Hello everyone. Hopefully, I can get some long sought after answers to seemingly simple questions here! Thanks in advance to anyone who shares their knowledge and skill with me here! I'll get right down to it then.
I was born and raised on a working (sort of) 500 acre cattle ranch in Texas. My father, who inherited the place from his father, has no training or knowledge of the cattle industry of any type, excluding a few hard-learned life lessons and what very little knowledge my grandfather passed on to him. Their knowledge and "marketing plan" is this: 1) Buy 20 head of wehatever mixed breed sad looking cow they could afford and likewise with a single bull. 2) let them loose as nature intended in the pasture. 3) keep the heifers, sell the bulls each spring until you reach 200 head. 4) after reaching 200 head, sell all yearlings.
Maybe I'm overcomplicating things a bit in my brain, but it seems to me that getting 200 head of mutt cattle with still only one mutt bull to the whole herd and hauling 150 or so yearlings off to the local sale barn each year is not what trying to make a living in the business should be about. Seems to me that choosing a breed and managing grassland and culling nonproductive cows should be happening, but its not and hasn't been for 50 years. I am 27 years old, and it is beginning to fall to me to make some decisions around the place. I want to move to a full blood herd and keep good records and utilize rotational grazing, and eventually find a better market than the local sale barn for these offspring.
Now, after all that background, my questions:
1) What breed should I go with and why?
2) How do I shift from what I have to what I want? I want to do it all in one fell swoop...sell every head on the place, give the land a year to "rest", use the money from the sale to purchase as many full blood whatever breed as I can and start from there. My father looses all the color in his face and starts shaking when I mention this...he is TERRIFIED of the thought. Suggestions?
3) Where do I go to learn about record keeping, herd and grassland management, and marketing? I have looked and looked online. Granted, I'm no Bill Gates on the computer so maybe I'm just missing it, but it almost seems like a deeply guarded secret (and it would not suprise me if it IS a deeply guarded secret!). I have talked to the local county extension office, but they seem rather unwilling to do more than offer a pamphlet of some sort.
I have a lot more questions, but this is already a large post, and I apoligize for that. Hopefully someone out there feels my pain here and has some insightful solutions for me! thanks!
I was born and raised on a working (sort of) 500 acre cattle ranch in Texas. My father, who inherited the place from his father, has no training or knowledge of the cattle industry of any type, excluding a few hard-learned life lessons and what very little knowledge my grandfather passed on to him. Their knowledge and "marketing plan" is this: 1) Buy 20 head of wehatever mixed breed sad looking cow they could afford and likewise with a single bull. 2) let them loose as nature intended in the pasture. 3) keep the heifers, sell the bulls each spring until you reach 200 head. 4) after reaching 200 head, sell all yearlings.
Maybe I'm overcomplicating things a bit in my brain, but it seems to me that getting 200 head of mutt cattle with still only one mutt bull to the whole herd and hauling 150 or so yearlings off to the local sale barn each year is not what trying to make a living in the business should be about. Seems to me that choosing a breed and managing grassland and culling nonproductive cows should be happening, but its not and hasn't been for 50 years. I am 27 years old, and it is beginning to fall to me to make some decisions around the place. I want to move to a full blood herd and keep good records and utilize rotational grazing, and eventually find a better market than the local sale barn for these offspring.
Now, after all that background, my questions:
1) What breed should I go with and why?
2) How do I shift from what I have to what I want? I want to do it all in one fell swoop...sell every head on the place, give the land a year to "rest", use the money from the sale to purchase as many full blood whatever breed as I can and start from there. My father looses all the color in his face and starts shaking when I mention this...he is TERRIFIED of the thought. Suggestions?
3) Where do I go to learn about record keeping, herd and grassland management, and marketing? I have looked and looked online. Granted, I'm no Bill Gates on the computer so maybe I'm just missing it, but it almost seems like a deeply guarded secret (and it would not suprise me if it IS a deeply guarded secret!). I have talked to the local county extension office, but they seem rather unwilling to do more than offer a pamphlet of some sort.
I have a lot more questions, but this is already a large post, and I apoligize for that. Hopefully someone out there feels my pain here and has some insightful solutions for me! thanks!
Management is very important. As Brandonm2 said, get ear tags in the cows so you can measure their performance. Buy GOOD bulls of a breed that you think will improve your herd. I'd suggest Angus, of course. The demand for Angus cattle continues to grow. The Angus database (the basis of EPDs) is the best in the industry. IMO, you'll find more quality Angus bulls available at reasonable prices than any other breed. The AngusSource tag adds value to your calves. But other breeds have similar tags if you don't want to go with Angus. I'll put the link to the Angus Beef Bulletin below, too. It has good info on a regular basis.
