Caustic Burno":3qbgfqgi said:
Actually it's cheaper since I sold 70% of the cows. I haven't had a major purchase since 06. I have less equipment to maintain and my fertilizer cost have went down by 75%. I would agree with you if you were starting out and trying to put everything together your 100.% correct.
In theory there are "start up costs" the first couple years in business. For me there were expenses for catching up on lime applications and inter seeding clover and replacing 50 year old fence and adding additional stock water and rebuilding bargain equipment and reroofing sheds. With stuff like that behind you - - the per cow expenses should go way down and the carrying capacity should go up. You could even end up with too much forage.
Of course, there are some folks don't maintain what they have. We have a couple of those in the area, who were bragging about low costs and high income in the past, but now they are having trouble finding a fool to overpay for their farm with all its deferred maintenance and mined out soil.
I think an ideal is if you can work with nature to improve what you have with limited -- not lowest - - costs.