Hello from central Texas

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Ricardo

Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2024
Messages
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Location
Burnet County, Texas
I'm new on the board. I raise a handful of red angus and a couple of longhorns. Everything I know about cattle I've learned in the last 2-3 years. I'm retired and I'm thinking of buying some land and starting a small stocker operation (30-40 head). Here's my question…the places I like and can afford are anywhere from 5-9 hrs away. I want stockers only so I don't have to worry about calving cows or a bull running around the place. Am I crazy to be thinking about it if it's that far away?
 
Hook up with a custom grazer, and pay him for adding them into his operation instead. They'll be much better cared for.

What's your goal? Why do you want to get into this?

If they're 5-9 hours away, you're not going to be able to be "managing them" regularly (like daily, or even weekly). So hire someone else to "manage" them for you, if you're only in it for the $$, or the "image", or the ??? Even if you were to go say, once a week, to "manage" them 7 hours away, just consider the real cost involved in doing that. It's not feasible financially. But... if you hire someone else to manage them for you 7 hours away, they'll be getting great care regularly (hopefully...), and you only have to go once or twice through the season.. And literally, depending on your arrangement, you might even NEVER have to go there... he does it all for you, and you're only involvement would have to be the $$ involved.

So again... it depends on what your goals are? Why do you want to be doing this? And be objective and honest with yourself about that.
 
Hook up with a custom grazer, and pay him for adding them into his operation instead. They'll be much better cared for…..
Thanks for the reply…
I like raising cattle, living and working in cattle country, and having a place to go and use as sort of a working vacation home, although the "home" would come later if at all. The land itself would pass on to our kids when we're gone. I wouldn't expect to make a lot of money on it but if I made enough to pay expenses in most years and have a little left over that would be great. I'd want a place with enough grass where I wouldn't have to supplement a lot of feed. I'd actually thought about hiring someone to help with it but wasn't sure if it was cost efficient or how hard it is to find people for that job. That's why I posted here since there are a lot of real ranchers on this board…not just amateurs like me.
 
Folks do it all the time to keep their land in ag for tax reasons but its usually not stockers. Its usually hunting land with a mess of cows and a bull. It can work with rough country cattle like longhorns, corrientes or their crosses. You would still need to check on them periodically and have some pens to catch them in. You also would need to expect some losses but there are lots of people that let them go all year and round them up once or twice a year to pull the calves off to take to the sale. Cattle in this type of situation can get pretty wild so the more you check on them and dump out some cubes, the better off you would be. What part of Texas are you wanting to buy this property?
 
Folks do it all the time to keep their land in ag for tax reasons but it's usually not stockers. It's usually hunting land with a mess of cows and a bull. It can work with rough country cattle like longhorns, corrientes or their crosses. You would still need to check on them periodically and have some pens to catch them in. You also would need to expect some losses but there are lots of people that let them go all year and round them up once or twice a year to pull the calves off to take to the sale. Cattle in this type of situation can get pretty wild so the more you check on them and dump out some cubes, the better off you would be. What part of Texas are you wanting to buy this property?
I'm looking in the Texas or Oklahoma panhandle to western Oklahoma. I actually thought about the longhorn angle since they're generally pretty easy calving. I just sold a 410 lb brangus/longhorn cross bull calf that brought 2.25/lb at the sale barn. I didn't think that was too bad. Maybe put an angus bull out with longhorn cows and do just like you say, make periodic trips to throw out cubes and check on them. Have catch pens and sell the calves once or twice a year. That was my backup plan if the stocker idea didn't pan out, but maybe that's the better way.
 
Welcome

Both will be pretty tough at that distance and neither will make enough to likely justify the help.

You might start thing outside the box and see if you can find a young person that will run half the cows and watch your half the cows? In my mind it will take some thing along those lines. You will need help and they will need an opportunity
 
At that distance and no one watching them, what could go wrong? get sick and die. Get out and gone when you return. Get stolen. Run out of feed/forage and die. Water issues and fence issues. Or maybe they will just be fat and sassy and hop on the trailer when you return. Some of those are more likely than others.:)

Too far and too risky, IMO.
 

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