Growing out calves to start up?

[Sniper338]

What is the consensus here, what do you think about purchasing 200-400lb calves at auction, feeding them out for a while and selling em when they hit 8, 900 lbs or more? I'm thinking about doing this some as my first moves to hopefully make some money to put back into cattle to slowly help me afford and start buying cow calf pairs and such... Only thing I see is more risk of calves that may not have a immune system built up, calves possibly getting sick and such, but I see that as possibilities with owning any animal...

 

[AllForage]

Dude this is getting to be too much!! Your first post said you have been around cows your whole life and you are not a newbie.

Take some seminars, read some books & magazines, visit some neighbors. I want to know who gave you the silver platter ranch when you obviously have way too much to learn in too short of time??

Buy a couple older beef cows and start the learning from there.

 

[Sniper338]

Dude this is getting to be too much!! Your first post said you have been around cows your whole life and you are not a newbie.

Take some seminars, read some books & magazines, visit some neighbors. I want to know who gave you the silver platter ranch when you obviously have way too much to learn in too short of time??

Buy a couple older beef cows and start the learning from there.

You know, i typed a big ol long reply to you here then deleted it... your not worth having a conversation with anyway and your a waste of time. Sad to say your probably older than me too and should know better. Im sorry someone trying to learn more on a variety of subjects aggervates you. Maybe you should do more with your life rather than being a jack... donkey on a forum.

 

[torogmc81]

Dude this is getting to be too much!! Your first post said you have been around cows your whole life and you are not a newbie.

Take some seminars, read some books & magazines, visit some neighbors. I want to know who gave you the silver platter ranch when you obviously have way too much to learn in too short of time??

Buy a couple older beef cows and start the learning from there.

In his defense, I've been around women my whole life and I'm a lot more confused and have a ton more questions about them than he does about cows :help: :help: :help:

:hide:

 

[Texas PaPaw]

How much experience do you have in identifying and treating sick calves. It's not a matter of if some lightweight calves will get sick. It's just a matter of how many you can identify, treat and keep alive. Not trying to discourage you but that is the reality. The smaller and younger cattle are the more likely they are to get sick.

Good judgement come from experience and experience comes from bad judgement. How much experience can you afford. Best get your experience from some older experienced bred cows that know how to do their jobs.

Admire your willingness to get on here and ask questions. Just hope you heed the advice of those who have paid their tuition to the school of hard knocks. Paying attention to other who have paid their tuition will be the cheapest and least painful experience you can get. No real shortcuts in the experience process just a matter of how much your tuition costs.

Just another 2 cents worth.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

That's a good post directly above this.

The calf deal is not bad, but it's alot more work and it's easier to lose money on a 1200$ calf that you buy to feed, compared to a 2000$ cow you buy that has a calf every year. Especially if you don't have alot of time to spend at sales picking up deals.

 

[skyhightree1]

How much experience do you have in identifying and treating sick calves. It's not a matter of if some lightweight calves will get sick. It's just a matter of how many you can identify, treat and keep alive. Not trying to discourage you but that is the reality. The smaller and younger cattle are the more likely they are to get sick.

Good judgement come from experience and experience comes from bad judgement. How much experience can you afford. Best get your experience from some older experienced bred cows that know how to do their jobs.

Admire your willingness to get on here and ask questions. Just hope you heed the advice of those who have paid their tuition to the school of hard knocks. Paying attention to other who have paid their tuition will be the cheapest and least painful experience you can get. No real shortcuts in the experience process just a matter of how much your tuition costs.

Just another 2 cents worth.

+1
Here is a example of good advice that if you are smart you will take this and remember it before you get knee deep in a costly mess.

 

[Deepsouth]

Dude this is getting to be too much!! Your first post said you have been around cows your whole life and you are not a newbie.

Take some seminars, read some books & magazines, visit some neighbors. I want to know who gave you the silver platter ranch when you obviously have way too much to learn in too short of time??

Buy a couple older beef cows and start the learning from there.

You know, i typed a big ol long reply to you here then deleted it... your not worth having a conversation with anyway and your a waste of time. Sad to say your probably older than me too and should know better. Im sorry someone trying to learn more on a variety of subjects aggervates you. Maybe you should do more with your life rather than being a jack... donkey on a forum.

Great post except for the I'm sorry part. :tiphat:

 

[B&M Farms]

Good judgement come from experience and experience comes from bad judgement. How much experience can you afford. Best get your experience from some older experienced bred cows that know how to do

If you want in the cow/calf business start with cows. They will teach you what bad judgement is a lot easier on the pocket book than calves.

 

[fenceman]

Good judgement come from experience and experience comes from bad judgement

Thats good stuff

 

[backhoeboogie]

Sniper you sound determined to get in the business.

I learned some lessons the hard way. I hope you don't learn as well as I did.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I will go ahead and say your numbers are a little off, I like to buy bull calves at 400lbs to 700lbs and never let them get over 850lbs, most I buy 400 to 500lbs and sell either between 500 and 550lbs or 600 and 650lbs.

Your idea on the 200 and 300lb calves is not bad, but there will be some more sickness, they are harder to get on feed and won't gain as well as bigger calves for a while. You also don't want to let anything get to 900lbs unless you have a direct buyer lined up ahead of time giving you some incentive for that size.

If you want to be in the cow calf business I would start there, you can buy decent cows for 1800$ and 2000$ pretty easy, won't all be young #1 blacks, but won't be junk either. That's probably a better direction for you than buying 1200$ calves.

 

[Sniper338]

Sniper you sound determined to get in the business.

I learned some lessons the hard way. I hope you don't learn as well as I did.

Yes i am, but im learning all i can first about things that i dont have a clear understanding.. i do have a few mentors that are helping me out, people i know that have been running cattle for a long time... and when i do get cows its going to be a joint effort amoung myself and some family, we will all be watching over them... so im not totally on a solo venture here..

 

[Sniper338]

I will go ahead and say your numbers are a little off, I like to buy bull calves at 400lbs to 700lbs and never let them get over 850lbs, most I buy 400 to 500lbs and sell either between 500 and 550lbs or 600 and 650lbs.

Your idea on the 200 and 300lb calves is not bad, but there will be some more sickness, they are harder to get on feed and won't gain as well as bigger calves for a while. You also don't want to let anything get to 900lbs unless you have a direct buyer lined up ahead of time giving you some incentive for that size.

If you want to be in the cow calf business I would start there, you can buy decent cows for 1800$ and 2000$ pretty easy, won't all be young #1 blacks, but won't be junk either. That's probably a better direction for you than buying 1200$ calves.

yeah.. i have someone i know thats in the cattle business making some phone calls for me today to see what he can find with other people he knows... they are all pretty knowledgble and work a lot with youth show cattle, we will see what turns up... i dont really want to buy from an auction barn, if im able to get some from these people locally i would be better off as far as quality goes, i know for a fact all their cattle are vaccinated and good to go... itd be less head acke starting a herd with good healthy cattle.. theres too much unknowns buying from an auction... i mean how would anyone know if the cow they just bought from an auction that looks good and all in reality is a fence jumper, dont take to getting bred/misses etc etc... id rather start with a few good older cows that i know will take as soon as they get a bull on em, and have a good history of calves...

 

[Caustic Burno]

You are making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Find a mentor in your area to learn from.
Best advice here is to find a cattleman in your area and follow his advice.
Don't buy the first cow until your infrastructure is in place.
If it was me I would start you on SS heavies that know how to work
while you start this lifelong journey of learning.
Now Cattlemen are a funny lot they will bend over backwards to help
you if your attitude button is sewed on right.
If not they will set back and watch you fall on you butt without lifting a hand.

 

[Big Cheese]

I don't think starting with feeding out calves is a good idea if your wanting to be in the cow calf business. Now maybe getting a few wouldn't be a bad idea. Buying a few small heifers like that and raising them up will give you the best momma cows. I did that to start expanding my herd and the three that I raised for me, my dad, and my brother are arguably the 3 best cows on our place right now. It sounds like you have a lot help and getting good advice from your mentors. It won't hurt you to get a few good looking cows from the barn as well. You should find you a good cattle buyer that buys only good stock from the barn. That's how we started our way back in the business. We had a buyer and we would buy a few here and a few there and ended up with 25 cows before we even knew it. Now we are up to over 100 since we have taken to Longhorns. You get you a good buyer he will be able to pick threw the sale barn cows and get you good ones. Still could be the possible fence jumper but you are taking that chance with any cow you buy really.

In my opinion here this is what I would do. I don't know how much land you got or how many cows your wanting to run but I believe this could work for you. Get you some good bred cows/heifers from your mentors or a buyer. I would also buy a good few young heifers to put in with them as well. You can get 2 for the price of 1 maybe even 3 for 1. I know your not wanting to go to the sale barn but this is what I liked when we were getting started back in the business. I like getting those 350-400 pound heifers that had a 500 pound frame aka skinny. They pack on the pounds really quick and look good as new in a 2 to 3 weeks. You could even buy a few steers like that and throw them out there for the summer then sell in the fall and make a little money.

I know that got a little long winded but all in all I would do a combination of the two. i may be young but I've been in your shoes before. Your on the right track. By the way a lot of people don't like this and I have mentioned this before but Longhorns are the easiest cows to take care of and start out with and cheap as well. I wouldn't definitely throw a few of them in your herd to start out and you could possibly build your whole herd with them for a year or two and make a little money then start replacing them with beef cows if you don't like them. You never know though you may like them like we do.

 

[Sniper338]

They only thing i got agaisnt longhorns is the horns... they dont work well in the corral and chutes... its possible ive done it, but they aint near as easy in chutes. I havent seen prices on linghorns yet either... i dont know what they bring. Ill have to look at em more as an option..

Im probably going to get a older cow calf pair a month or so... then get a few cheaper calves to bet on for a possible quicker turn over. Flip a few and slowly try to get up to 6 to 10 cows with calves by the end of the year...

 

[tom4018]

We buy some lightweight calves and have better luck with 350# and up. Small calves need to be watched close as high as they are losing just one will eat up the profit on several .

 

[Big Cheese]

Cut the horns. We cut all of ours when we got them. Should of cut them shorter but they are at about ear length. You should be able to get a good heavy bred Longhorn momma between $800-$1400....maybe even a pair for around $1500.

 

[ANAZAZI]

Dude this is getting to be too much!! Your first post said you have been around cows your whole life and you are not a newbie.

Take some seminars, read some books & magazines, visit some neighbors. I want to know who gave you the silver platter ranch when you obviously have way too much to learn in too short of time??

Buy a couple older beef cows and start the learning from there.

This is not an offensive post to me. This is simply the thruth. Allforage is sometimes grumpy - but this is not grumpy.

Oh, we did touch on the subject what cattle to start with earlier, right Sniper? You were given great advice back in the other thread. This thread is all abot trying to do what only experienced cattlemen can make money from. Starting your business with a class of cattle that are extra sensitive and raising them in a weight interval where the price per weight goes way down - is not a good plan.