Did you learn on your own with no help?

[skyhightree1]

Some might think I am going too slow (SKY), but I like to do things at a pace that gets it done right. I'll get there.
]

:lol2: hey now ..

I learned from my family started with my grandfather cousins and uncles. We grew up raising veggies and cattle/pigs/chickens for our consumption and to sell. I learned most from them and other stuff I gained from the school of hard knocks. Some from reading some from other folks some from here. I have never stopped learning nor will I ever think I know everything. I like to take different information I hear and then apply it when whatever I try doesn't work.

 

[Dave]

Dad never had more than one steer at a time for his own freezer. When I in the second grade he bought me a day old Holstein bull calf. I raise it and sold halves of beef. By the time I graduated from high school I had enough cattle to pay for two years of college. I have learned by making my own mistakes.

 

[HDRider]

Dad never had more than one steer at a time for his own freezer. When I in the second grade he bought me a day old Holstein bull calf. I raise it and sold halves of beef. By the time I graduated from high school I had enough cattle to pay for two years of college. I have learned by making my own mistakes.

I admire that..

 

[Bestoutwest]

Was always a dream as a kid. Worked with a guy who had rodeo cattle. I had the hay field and he kept the cattle at his place. I learned a lot about how plan out pens, work super stupid/crazy cows and build facilities. I like beef cattle a lot better. I've been around cattle for about 5 yrs now, and everyday I learn something new. I just wish I had stupid money so I could do it fulltime. I hope to get my son excited about it so he'll at least learn about running a business (no matter how small it is) before he goes to college.

 

[D2Cat]

Dad never had more than one steer at a time for his own freezer. When I in the second grade he bought me a day old Holstein bull calf. I raise it and sold halves of beef. By the time I graduated from high school I had enough cattle to pay for two years of college. I have learned by making my own mistakes.

Dave you dad was a wise man!

 

[cfpinz]

The day I was born, my grandparents gave me 3 cows - a Hereford, a red angus and a redneck. It's been all downhill from there...

 

[dun]

The day I was born, my grandparents gave me 3 cows - a Hereford, a red angus and a redneck. It's been all downhill from there...

Especially for your poor wife!

 

[cfpinz]

The day I was born, my grandparents gave me 3 cows - a Hereford, a red angus and a redneck. It's been all downhill from there...

Especially for your poor wife!

Marrying me was the smartest thing she ever did, like winning the lottery everyday...

 

[dun]

The day I was born, my grandparents gave me 3 cows - a Hereford, a red angus and a redneck. It's been all downhill from there...

Especially for your poor wife!

Marrying me was the smartest thing she ever did, like winning the lottery everyday...

That isn;t what she said! I can see that it would be like that for you though

 

[callmefence]

I learned growing up with almost no help.
I was pretty much raised by my grandfather. There was always cattle around he had 7 brothers and two sisters. Almost all had jobs and the cattle were kinda of a joint effort. The place was kept very under stocked. Cattle were not vaccinated, wormed, or fed. I sat Down the first round bale of hay on our place.
Calves were simply trapped once a year and sold.
When the old man allowed me to take over his piece. I had to buy the cattle and pay lease.
I went to work clearing cedar. Improving grasses and adding to the cow herd.
I learned a lot watching him and my uncle's.
But if you ever went to him to talk about a idea. His answer would be the same...that might work. You'll just have to try and see.

He pretty much gave me the farm. But I was expected to figure things out on my own.

 

[NECowboy]

Thanks everyone, it's easy to look at farm families and say oh I bet the kids are learning great and were lucky to be born in that environment. Teaching quality I'm sure varies widely.

Am firmly planted here, own a business and have a good job. Planning on this being a hobby farm but I do want to make a little extra income with it. As someone said earlier the self-actualization need and also to me my peace of mind and sanity being out of town in the country enjoying nature and doing something totally different and fulfilling.

We bought 160 acres with a beautiful view of the valley. Has small canyon, bluffs, rolling hills, couldn't imagine wanting to own property anywhere else. 30 acres is dryland corn and wheat. 130 is pasture. Stocking rate is now 20 cow-calfs but with rotational would like to increase that to 30 cow-calfs.

Property size and operation size seems to be sufficient for my needs and demands of my full-time job.

All I know guys is once I become an expert on this stuff (probably won't be til I'm 99 and on death's door), I will want to teach everyone what I've learned or answer more questions then asking so many and stupid ones.

 

[cattle60]

I was always told that the only dumb question was the one you didn't ask.

 

[NECowboy]

Are you planning on operating in the Rocky Mountain West? Is your goals a hobby farm or do you intend to earn your livelyhood solely from beef cattle? If the latter, you better be a master counterfeiter or richer than Bill Gates. Viable operations in Colorado require large tracts of real estate. Large tracts of land have logistic challenges. If you are starting from scratch, your fist step is acquiring property by purchase or lease. Where you are, that is a challenge few will overcome. To run a herd of 100 cows in the Rocky Mountain West, will require a large capital investment.

Here in Kentucky, the challenge is not as great. The scale and scope of your operation can be downsized. A $100,000 in Colorado will buy you enough infrastructune to raise a few goats. In Kentucky, you could buy 60 acres and then borrow another $80,000 to put up fences, buildings and handling facilities. Then borrow another $100,000 for tractor, implements, etc.

Candidly, the vocation of cattle husbandry is difficult to get into if you are starting from scratch!

In Nebraska the cost is medium. I'm on the Plains not in the Rocky Mountain West. Nowhere near as expensive as Colorado but probably not quite as great as KY or states in the Southeast for cost of land vs. stocking rate. We had fences and number of cross fences already on property but a lot of them are going to need replaced in next 10-15 years. We will do a 4 stall horse barn and shop at some point along with the house (probably year or two after house built). Decent utility tractor looks around 50 grand new (will want one for snow removal, tilling vegetable garden, fencing, seeding, all kind of stuff, I would hope cutter, baler, rake not an additional 50k but don't know.)

 

[M-5]

Lots of folks were raised in it but had no desire to really learn or to carry on . Like I said I grew up in agriculture and absorbed everything I could knowing one day I would try and do it on my own in some form or fashion. I have spend 35 yrs working off the farm and around 18 yrs slowly building what I want. All of my mentors(grand father and uncle) are long gone but what I learned back then is still applied with what I continue to learn today. They did some things wrong and a lot of things right. around here I get asked advise and for help with things quite often as people know I worked side by side with 2 very successful farmers and they see what I am doing and I guess they think I know what I am doing. Common sense and reasoning deserves more credit than it gets. a person that has had all the help in the world and cant reason why its done a certain way is destined to fail.

 

[NECowboy]

Lots of folks were raised in it but had no desire to really learn or to carry on . Like I said I grew up in agriculture and absorbed everything I could knowing one day I would try and do it on my own in some form or fashion. I have spend 35 yrs working off the farm and around 18 yrs slowly building what I want. All of my mentors(grand father and uncle) are long gone but what I learned back then is still applied with what I continue to learn today. They did some things wrong and a lot of things right. around here I get asked advise and for help with things quite often as people know I worked side by side with 2 very successful farmers and they see what I am doing and I guess they think I know what I am doing. Common sense and reasoning deserves more credit than it gets. a person that has had all the help in the world and cant reason why its done a certain way is destined to fail.

Dash I didn't think anyone on here thought you have much common sense! :lol:

 

[inyati13]

Are you planning on operating in the Rocky Mountain West? Is your goals a hobby farm or do you intend to earn your livelyhood solely from beef cattle? If the latter, you better be a master counterfeiter or richer than Bill Gates. Viable operations in Colorado require large tracts of real estate. Large tracts of land have logistic challenges. If you are starting from scratch, your fist step is acquiring property by purchase or lease. Where you are, that is a challenge few will overcome. To run a herd of 100 cows in the Rocky Mountain West, will require a large capital investment.

Here in Kentucky, the challenge is not as great. The scale and scope of your operation can be downsized. A $100,000 in Colorado will buy you enough infrastructune to raise a few goats. In Kentucky, you could buy 60 acres and then borrow another $80,000 to put up fences, buildings and handling facilities. Then borrow another $100,000 for tractor, implements, etc.

Candidly, the vocation of cattle husbandry is difficult to get into if you are starting from scratch!

In Nebraska the cost is medium. I'm on the Plains not in the Rocky Mountain West. Nowhere near as expensive as Colorado but probably not quite as great as KY or states in the Southeast for cost of land vs. stocking rate. We had fences and number of cross fences already on property but a lot of them are going to need replaced in next 10-15 years. We will do a 4 stall horse barn and shop at some point along with the house (probably year or two after house built). Decent utility tractor looks around 50 grand new (will want one for snow removal, tilling vegetable garden, fencing, seeding, all kind of stuff, I would hope cutter, baler, rake not an additional 50k but don't know.)

Yes. I thought you were in Colorado as a result of your comment about Denver. Nebraska! I hunted pheasants in western Nebraska when I was in Casper, WY.

I hope you fare WELL.

 

[Commercialfarmer]

First thing you need to remember, is that before you can be a cowboy, you need to be a grass farmer.

Way we operated when I was young is quite different than today. There something gained with the experience of what was, if nothing else to just know there are better ways.

But I believe the best thing you can do is think outside the box. Look at your situation and try to work with nature and not fight it.

Grandpa used to work the ground multiple times each summer and fight it blowing away. He'd curse the weeds. Dad was the same. But after a little proding, and a shift away from harvesting wheat and more toward cattle production, was able to get him to utilize the natural production of crabgrass. Probably couldn't raise anything with better protein on this old sandy soil, and it self seeds. Little fertilizer and you are in business. Carrying capacity just doubled. Summer pastures can be saved for fall. Lot of years cattle can't even keep up with all the crabgrass and we get quite a bit of hay to support them through the winter.
When time, spray to kill. Work winter rye fields once at time of drilling. With increased plant material, there is very little soil erosion. Decreased fuel use and seems to be sufficient moisture.

That's been the standard operation for the past decade or so.

On to the next chapter. Going to try no till. Supposed to have benefits of even less soil erosion, loss of the hard pan after a few years. Rotation with legumes will hopefully improve soil nitrogen, decrease fertilizer use. Interested to see what happens.

Jo mentioned he is running spring and fall calving herds to make better use of his resources. It's things like that, that will keep you going when others are losing.

I think we're going to try so more fall calving cattle. Moving away from stockers and going to exclusive cow calf operation, we can utilize winter wheat/rye for the cows- rotate in and out. The weaning weights on the few fall calvers we have seem to be leaps and bounds above the spring. Something else to play with and see.

 

[Ojp6]

This might have been said but if there's a sale you can go to on Saturday anywhere around you the old farmers gather at sales and there's a lot to be learned. I went to my first cow sale when I was a couple months old and have been to a pile of sales in the 23 years since then. I may have been to 250 in the last year.


I was lucky to be raised around it. My grandpa has fed a substantial number of cattle since the 80s and I've gotten to buy cattle for him or my dad since I was 12. We got more into the cow-calf in the last 6-7 years, and I've learned some of that from my dad and some from people I've become friends with at the sale barn. I've got a lot to learn yet, but luckily I've got a lot of hands on experience when I was young.

 

[NECowboy]

Lots of folks were raised in it but had no desire to really learn or to carry on . Like I said I grew up in agriculture and absorbed everything I could knowing one day I would try and do it on my own in some form or fashion. I have spend 35 yrs working off the farm and around 18 yrs slowly building what I want. All of my mentors(grand father and uncle) are long gone but what I learned back then is still applied with what I continue to learn today. They did some things wrong and a lot of things right. around here I get asked advise and for help with things quite often as people know I worked side by side with 2 very successful farmers and they see what I am doing and I guess they think I know what I am doing. Common sense and reasoning deserves more credit than it gets. a person that has had all the help in the world and cant reason why its done a certain way is destined to fail.

Dash I didn't think anyone on here thought you have much common sense! :lol:

Dash are your feelings hurt, haven't heard any witty response from you yet!

 

[inyati13]

Lots of folks were raised in it but had no desire to really learn or to carry on . Like I said I grew up in agriculture and absorbed everything I could knowing one day I would try and do it on my own in some form or fashion. I have spend 35 yrs working off the farm and around 18 yrs slowly building what I want. All of my mentors(grand father and uncle) are long gone but what I learned back then is still applied with what I continue to learn today. They did some things wrong and a lot of things right. around here I get asked advise and for help with things quite often as people know I worked side by side with 2 very successful farmers and they see what I am doing and I guess they think I know what I am doing. Common sense and reasoning deserves more credit than it gets. a person that has had all the help in the world and cant reason why its done a certain way is destined to fail.

Dash I didn't think anyone on here thought you have much common sense! :lol:

Dash are your feelings hurt, haven't heard any witty response from you yet!

You would have to crack Darryl over the head with a 2x4 to hurt him, even then would not do much to that hardhead.