle and first calf heifers is a bad combination.

 

[LandandVine]

I will agree with getting yearlings as long as you're going to keep them for a while and sell them instead of breeding the heifers and letting them have calves.. Someone new to cattle and first calf heifers is a bad combination.

Rafter,
Yes, I was planning to keep them about a year for learning and then sell them for a (hopeful) profit. Thank you for the advice. So far, it's a 3:1 vote on yearling over pairs.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Hello,
I am new to cattle and have about 30 acres fenced in the southern part of Indiana. I am looking to start small and get some cattle but, I am not sure what age or size cattle to hunt for? My neighbor told me to get two cow calf pairs to start but someone else told me to get about 5 yearlings of the same breed and let them grow. Can anyone provide some guidance? These are beef cattle that I intend to raise and sell for profit.
P.S. I have a multiple water sources a big barn and source of feed.
Thanks

Welcome to CT!
Both yearlings and cows have their own set of difficulties; Yearlings with no leader are like a bunch of teenagers with no parents at home. They tend to look for ways to get in trouble. If you decide yrlings get steers. Guaranteed not to be pregnant or come in to heat.
If you decide on cows, I'd get a couple aged cows that know their job. Maybe even buy them as pairs. Raise them all summer and sell them before you have to worry about frozen water.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Hello,
I am new to cattle and have about 30 acres fenced in the southern part of Indiana. I am looking to start small and get some cattle but, I am not sure what age or size cattle to hunt for? My neighbor told me to get two cow calf pairs to start but someone else told me to get about 5 yearlings of the same breed and let them grow. Can anyone provide some guidance? These are beef cattle that I intend to raise and sell for profit.
P.S. I have a multiple water sources a big barn and source of feed.
Thanks

Your success will ultimately depend on containment. ie, you can't count'em, feed'em or sell'em if'n they are out!
Your priority will change the instant you find out they are not home (or at least it should)
To that end I suggest you invest in a good energizer. For 30 acres 5 to 8 joules should be sufficient,
Invest in a good product that measures power in joules and not miles of coverage. In as much as you mentioned a barn
I will assume you have power available so I would recommend using that as a source of power for your energizer.
Once this has been accomplished you will be able to go about your business (cattle or otherwise) and hopefully sleep
at night without undue wondering if your investment is where it belongs. I wish you good luck ! LVR

 

[Son of Butch]

For a beginner looking to flip cattle for a profit, hands down I vote for the yearlings.

I think everyone will agree a beginner should NOT start with calving out Heifers.
IF you do decide to go cow/calf start with cows that have had at least 1 or 2 calves.

 

[tex452]

Yearling steers is the way I would go.
Make sure fences are good and have working facilities where they can be doctored and loaded easily.
If pasture is good you can run more than 5 with a little feed.
I have 60 on about 30 acres, it grows good grass and we hand feed them, meaning I'm not using a bulk feeder.

 

[RDFF]

Southern Indiana... freezing water concerns will be greatly alleviated over what we have here in MN. But it still can and will freeze obviously.

Comment has been made to invest in some sort of handling facility... I agree that this should pretty much always be a priority if you're going to have livestock... You have to have some way to do what you need to do with them safely... BUT, with so few animals, you can overspend yourself into the poorhouse REAL quick.

Being able to do what you need to do is all about reasonably safe "containment", so the animal can't move around too much, and so you dont get hurt. A lane made from just a couple of simple welded up "frames" with a couple of corral panels chained inside of them will do wonders for you... (two vertical parallel pipes welded with flat iron across the bottom and channel iron over the top to make a rectangular frame about 30" wide between verticals... width depending on how big of animals you'll be dealing with, but 30" will give you about a 28" lane... big enough for most any you'll ever have, and good for yearlings too... and too wide is much worse than a little too narrow... inches really matter here). 2-12' panels gets you a pretty good functional lane, for not alot of money. Get TALL panels (5'6" minimum), so the critters aren't tempted to try to jump. If they do jump on the lighter-weight panels, they'll be junk in a hurry... usually the first time it happens. Best for your money IMO are the heavy 24' panels (600-800# each)... but you'll need a loader to move 'em. If you can find a decent used headgate (I like how the Priefert 91 functions), just mount that on one end... could even be mounted to one of your "frames". Use a rump pole stuck through ahead of the verticals in your panels for "anti-back" stop. A few more portable corral panels to make an appropriately sized "catch pen" (you can always add more to make it bigger as your herd grows) that the lane runs off of, and you should be good. Maybe you can find some good used panels on Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist. I bought my squeeze chute that way. But you don't NEED a squeeze chute for just a few animals... a lane like described above with a headgate will do most everything you'll need it to do.

If you're serious about "selling them for profit", be very careful about how much you think you need to invest in "infrastructure". Beyond that, I advise you to NOT think "PERMANENTLY INSTALLED" facilities... use stuff that can be considered PORTABLE/freestanding. If you want to sell it, it IS saleable. If you buy the right kind of stuff that everybody wants, it will always have value. Permanently installed infrastructure has 0 value to someone else, unless you're selling the place, and even then it will be minimal, and probably not built the way the next guy will want it. Portable/freestanding means you can change and expand as your plans/herd does. You can even sell it and "trade up".

I'm in MN... currently running almost 400 head, and my cattle never ever get into a barn, not even anywhere near one. Horses either. I DO have one, and it's a pretty good one actually... it was here when I bought the place, but I don't put the cattle in it. It's mostly used by the cats. The cattle get fed hay in winter right out on the pastures/fields. Water is out there in the field too. They have some tree lines that they can get behind to get out of the wind. I don't ever have to haul manure. I don't have lots to clean. I remember when I used to think you HAD to have a barn if you had cattle... I grew up here, running about the same number that I have now or maybe even a few less, but they were ALL kept in a barn all winter. And we struggled with and tended to sick cattle all winter too... mostly because of conditions caused by them being shut up in that barn. I wonder now why we were doing all that work... It was because we thought they had to be in a barn, and we had to carry everything to 'em, and then carry everything away from them again! WHY? ...Because that's how it's always been done!

 

[libertygarden]

I would say the yearlings are a good option, but how much do you know about finishing yearlings? When you say "and let them grow," is that the plan to buy at X weight and sell at X++ only on pasture? Assuming you get 5 yearlings at 1000 pounds and sell for 1300# , you'll make 1500# at whatever the market pays. A cow calf pair, or better a 3 in 1 pair, will put 50% of your initial investment back in your pocket in 6 to 7 months when you sell the side calves. Right around the time, the cows are dropping the second calf. Assuming you sell the side calves around 700 to 800 pounds, you'll realize 600 to 900 more pounds in sales and you still have the cows with claves on the side to cash in 7-8 months. Of course, then winter hits and you may have to feed hay, so you'll have to figure in that cost too.

 

[50/50Farms]

Recommending yearlings to a man who's never dealt with calving is like recommending whiskey to a man who's never drank.

 

[Warren Allison]

Hello,
I am new to cattle and have about 30 acres fenced in the southern part of Indiana. I am looking to start small and get some cattle but, I am not sure what age or size cattle to hunt for? My neighbor told me to get two cow calf pairs to start but someone else told me to get about 5 yearlings of the same breed and let them grow. Can anyone provide some guidance? These are beef cattle that I intend to raise and sell for profit.
P.S. I have a multiple water sources a big barn and source of feed.
Thanks

@LandandVine, get some popcorn and sit back and watch all these "experts" go ape sh*t over what I am about to tell ya . Get 30 Corriente cows for $300 each, $9k. Buy the best registered, Black Angus bull you can afford. In 15 months, you will wean (on the way to the sale...no feeding calves for 45, 90 or whatever days) 30 black, polled calves you will sell for $750 each....$22,500. $13,500 gross revenue the first year. 2nd and subsequent years, $22,500 gross revenue. Even if you have to feed these cows every day ( about the same amount or less... that you'd feed 10 full beef cows) you would make more money than you could with $9k worth of any other kinda cattle there is. Now...watch!!!

 

[libertygarden]

@Warren Allison the OP only has 30 acres. That said, I wanted to recommend the same you said, or what I call grandpa's formula, but I thought it might derail the conversation a bit too early.

 

[chaded]

@Warren Allison the OP only has 30 acres. That said, I wanted to recommend the same you said, or what I call grandpa's formula, but I thought it might derail the conversation a bit too early.

It kind of would be derailing a bit too late since this thread is from August.

 

[RDFF]

@LandandVine, get some popcorn and sit back and watch all these "experts" go ape sh*t over what I am about to tell ya . Get 30 Corriente cows for $300 each, $9k. Buy the best registered, Black Angus bull you can afford. In 15 months, you will wean (on the way to the sale...no feeding calves for 45, 90 or whatever days) 30 black, polled calves you will sell for $750 each....$22,500. $13,500 gross revenue the first year. 2nd and subsequent years, $22,500 gross revenue. Even if you have to feed these cows every day ( about the same amount or less... that you'd feed 10 full beef cows) you would make more money than you could with $9k worth of any other kinda cattle there is. Now...watch!!!

Hmmm.... I might have to rethink my recommendation on the "facilities" issue.... Definitely make that "get a bunch of those heavy freestanding corral panels for sure, get the tallest ones you can find, and keep your sidearm in tow". Might need to invest in a privacy fence around the perimeter too, to avoid having to put up with all the other cowboys in the area making fun of your herd... unless you're immune/vaccinated against that sort of thing.

 

[Warren Allison]

Hmmm.... I might have to rethink my recommendation on the "facilities" issue.... Definitely make that "get a bunch of those heavy freestanding corral panels for sure, get the tallest ones you can find, and keep your sidearm in tow". Might need to invest in a privacy fence around the perimeter too, to avoid having to put up with all the other cowboys in the area making fun of your herd... unless you're immune/vaccinated against that sort of thing.

We keep 100 on about 220 acres in a 5 strand barbed wire fence. We have one corral about 250 feet long divided in two sections. back is 80 x 80 and the front is about 80 x 170. No chutes, head gates, etc., because you don't need them...there is no doctoring with these cattle. If you ever did have to, we just head and heel them and hold them to do what needs doing. I can only remember one time when a cow had somehow speared herself with a limb that had to be pulled out. When we tag calves and cut bull calves, we just heel them and drag them to where we are doing it. I was about half-ass kidding when I made that comment...told the OP I was doing it just to watch the usual ones come unglued like they do with this topic! These cattle probably wouldn't be any easier to fool with than good beef cattle, if the owners had to work them on foot. Then they would need to build a working pen. The OP is in southern Indiana so most likely their grass is pretty good. If they have plenty of high quality grass and hay, and being located where they are, easy access to corn, and have to build facilities, they may as well raise good black beef cattle. Scott's brother has a place with clean pastures of World Feeder Bermuda and Alfalfa, fertilized to UGA specs, tested and monitored by the Extension service as part of a study. He has a hell of a facility for AI, embryo flushing, semen collection etc. If we moved that Kudzu herd up there, and did all the vaccinating and worming etc, and they grazed those pastures, it wouldn't alter the results we get form those cows and their calves one bit. It would be a waste. You'd be better off the raise good cattle on that kind of place.

 

[alacowman1]

It kind of would be derailing a bit too late since this thread is from August.

Yep Who knows? the OP may have canned the idea, and took up fishing..