Yea. I'm the only person who has interest and wants to keep the herd going. That said, the cattle would be skipping a generation. My dad likes that I am wanting to take over the herd, but he doesn't really have interest. I think he truly has interest and helps simply because of me. My biggest regret is I didn't do this sooner and learn everything I could have from my grandfather. I've learned enough to get by, but times like this I'm in the dark and its trial and error for me. I'm 34 and last year was the first year I cut, raked, and baled hay all on my own, and was the first year my grandfather wasn't atleast at the field. He broke a hip and was in rehab at the time. Last 3-4 years I literally had to beg my grandfater to let me bale. He would cut even though I wanted to. In the first picture you can see my new to me bale loader in the background. I got it so that I can eventually pick up hay either by myself or with two people if I needed to. My dad is the youngest of four sons, so my grandfather had alot of help through the years. Then as the grandchildren got older, we started helping every year as well. I won't have that amount of help, so I'm building up what I can to make things easier. A catch pen will be one of those things. I thought about a corral, but a smaller catch pen only would help greatly and take up less space. Last couple years I have weaned at 6 months, but I plan to start weaning much earlier (say three months of age). I'm learning the weights to bring them to the sale. Before my grandfather would just tell me "sell young". To me young was 6 months. Now I've learned 200 lbs is market weight and price changes every 100 lbs thereafter, atleast here it does.
I cannot fathom how my grandfather did it the way he did. Not to mention the herd back when I was younger was no where near as tame as the herd is now. Many of times I remember my grandfather needing to use his whip. The second picture shows the pen to the left side of the barn. The only cattle that really went in there was calves. Cows and bulls he put a rope on them and pulled them into the trailer and he did it like that probably for many many moons. If I remember right, cattle started with my great grandfather. He used to be a sugarcane farmer (this was back when they cut by hand and loaded into a horse drawn trailer), and then got out of farming and into cattle.
The little calf in the first picture I had to help deliver on Jan 5th. Elbow deep in the momma trying to get one of his front feet straightened out. Then after he was born I had to milk the momma as he wouldn't latch on. Now he's starting to eat hay with the rest of them. Things like that want me to keep going, but it's hard with this one stubborn calf.
My goal is to have 6 cows and a bull with one or two replacement heifers as needed.
I do want to say thanks to everyone that has replied and offer help / advice. Although this was intended for what kind of rope to invest in, much more information has come out of this thread. Thanks again and truly appreciated.
