Deal or No Deal Update

[thatdoggJake]

A couple of weeks ago I posted a thread asking opinions on buying a herd of cattle and leasing the land. Well, it's official, I got the papers signed and handed the money over today (OUCH). I signed a 10 year land lease, so hopefully i can see some black before it is all said and done. By the way, I was way left field in my fist price negotiations. I paid a pretty penny more than what I previously mentioned. I did get to cull off the bottom ten cows and I have 20 calves on the ground right now. In total I went from owning zero cows to owning 66 cows, 5 bulls, and 20 calves. 6 of the calves are ready for market right now.

I'm 23 years old and my love for cattle come from spending the early years of my life on my family ranch in the Texas hill country until we sold it four years ago. The way I figure it is that I will not be able to buy a big ranch anytime soon, but I can still lease the land until then. The rest of my cattle experience is from being around FFA most of my life, raising some show cattle in my high school days, and being in the fence supply business were several of our customers are cattleman.

It all starts now. Time to get off to the right start. I imagine you will see several more post from me as I need more questions to be answered that I can not find on Google.

thanks,
Trey :hat:

 

[A.J.]

Congratulations. That's a great feeling once something like that becomes official. It sounds like you are well on your way and have a good attitude going in. Try to be active in your local and state cattleman's association if you can; they can be a wealth of good information and training. It would be good if you can find a good, experience cattleman in your area that can be a good source of advice and that could be kind of a mentor type figure. These boards are a wealth of information and are a great asset to have. Good luck.

 

[grubbie]

Congrats, Trey! And good luck to you. **Watch your spending**

 

[chippie]

Good deal.

Do you know about the new Trich testing law concerning selling and buying breeding bulls?


http://www.cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=62154&p=724128#p724128

 

[3waycross]

A couple of weeks ago I posted a thread asking opinions on buying a herd of cattle and leasing the land. Well, it's official, I got the papers signed and handed the money over today (OUCH). I signed a 10 year land lease, so hopefully i can see some black before it is all said and done. By the way, I was way left field in my fist price negotiations. I paid a pretty penny more than what I previously mentioned. I did get to cull off the bottom ten cows and I have 20 calves on the ground right now. In total I went from owning zero cows to owning 66 cows, 5 bulls, and 20 calves. 6 of the calves are ready for market right now.

I'm 23 years old and my love for cattle come from spending the early years of my life on my family ranch in the Texas hill country until we sold it four years ago. The way I figure it is that I will not be able to buy a big ranch anytime soon, but I can still lease the land until then. The rest of my cattle experience is from being around FFA most of my life, raising some show cattle in my high school days, and being in the fence supply business were several of our customers are cattleman.

It all starts now. Time to get off to the right start. I imagine you will see several more post from me as I need more questions to be answered that I can not find on Google.

thanks,
Trey :hat:

Good for you. Now hitch up your britches and go like hades.

 

[thatdoggJake]

Welcome to the real world. At your age you are probably in over your head but you probably new that already. Good luck.

In over in head for my age. Doubtful (even though I've been getting that a lot from people lately). In over my head because I'm now in the cattle business, maybe so :help: .

You know who is in over their head at my age? That's most young working professionals (and many others). They gather up just enough to buy a nice mortgage, car note, and fancy clothes. I decided to go the other direction. I'll keep my paid off truck and minimum living expense. I'm not a fan of the Big hat/No cattle sayin' :cboy:

Thanks for the good lucks. I am always more than welcoming of a little luck!!! :banana:

 

[jerry27150]

told me the same thing 39 years ago when i borrowed 60.000. now i owe nobody & still farm on my own place. good luck! you'll do well

 

[AudieWyoming]

Congratulations on your start! I applaud you for chasing your dream. Keep learning---it never ends.
You will find when you are doing what you love most, you will figure out away to make it work. Regardless of your eventual level of success or failure, or other types of work you have to do to support yourself, you will have this piece of doing what you love and that isn't measured in dollars! :cowboy: @

 

[chippie]

I don't know if you know this or not, but the Fort Bend County Extension Office has programs and resources for beef producers. If you get a chance, call the office and get on their mailing list.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Goodluck - it's a great feeling!

 

[thatdoggJake]

The group of cattle I picked up have been on 600 lbs of 15% range cubes per week up to my point of purchase. That works out to about 8.6 lbs per head, which equals about 1.3 lbs per week of protein. I'm not sure if this is serving to much of a purpose on this tract of land. I guess it's a good thing that they will cube up, but is this something I should continue? I can buy 50 lb bags of 15% at $6.95 each or 50 lb bags of 20% at $7.55 each. It seems to me that the 15% cubes are a better deal for what I'm buying. Are my thoughts correct here? 50 x .15 = 7.5 and 6.95/7.5= .926, whereas 50 x .20 = 10 and 7.55/10= .755

Maybe I should be cubing more, but maybe I could get by without cubing and try to make a dollar some day. But maybe, if "I treat my cows right, they will treat me right this spring." (as an ole farmer told me) I have a lot of maybies.

I'm going to get some mineral feeders built this weekend for some loose mineral to go along with some salt blocks that are out there.

 

[thatdoggJake]

I'm still pretty pumped about getting myself into this business. Usually I don't feel to good after I spend money, but I don't regret this purchase one single bit. Of course I say that at this point.

 

[1982vett]

Once cows learn what cubes are, they won't forget what they are and are always on the lookout for them.

 

[bigbull338]

congrats on buying that herd.an getting a 10yr lease on the place.now the work begins as you start building upon your new herd.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Congratulations and best wishes to you.

As for the cubes, if your grazing is decent,(nutrition-wise) you may be able to back off a bit on the cubes and save yourself some $$$.

Welcome to our world. :tiphat:

Katherine