how big of a trailer

[Texas PaPaw]

I also agree with snake and smokin, why pay for a bigger trailer and possibly a truck when your truck/trailer can haul em. I guarantee the sale barn has haulers ready to make a buck or two. If your hauling big cows all the time it would be a different story, but just buying calves? Why not save the money on a trailer and buy a few more calves that will make you money? The most expensive pieces of equipment on a farm are a combine, stock trailer, and lawn mower, they just sit around too long.

Agree with the above also. For the few times you buy several head just hire them hauled. When I have more than a load for my trailer I get a couple of guys who haul for the salebarn to help me. Easier than making 2 trips and cheaper than owning a bigger rig for a few loads per year. As mentioned, put the money towards more cattle as they will give a better return than a bigger trailer.

That being said a 6ft wide trailer will haul about 500# per foot of length and a 6.8 will haul about 550#/ft. Heavier cattle can get a few more pounds on whereas real light calves may not allow quite that much weight. I pull a 24 x6 with a Chev 2500 with a 6.0 gas engine. Pulls it just fine. FWIW-pulled a 16X6 bumper pull many years until it was worn out before replacing it with a used gooseneck.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Funny how a question about what size of trailer a guy should own gets turned into why people should hire hauling done.

 

[snake67]

Funny how a question about what size of trailer a guy should own gets turned into why people should hire hauling done.

Most (not all) outfits do not need a trailer DMF

If they do, it need only be a small one.

But they often WANT one

Lots of folks here - more than not - are simply playing at the game.

But it does look good sitting in the yard!

You're a cattleman!!

Look, even when we were running cattle in the hundreds I only used a 16 foot bumper pull.

We drove everything to pasture and home - and we hauled with pots for shipping.

We have one now and it is parked in the yard and the rams use it for shelter.

When we haul anything any more I call Henry or Tony - a couple of brothers in the business - my total bill for the year last year came to under a thousand bucks. Hard to justify a trailer. And I bet others are in the same boat. They come and take the animals away - or deliver them. They have a multitude of trailers - all sizes - right down from a 16 foot bumper pull for the small jobs right up to pots.

And they have competition should I get PO'd at them - there are a couple other good outfits right down the road and less than 20 miles from me.

There are two sale barns close by - within 45 miles - so we ship now.

I have not personally hauled a cow or calf in probably 6-7 years now.

But if someone wants a trailer - go get 'er.

Which is why I said to go right ahead and buy one if hard wired to spend the money.

Get a serious pencil out - the vast majority of folks do not need one and most likely cannot justify one financially with all the help available out there.

Lots of hat, shiny trailers and a couple of cattle - you look close and keep your mouth shut and you will see for yourself - I may be old but I am not completely stupid - you will see "cattlemen" everywhere.

The guy who spends the least and runs a bunch of animals in the cattle game is usually the winner - NOT the guy who spends when he might not need to.

Be safe DMF - and remember mouth shut, eyes and ears open open and you will see and hear a lot of things in your life that will make you wonder. Be happy.

Best to all

Bez

 

[M5farm]

my 2 cents, If you are buying stockers once a yr and selling once a year hire the hauling done. keep a small trailer to haul 1 or 2 or buy 1or 2 from time to time.
If you are going to be buying and selling at different sales every week then buy you a trailer that will handle the job and custom haul for other people. If you feel you have to have a bigger trailer buy a used one. I can guarantee you that if your not in it full time the trailer will just be taking up space under the barn about 51 weeks a year.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

Let me say I wasn't talking about buying a new $10K trailer. I'm talking about a craigslist find. Could probably sell ours and buy a bigger one for around $1000 on top of what ours brings. Getting my pencil out, it would take about 5 trips to come out even.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

my 2 cents, If you are buying stockers once a yr and selling once a year hire the hauling done. keep a small trailer to haul 1 or 2 or buy 1or 2 from time to time.
If you are going to be buying and selling at different sales every week then buy you a trailer that will handle the job and custom haul for other people. If you feel you have to have a bigger trailer buy a used one. I can guarantee you that if your not in it full time the trailer will just be taking up space under the barn about 51 weeks a year.

I only keep stockers for 6months so thats roughly 4 trips a year to the barn.

 

[M5farm]

my 2 cents, If you are buying stockers once a yr and selling once a year hire the hauling done. keep a small trailer to haul 1 or 2 or buy 1or 2 from time to time.
If you are going to be buying and selling at different sales every week then buy you a trailer that will handle the job and custom haul for other people. If you feel you have to have a bigger trailer buy a used one. I can guarantee you that if your not in it full time the trailer will just be taking up space under the barn about 51 weeks a year.

I only keep stockers for 6months so thats roughly 4 trips a year to the barn.

that is still 51 weeks 3 days of not using it unless you have to move cattle from place to place on your farm.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

I get what most of you are saying I'm just the type of person that likes to do thinks myself. I don't know these haulers, how do I know my cattle won't be slung all over the trailer on the ride home to beat half to death with sticks when loading them up etc. In other words I don't trust people just for grins. I guess I need to go to the barn more and get to know the haulers and take it from there. I won't need a load until spring so I've got a few months.

 

[greybeard]

It's like any other service---Most who haul from the SB want the repeat business--the ones that abuse their loads won't get recommended a 2nd time. It's a self culling sector.
I had a bumper pull trailer, hardly ever used it, tires wore out from dryrot more than mileage--so I lent it to a relative and it got stolen.
Didn't replace it and I don't miss it. I got enough other crap laying around in the grass as it is.

 

[ChrisB]

We didn't even have a trailer until my dad retired and liked going up to the sale barn and looking for good deals and would bring home 3-4 head at a time. A trailer is nice and convenient but would be one of the first things to go if money got tight. We've had it for about 15 years now and it still hasn't paid for itself. But we still have all of our fat cattle hauled out so if we were doing that ourselves it would probably be a bit different.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Another idea is that the planed 4 trips a year will probably be alot more than that.

 

[Aaron]

Funny how a question about what size of trailer a guy should own gets turned into why people should hire hauling done.

Most (not all) outfits do not need a trailer DMF

If they do, it need only be a small one.

But they often WANT one

Lots of folks here - more than not - are simply playing at the game.

But it does look good sitting in the yard!

You're a cattleman!!

Look, even when we were running cattle in the hundreds I only used a 16 foot bumper pull.

We drove everything to pasture and home - and we hauled with pots for shipping.

We have one now and it is parked in the yard and the rams use it for shelter.

When we haul anything any more I call Henry or Tony - a couple of brothers in the business - my total bill for the year last year came to under a thousand bucks. Hard to justify a trailer. And I bet others are in the same boat. They come and take the animals away - or deliver them. They have a multitude of trailers - all sizes - right down from a 16 foot bumper pull for the small jobs right up to pots.

And they have competition should I get PO'd at them - there are a couple other good outfits right down the road and less than 20 miles from me.

There are two sale barns close by - within 45 miles - so we ship now.

I have not personally hauled a cow or calf in probably 6-7 years now.

But if someone wants a trailer - go get 'er.

Which is why I said to go right ahead and buy one if hard wired to spend the money.

Get a serious pencil out - the vast majority of folks do not need one and most likely cannot justify one financially with all the help available out there.

Lots of hat, shiny trailers and a couple of cattle - you look close and keep your mouth shut and you will see for yourself - I may be old but I am not completely stupid - you will see "cattlemen" everywhere.

The guy who spends the least and runs a bunch of animals in the cattle game is usually the winner - NOT the guy who spends when he might not need to.

Be safe DMF - and remember mouth shut, eyes and ears open open and you will see and hear a lot of things in your life that will make you wonder. Be happy.

Best to all

Bez

This is a good guy to listen too.

Only reason I bought a trailer of my own is because my bulls are located on another property and I need to be able to haul them back and forth for spring and fall breeding. Paying someone to do so each year would cost me hundreds of dollars just to haul a few animals, let alone the logistics of getting someone to haul when many are haying. That added to the cattle of my own I haul down to sales, I would be looking close to $1000/year to have cattle hauled.

That being said, a trailer has to pay for itself and that is why I also custom haul for others. Goes a long way to helping to pay for things like tires and inspections. Also a trailer has to be bought used to make it worthwhile. Most will never pay for a new trailer hauling their own cattle.

 

[DLD]

New trailers or good used ones, if kept in good condition, hold their value very well. 6 1/2 years ago I gave $8250 for a new 6'8"x24' Circle D. For 4 of those years it was my only trailer - pulled it a bare minimum of 200 miles a week (600 isn't unusual), and the rest of the time still used it at least half the time. Only money I ever spent on it was 2 sets of tires and a little grease. Got to count depreciation on my taxes for 4 years. Sold it a couple of weeks ago for $5750. That's $2500 to own it for 6 1/2 years. At a cost of just under $385 a year (not including the depreciation and the money it's made me), there's nothing wrong with that investment, even if you're not pulling it anywhere near as much as I do. Granted, if it's not making you money that's money you can have invested elsewhere if you really don't use it all that much.

I know a lot of people don't use trailers like we do. Even without custom hauling and our show cattle stuff, we couldn't do without one of our own because our cows aren't all on one place.

 

[Dave]

I just bought a new Wilson. The price makes a person swallow hard. For years I hired my hauling done. And it was cheap enough that I didn't consider buying a trailer. But as gas went up so did the price of hauling. About 6 years ago I bought a 18 foot steel goose neck trailer. It was old and beat up. I didn't pay much for it. I saved enough in hauling in a year to pay for it. But it is old and beat up. Lots of rust and lights that never seem to work right no matter how much I fix them. I figured that I hauled about 35-40 loads last year. So I bit the bullet. But I can tell that many loads doesn't pay for a new trailer. I figure it is a long term investment. I will never need another trailer. And taken care of a 20 year old used Wilson sells for about $2000 less than new. I will only get my money out of it when I sell it.

Good luck finding a good used trailer. They just aren't available around here.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

Yeah we are probably going to keep the 16 footer and make two trips if I have to. The $2500 extra it would take to buy a 24ft just isn't worth it, nor is paying a hauler $3.00/mile either. I'll just do it myself for half that.

 

[rlindrahman]

I use a custom hauler out of Lexington, KY who only charges $3.00 a mile. We should have guys in Tennessee who haul for similar costs. Just a thought in case you decide not to buy a trailer.

Can you tell me who your hauler out of Lexington, KY is? I would like to use them too.

 

[Dave]

Can you tell me who your hauler out of Lexington, KY is? I would like to use them too.

This is a 12 year old thread. And Tennessee Tuxedo doesn't post here anymore.

 

[MACVSOG]

This is a 12 year old thread. And Tennessee Tuxedo doesn't post here anymore.

i see that you joined in 2004. likely most of the names (posters) have changed since then. still all the comments are apropos to questions that could have been asked this month. feeling nostalgic?