How did you get started

[Anonymous]

I started with a steer, then 2 steers.
Here's the first momma cow I ever bought. Didn't know it at the time but turns out she was a heifer. That calf got pulled and ate. Here she is 3 years later


These 3 are probably my 3 best cows. The white one I just bought off a relative


Been a real learning experience so far. And I'm loving every minute of it

How did the rest of you get started in this game

 

[J&D Cattle]

Buddy and I had been talking about buying a few cows together as neither one of us had much money. In 2007 we bought 7 heifers and borrowed a bull. Ended up picking up another bred heifer and a grand total of 4 calved with one dying. Started out pretty rough! Now I run a Spring herd and him a Fall. We split the bull. We still own it all together and have accumulated lots of equipment, a couple trailers, and several more cows. Love it!!!

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Started when I was 10 with 5 brangus heifers.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I like the question btw.

 

[dryfork2]

First 4-h calf pure Charolais in early 70's. Been involved with family farm since I can remember bucket calves as a kid. Dad miked grade b until 1967 or 68. Had Shorthorn beef cows too. I'm running mainly black cross now.

 

[circlew]

Started out when my granddad let me put five cows with his when I was about 13. My job was to feed in the winter, because he got home after dark, check the cows every day and fence any fence that was turn down. I would work the hay for free till we had enough for my cows then he would pay me for the rest of the summer. Also payed me to bush hog. Now I've got 30 grown cows and do my own hay.

 

[presmudjo]

Going on 8 years now. We only do it for our own meat. First one was a bottle fed bull. Hubby's birthday gift from my ex (good guy, just wanted to go different ways in life) he knew I would bottle feed it, he didn't have time. Comments were he was the size of a big dog. So my son called him A1, the big dog. Didn't even have a fence. He was a calf on a rope with a pop up tent. So fences started and as he got bigger, ex said he couldn't be alone, so he brought baby girl to us. Well, they beget Jethro. A1 went to the freezer just before Jethro arrived. She prolapsed pretty bad about 4 months later, so she went to the freezer. Jethro couldn't be alone, so along comes Cocoa. Those two steers went to freezer. Got some calves again, Rudolph and Chugger. Pit Bulls from who knows where got Rudolph early one morning. One dog is no longer with the world. The other got away as the bullet casing stuck between hubbies bare toes and it was hard to shoot as he hopped. So being he needed a friend, ex had one he didn't have time to bottle feed and he also was a little lame as he had been stepped on, so he would never stay up with the heard. Now Chugger and Charlie we have, well until this fall and in the freezer they go. After the dry weather on these last two, unsure if we are going to do it again. Yeah, that's what he says, but I bet he will. It gets into your life and is rather enjoyable, except that somehow calves seem to draw pit bulls. Cocoa had his ears ripped apart by one as a small lad too. I thank these boards for a whole bunch on knowledge during these years.

 

[M5farm]

Been around cows all my life and when I moved to my grandparents place in 99 there was A Holstein that came with it. My wife's grandpa didn't like fooling with orphans so he would call me and I would bottle them and kept the heifers sold the steers… I would buy a few calves every year to raise. I had 3 good mamas and a bull and about 30 goats up until this past year 2012. I sold all the goats and bought a small herd of 13 mamas. I have culled a few and bought a few this year and have 15 mamas 4 heifers and bull. I plan on adding a few every year till I retire in 20 years or so. Some will think I'm foolish for investing in livestock but in my 30 years of Working I've lost thousands in my retirement account in the other stock market. At least I can see my money walking around.

 

[kenny thomas]

Dad ran a dairy when I was small and a few beef cows. I hated it and swore I would never do it.
After I got married one of the things I had to do was drive my father-in-law around to all the sales. He was a trader and a very good one that gave me some valuable lessions, one being not to trade with him. :nod:
Started out with 3 hereford cows and everyone laughed at me for giving too much. $300 each. That was 1984. When they calved I bought a Charolais bull and again everyone laughed at me. That fall the calves averaged over $400.
Later on I got to trading and figured out that was where the money was if you really knew the cattle and the markets. I now keep around 150 head and buy something every week. I have my keeping herd and then the trade cows.
Sure would like to trade some with hooknline. :lol2:

 

[Anonymous]

You don't want any of my cows. They would fall down dead on your hills

 

[kenny thomas]

They would freeze in this 70 degree weather.

 

[Anonymous]

They would freeze in this 70 degree weather.

:lol:

 

[cow pollinater]

My dad had registered limousin cows when I was a kid. He got out of them and into red angus when I was a teenager and looking back I'm sure that I was part of the reason why as the limmis were pretty rank. I dropped out of high school to cowboy and he and I butted heads over our own cattle until one day he finally flopped down lease agreements on all of the pastures and a sale agreement on his cows. As I recall it was about fifteen head.
I still lease the same two pastures from him and have grown it literally a thousand times over and we still butt heads about cattle. :lol:

 

[Bigfoot]

I'm 42. Grew up on a tobacco, grain, and cattle farm. My father gave me a heifer when I was very young. Possibly at 4 or 5 years old. I never drew an hourly wage working for parents. I was allowed to keep heifers as I saw fit. Their hay etc was my payment for working. I got into showing steers, as a way to pay for college. I showed 3 every year. I bought the calves, and he bought the feed. I graduated high school in 1989. The bottom had fallen out of land about that time. I used my college savings as a down payment on a farm. I was 18, and I can't remember how many cows I had that first year, 25 or 30 would be a good guess.

Cattle took a back seat to horses for several years. Horses are a young mans game, and too much traveling for a man with small children. When the bottom fell out, I quit fooling with colts and concentrated on my cattle operation.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

If you want to see who can remember what, those 5 brangus heifers I started with when I was 10, weighed 527lbs, and were numbered 26,27,28,29,30 and I still have 26,27,28.

 

[cross_7]

I started buying bred cows, calving them out and selling them
That led to buying cheap light weight calves.
I lost access to my family's land so I had to buy a place and that has led to trading land.
I have had lots of good cows over the years and people always ask "what will you do with you cows if you sell your land"
I always answer sell'em I aint in love with them.
Now the land hurts every time I sell a place, seem like every place has a lot of blood and sweat in it even when you know you're just fixing it up to sell.

Still looking for that place where there is never a drought, the sunshines everyday and the cows are fat and happy

 

[NMVaquero]

Marriage.

 

[Putangitangi]

Seventeen years ago I moved my life to live with partner who had some cows he'd been trading on the markets when the prices crashed. He had debt and cows worth half what he'd paid. They weren't his real interest, but I liked hanging around with them, watching how they behaved. I paid the debts, so figured they were now my cows, then bought a supposedly straight Angus bull, bred some calves, weighed everything regularly, kept the best. Bought some pedigree cows, bred some bulls of my own - most of the early ones would have been anyone else's steers, I now know - and gradually improved the herd.

This morning I sent nine rising yearling heifers off to a sale to get my winter numbers right. If I'd been able to buy heifers like them when I started, I'd have made much faster progress, but I might not have learned as much. This year I'll calve 36, all going well. I played with bigger numbers - up to 55 one year - but can't feed them well enough to keep everyone healthy and up to their best production. If they have an easy winter, so do I, and I like that idea a lot.

 

[1982vett]

Man...that's a lot of remembering to do....other than being born into it, I got my Dad to buy a bottle calf. I was about 8 and I think he had to pay about $25 for it. Got over $110 for her first calf.....fast forward 23 years, I took over an aging Uncles place (57 acres), bought 14 of his cows and bull to add to 5 or so Dad let me run on his place (supposedly in exchange for labor but I think he may have gotten the raw end of the deal on that).... 6 years later did the same for another Uncle's 54 acres....then took the reigns for Dad when he passed away 10 years ago.

I was about a month and 27 cows away from selling out in the fall of 2011. Back up to almost half a herd.

 

[highgrit]

My some of my uncles are 2nd. generation ranchers in FL, and I always wanted to be a cowboy. I bought 12 cows from a old black man when I moved to GA. Had a good herd built up but I sold most of them last Feb. the price was just to good. I still have 30 or so brood cows left which is about right for my lifestyle. I like to buy, sell and trade cows myself, when I find a good deal.