Don’t tell people what you know, KEEP THEM POOR!

[TexasBred]

I can't tell you how many people I meet that say "that's for when you are in the big leagues"

Well, the big leaguers were once little leaguers.

There is another thread on CT discussing why cattle in Kentucky and Tennessee su..ck so badly. This video will clear up a lot regarding that question.

I'm looking at some new hay equipment right now, what I have is not that old about 4 years, but it doesn't do all that I need it to in order to produce the best hay for our herd. What I'm looking at is very expensive Deere equipment, 6R series tractor and a silage baler with B wrap. When I looked at the entire cost involved, it was not insignificant, but when I thought about what it could do to improve our program it seemed like a no brainer. Expensive is losing a big portion of your bale to rot. Expensive is feeding your cattle garbage hay.

I'm guilty as everyone else at trying to save a buck from time to time, but that mentality will usually set you back instead of moving you ahead towards bigger and better things in life. Just my opinion.

What you're talking about it not problems with the equipment. It is about management. How are you managing the production of your hay??

 

[CattleMan1920]

I can't tell you how many people I meet that say "that's for when you are in the big leagues"

Well, the big leaguers were once little leaguers.

There is another thread on CT discussing why cattle in Kentucky and Tennessee su..ck so badly. This video will clear up a lot regarding that question.

I'm looking at some new hay equipment right now, what I have is not that old about 4 years, but it doesn't do all that I need it to in order to produce the best hay for our herd. What I'm looking at is very expensive Deere equipment, 6R series tractor and a silage baler with B wrap. When I looked at the entire cost involved, it was not insignificant, but when I thought about what it could do to improve our program it seemed like a no brainer. Expensive is losing a big portion of your bale to rot. Expensive is feeding your cattle garbage hay.

I'm guilty as everyone else at trying to save a buck from time to time, but that mentality will usually set you back instead of moving you ahead towards bigger and better things in life. Just my opinion.

What you're talking about it not problems with the equipment. It is about management. How are you managing the production of your hay??

My hay looks excellent when baled, it's after 5-6 months of heavy rain and being unwrapped, that takes it's toll.

I cut and bale my hay with a lot of discipline, it's keeping it dry and preserved that's a problem for me.

I think wrapped hay is far superior to non wrapped hay.

 

[True Grit Farms]

What does being Liberal have anything to do with this thread?

You haven't been on Cattle today long enough yet.....

Something similar to a minnow.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

I think wrapped hay is far superior too..that's why I wrapped a new barn around it..and a whole lot cheaper then ""new"""John Deere equipment..

 

[CattleMan1920]

What does being Liberal have anything to do with this thread?

You haven't been on Cattle today long enough yet.....

It's not lost upon me. But what I find interesting is that in my area so many complain about big government but they are nearly knocking each other over to grab those Government funds for their farms. I would think a true Conservative would not touch those cost share funds no matter how tempting they may be. I think those programs are another form of welfare, and they are VERY popular here. I guess my views on those funds makes me a Conservative?

 

[JMJ Farms]

ive heard a man say once ..you'll pay for a hay barn in one form or the other..when you count all the waste...personally give me a new barn, and old equipment anyday

I agree a hay barn will pay for itself. I want one. And may actually need one. But it's a fairly large upfront cost. My best estimate, based on my operation and the size barn I would need (and this should work for most operations), is that it will take 10 years to pay for itself, provided its paid for upfront and no interest is calculated. I also didn't account for the time value of money, or the labor to stack the barn, and then unstack at feeding.

I've wondered if 2-3 extra wraps of net wrap per bale wouldn't be just as good, EXCEPT for the fact that after 10-12-15 years, you'd STILL have the barn, while the net wrap would be in the dumpster.

One thing is sure. There's no easy cheap way to feed hay. Imo it's an expensive way to feed a cow. But I don't have a better option.

Let's assume one rolls 1000 bales, and those bales lose 15% to rot, that means you just rolled 150 rolls to throw away. At about $40 a roll, you just burned $6k up as if throwing it in a fire. Over 5 years that is $30k.

Now assume you are using twine wrap, the loss is even more drastic, probably 25-30%. Imagine tossing away 300 rolls to rot.

Deere has the B wrap which looks good to me, and seems to make a plastic wrapper like the Anderson wrapper non essential. However I'm wondering how the quality would be if you did B wrap AND plastic wrap combined to protect against the endless rain. I would think it would be impervious.

Spot on in regards to my hay barn cost estimate. Only difference is I figure 10% waste before feeding. And that could be slightly high FOR ME. So let's say I roll 500 rolls. Lose 50@$50/bale.
That's $2500/year. A steel building large enough to store 500 rolls would cost me about $22-24k. So about 10 years.

Your estimate would be $6k loss per year. $50k barn (assuming costs in your location are similar to my area) so 9 years.

I don't really see how it could possibly be a bad decision in the long run. It's just a substantial upfront cost.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I went and listened to a very successful entrepreneur.
He stated if everyone started over in the USA with 100 dollars, Bill Gates would still be where he is and the guy living under the overpass still there.

Most people I have encountered with real money seldom talk about it.
A good read is the Millionaire Next Door.

The saying is "if you took all the money from the rich and gave it to the poor, in 10 years the rich would have it all back again" I largely think that is true.

As for the rich not talking about money. I have to disagree, I've known personally some people with 9 figure net worths and their money is more important than their kids or anything else for that matter, and they would be offended if you didn't recognize that they were rich. Tacky, but rich nevertheless.

I think some really wealthy people don't like the unwanted attention it can garner for safety reasons or because they are up to something shady. It's definitely not because they are humble.

I didn't hear him say "if you took all the money from the rich and gave it to the poor, in 10 years the rich would have it all back again".

 

[jehosofat]

Quick question for you Mr Branded, how would you need 1200 rolls of hay to feed 50 mama cows and calves. I run about 70 mama's and use 300 ish a year. Mine stay just as fat as yours. My 40 x 80 barn holds em all with ease. 16' lean to's on 3 sides holds all the rest of the equipment.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Quick question for you Mr Branded, how would you need 1200 rolls of hay to feed 50 mama cows and calves. I run about 70 mama's and use 300 ish a year. Mine stay just as fat as yours. My 40 x 80 barn holds em all with ease. 16' lean to's on 3 sides holds all the rest of the equipment.

When building air castles might as well build a big one, cost the same as a little one.

 

[JMJ Farms]

"cost share funds no matter how tempting they may be. I think those programs are another form of welfare"

I view them as interest earnings. I give the government my money so they can use it. Then they later send me a cost share check(interest on my money) When I send the cost share check farther down the line.... the government gets it back by taxing those recipients. :lol2:

 

[CattleMan1920]

Quick question for you Mr Branded, how would you need 1200 rolls of hay to feed 50 mama cows and calves. I run about 70 mama's and use 300 ish a year. Mine stay just as fat as yours. My 40 x 80 barn holds em all with ease. 16' lean to's on 3 sides holds all the rest of the equipment.

50 mommas don't need 1200 rolls. I will be over 100 head in the next 12-16 months, and even more than that by 2021. I'm planning ahead, and I'm also looking to sell any excess hay. The people crying the blues this winter failed to be prepared, no other excuse.

The guys in my area that baled as much hay as they could are not having money issues right now, instead they are selling hay at $100 roll. They are pis..sing people off, but getting paid. Capitalism at it's finest. The law of supply and demand playing itself out.

300 rolls, at $100 a roll, which would be easy to obtain right now for a bale, is $30k. That pays for a baler pretty darn fast, and you get high quality, non molded hay for yourself. We have a lot of Amish farmers here and they will pay $100 a roll all day long.

 

[JMJ Farms]

I didn't hear him say "if you took all the money from the rich and gave it to the poor, in 10 years the rich would have it all back again".

I think he meant that it was just a saying. I've heard this all my life. At one time I believe it would have held more true than now. I do believe that it would be true to a large extent just due to the way people are wired. Like Barney Fife said "somes got it and some don't".

A lot of the really wealthy people that inherited fortunes would likely be unable to re-attain them on their own.

Some people have the drive to get out there and get it. Some don't. That will never change.

All my folks have always been broke. No rich uncles or none of that stuff in my family tree. So I didn't have to think about it much. Get up. Go to work. Pay the man.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Quick question for you Mr Branded, how would you need 1200 rolls of hay to feed 50 mama cows and calves. I run about 70 mama's and use 300 ish a year. Mine stay just as fat as yours. My 40 x 80 barn holds em all with ease. 16' lean to's on 3 sides holds all the rest of the equipment.

50 mommas don't need 1200 rolls. I will be over 100 head in the next 12-16 months, and even more than that by 2021. I'm planning ahead, and I'm also looking to sell any excess hay. The people crying the blues this winter failed to be prepared, no other excuse.

The guys in my area that baled as much hay as they could are not having money issues right now, instead they are selling hay at $100 roll. They are pis..sing people off, but getting paid. Capitalism at it's finest. The law of supply and demand playing itself out.

300 rolls, at $100 a roll, which would be easy to obtain right now for a bale, is $30k. That pays for a baler pretty darn fast, and you get high quality, non molded hay for yourself. We have a lot of Amish farmers here and they will pay $100 a roll all day long.

Man ! that video really lit a fire under your butt didn't it... :lol2:

 

[CattleMan1920]

I didn't hear him say "if you took all the money from the rich and gave it to the poor, in 10 years the rich would have it all back again".

I think he meant that it was just a saying. I've heard this all my life. At one time I believe it would have held more true than now. I do believe that it would be true to a large extent just due to the way people are wired. Like Barney Fife said "somes got it and some don't".

A lot of the really wealthy people that inherited fortunes would likely be unable to re-attain them on their own.

Some people have the drive to get out there and get it. Some don't. That will never change.

All my folks have always been broke. No rich uncles or none of that stuff in my family tree. So I didn't have to think about it much. Get up. Go to work. Pay the man.

I think if most of the people who inherited wealth were to lose it, they wouldn't stand a prayer of getting it back. Fully agree with you.

I sincerely think poor is a mindset, I've known people who have worked like maniacs to get out of poverty and they pulled it off. They thought that being poor sucked so they did something about it.

Kentucky is rapidly becoming a state of the "Haves" and the "Have nots" The Congressman in our district is a silver spoon trust fund guy, the bankers here, same situation. I'm pretty sure if they were wiped out financially that a recovery would be impossible. They lack survival skills. They play golf and take long it easy as often as possible from my observation.

If you meet a rich person who made it from scratch, they are usually pretty interesting to speak with, and you can actually learn from them. Investor Ray Dalio comes to mind.

I read an article the other day that said most new millionaires are in their 40's and that the majority of big players in real estate investments did so with inherited funds.

This has not been my life story, guess I have a lot more AI'ng to do and mommas to produce. LOL!

 

[CattleMan1920]

Man ! that video really lit a fire under your butt didn't it... :lol2:

Nope! I watch and read stuff like that every day. I just happened to like this particular video and shared it.

I bought some hay last spring, had it wrapped, and now I'm cutting open those tubes. I paid $30 a roll for it, The hay I'm feeding is a far cry from the $100 low quality hay in circulation right now. I'm just wanting to make sure I'm never the person that is cornered with starving cattle and forced to buy $100 hay because mine ran out in early January. Never want to be that guy! No matter how much of a learning experience it may be.

 

[NEFarmwife]

I went and listened to a very successful entrepreneur.
He stated if everyone started over in the USA with 100 dollars, Bill Gates would still be where he is and the guy living under the overpass still there.

Most people I have encountered with real money seldom talk about it.
A good read is the Millionaire Next Door.

Years ago, I owned a media blasting business and relocated to Omaha NE to grow. Leased a massive building on the edge of the city in an industrial area. Met the man, seen the place, said I'd take it.

He gave me his address and told me to come by and sign papers in the coming days. I pulled up to his home and couldn't believe his home. It was nothing more than a ran down modular home next to an overgrown lot in an older part of the city. I KNEW who this man was, one of the top 10 richest men in Nebraska. Right alongside Kewitt and Buffett.

At that moment, I realized the reason he was so wealthy is because he never grew into his money, he invested and diversified.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

How well does spending 200k+ on new equipment to replace 4 year old equipment, pencil out?

 

[Lucky]

I built a hay barn 2 yrs ago and it's been one of my best investments. I went a little overboard so it cost quite a bit but what the heck I like it. The thing I didn't figure on pay back was how much you save on carrying hay over a year. I would say 0% waste on hay stored this year and maybe 5% if that on hay left from last year. I also built a couple sheds off of it for equipment storage and I think they are paying off faster than the barn. JMJ talked about paying cash rather than finance when figuring savings in, I think the material/labor cost is going up more than the interest would be.

A couple things I've learned on the other subject is don't take advice from people who always say "I can't afford to do that" or automatically say "That won't work". Instead look for the guy in the conversation getting his calculator out. When someone gives you advice always look at what's behind them. Anyone can become well off in America, if they really want too.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

my wants and needs have changed drastically with age...if I don't need it, I don't want it..

 

[ALACOWMAN]

How well does spending 200k+ on new equipment to replace 4 year old equipment, pencil out?

enough that I can change the pickup teeth on my baler that's for sure..