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Grew up on a little hardscrabble AL farm with beef/dairy-cross cows - mostly Hereford, with some influence from my grandmother's last old Jersey & Guernsey milk cows, and some Red Poll influence from cows my dad had when he was in high school. Brought in Angus bulls when I was a kid, and under my influence later, a Simbrah bull.
Wife & I started out on our own, soon after vet school, raising Holstein steers & heifers - made enough on the steers to pay for raising the heifers, which we bred and sold as springers. Bought a few mixed-breed beef cows, tractor and hay equipment with that cash, and was breeding AI to mostly Simmental sires.
Sold all but 5 bred cows to go back to grad school, and sent them to my Dad's place in AL. Retrieved them and their halfblood Simmental daughters 5 years later. Nearly 20 years down the road, everything on the place here is descended from that handful of halfblood Simmental cows I brought to KY in '95.
Linebred (OK, toward the end, it was just inbreeding) with home-raised bulls for about 10 years, switched back to Angus sires for 5-6 years, now back to using Simmental, some Angus, and some Shorthorn.
 
j&lfarms":ok96ihab said:
Denver I just considered him the bull because he is almost a year old. He won't be around much longer though.
Ok, for some reason I thought that black bull was what you were counting. Now I remember.
 
denvermartinfarms":2hqdswe6 said:
j&lfarms":2hqdswe6 said:
Denver I just considered him the bull because he is almost a year old. He won't be around much longer though.
Ok, for some reason I thought that black bull was what you were counting. Now I remember.

I just leased him. I would have loved to have bought him, but with just 4 heifers I couldn't justify buying a $1500 bull.
 
I was raised on a horse farm, the only cattle we saw was a steer every year we raised for the freezer. I became an ag teacher, and kept with the show horses. Moved to a different state, bought up some land (sold our place in California and were able to buy a much bigger piece of property in MO with the money we made), and did not want to continue with horses when the market crashed. Gelded our stud, sold all of the foals, kept just 4 horses, and had a bunch of grass. Our oldest (11 at the time) wanted to raise sheep, I said NO WAY! So we went to beef. She bought her first two heifers, with her own money she made with her 4-H projects, and we built from there. She is now 16 (17 in September), personally she owns more cattle than the ranch does, and both her younger siblings have a handful of heifers/cows themselves. The cattle will, hopefully, pay for college. The oldest wants to go to vet school, the middle wants to be a medical doctor, and my son... well, last month it was a motorcycle mechanic, this month it is a CSI investigator! He is only 8 so he has time. Right now we are running 20 cows and about 8 heifers (bred for next spring). No bulls, just AI and embryos. All bulls are sold by the time they are breeding age, at least that is the way we used to do it! Might keep a young one around for the cows that don't follow the instructions of getting pregnant!
 
After raising a few $5 dairy steers, we bought a hereford/holstien cross heifer raised by four brothers (kids 3-8yo) up the road. I gave them $300 for her (3 months old).

Lucy gave us 14 calves and raised 6 that weren't hers, when she calved she would just drip milk. She was a good baby sitter also the kids could sit on her when she was laying down chewing cud. You could walk up to her and pull a cup of milk out her anywhere. You should have seen the look on the neighbor kids faces, I don't think half of them had any idea where milk came from.

Now we have the Lim-flex thing going, and the same beef customers for 22 years. I love it !!
 
i was born into cattle an been in every since.started a herd 2 or 3 times an sold out.but always got back in fast.spent alot of years buying dairy cattle when we had the dairy.
 
Started for me when my uncle ran a dairy, and I helped him since I was 10 yrs old.. then my Dad got into the beef cattle business a few years later, and I been in it ever since. 40+ years
 
Enjoyed reading everyone's stories. Mine is more of a confession. Had horses for years, that's why we bought a country place. There were farms in the family, we had some exposure to cattle but not any hands on experience. Hubby always thought we should get cattle, but I said, people who have been cattlemen for generations go out of business every day. What chance do we have? We don't have enough money laying around to buy in, and it would be stupid to go in debt as newbies. He believed me. So that was that.

Until I won the heifer raffle at one of the associations I worked with on my job. We won a super nice yearling Tarentaise heifer in Denver. I had always liked the Tar's and wondered why they weren't more popular. Called hubby, said here's your chance. Do I sell her or find her a ride home?? He said, try to find the ride. So we started with that one heifer and also bought a weanling heifer. Our first calf crop was ONE. We kept heifers and built our numbers up to where we learned...we didn't have near enough land when the weather turns dry. Our fences all need re-done. What holds in horses for years isn't even a challenge to a bovine. So the ironic part of this story is, now hubby says we have to sell out. All of them. He says he will re-do fences and facilities, improve the pasture and the good Lord willing we'll get back in later. I guess I am going from Mo cows to No cows.
 
At first we've lived in city, but in 1999 we've moved to country. We've started from sheep and chicken.At one time we'd close to 150 sheep. After 5 years hard farming ( most works we needed to do by hands) we sold 10 sheep and bought first cow.
Now it's 9 year we keep cattle, in 2004 we've bought our first cow( dairy). We'd 3 dairy cows at all, they're start of beef crossbreeding. In 3-4 years we've bought 8 1/2 dairy, 1/2 beef cows and heifers. Begining was hard, most cows had just bulls, so we hadn't few heifers to keep. While now cows usually have heifers. :) Now we've 13- 1/2beef cows, 5- 3/4beef cows, 12 breeding heifers( ~2years old), 14 young heifers, 7 young bulls, 1 herd sire, 14 calves( 7 heifers, 7bulls) and still waiting for 5 calves.
We also have 2 horses( mare and 2 years old stallion), sheep, goats and chickens. That's my parents farm. They think about buying some purebred cattle in the future, probably Bazadaise. They'd like to have ~100 cows in the future.
This year I've started my own farming, born first my heifer and planing to buy another one(1/2 BB, 1/2dairy) from neighbour. Next year autumn I'm going to start studying veterinary medicine. I'd like to keep beef cattle, such as Parthenaise, Limousine, Blonde d'Aquitane, VRB( Verbeterd Roodbont Vleesvee), Belgian Blue, Maine Anjou and their crosses. In my country is very important that cattle we sell to slaughter would be muscular, we've grades for muscularity(S(the most muscular) E U R O P) and grades for fatness(1(the leanest carcass) 2 3 4 5). The highest prices we get for S grade( from purebred this grade can reach just BB, VRB and maybe some Parthenaise, Maine Anjou) and for 3 fatness grade. Well, when my parents sell bulls they usually reach R, sometimes U grades and 2-3 fatness grades, but we could reach higher grades from muscularity, because now we give for bulls hay and small amount of meal during winter. Next year we're going to buy technique for sillage making. Heifers reach R3 grade. From this year bull calves we expect 1-3 U grades. If everything will be alright we'll keep all this year heifers for breeding.
I'd like to have 150-200 cows in the future.
My younger sister(12 years old) also think about keeping beef cattle. She's interested in Piedmontese breed.
 
Brother from another mother....want to make a loan. Couple hundred K should do just fine. :lol:
 
All my grandparents farmed when I was little and dad was either worked FT or after work on dairy farms. We moved back home when I was in 3rd grade. Had a 5-6 acre pasture and an old shed so dad said if he bought 10 holstein bottle calves and I fed them I could half the money. Well by the time they were big enough to put on grass we had 2 left and the vet/feed bill was more than what they were worth.

Started showing beef steers that year and after couple years I thought it was dumb to loose money on steers every year so dad was helping local guy milk that had pretty good stock. Dad called one snowy March morning that his pick of the heifer calves was just born. Paid $600 that day for her. Brought her home that fall and next summer my "real" dad AI'd her for me and ended up with a heifer calf. So now I had a pair so what else to do if you got one might well have more. Bought local guys old gummer pairs to put in with them and sold them in fall and paid for first truck, which was dump. Needed better truck sold all cows and fast forward to fall 2004 I think? Bought with buddy 6 fall pair and 4 heifers. Borrowed bull AI'd and ended up with an awesome crop calves. Next fall buddy didn't want the work so I bought him out. Culled them down, bred them up...ended up selling about $7,500 worth calves out of one of the first generations.

Found the love of my life (in case she reads this) in 2009? and she came from showing Shorthorns and wanted more spring cows to make show calves so I sold most fall cows and began buying Registered Simmental, Angus and dang couple Shorthorns. 2011 we sold set twins out of first generation AI cow that really put us on the map with their winning. Mostly focusing on raising Simmetal/SimAngus seedstock and few cows get bred for show. Hope to calve 18 springs and 6 falls next year.

We will be bringing a daughter into this world in late August early September and thank god every day for being raised and get to live doing what I love. Now if we can get rid of the Shorthorns!
 
As a side-note to my original post . . . . I'm the oldest of 7 children; 2 sisters, 4 brothers. Ancestors on my dad's side were Dakota farmers during the depression, and most of dad's sibs struggled through their teen years working for neighboring farmers. Gram was widowed when my Dad was 5 yrs. old; she had 5 children and never remarried. She was a tough old bird, and none of those kids had it easy. My grandmother lived to 102 -- she fixed meals for horse-drawn threshing crews and saw the first man on the moon. The older 4 of us grew up in the Dakotas, in very small towns, spending many weekends on local farms/ranches (me + 3 brothers). The rest are pretty much too young to remember to those days. Today, all 3 girls are involved in ag endeavors, and the oldest brother has just joined with the Baker City sister on her ranch. My mom never would have made a farm girl, was mortified when we discussed AI at the table on recent holidays; Dad was burned out on farming long ago. But the next generation embraced it.
 
I'm the third generation on the same land. I probably won't ever make my total living from cattle like my grandpa but I probably will always have cows. I think growing up around cows just becomes a part of you.
 
what I see in a lot of young people who grow up with cattle in the family is, they either want no part of it, or there like me, they live for it and it's all they care about. I didn't grow up with it, but started on my own at 10 and I have been very happy so far.
 
denvermartinfarms":34ilj6qo said:
what I see in a lot of young people who grow up with cattle in the family is, they either want no part of it, or there like me, they live for it and it's all they care about. I didn't grow up with it, but started on my own at 10 and I have been very happy so far.

Denver I work construction and see very few your age that want anything to do with anything that takes an effort. I commend you for yours. Stay at it.
 
B&M Farms":3sm4xfm5 said:
denvermartinfarms":3sm4xfm5 said:
what I see in a lot of young people who grow up with cattle in the family is, they either want no part of it, or there like me, they live for it and it's all they care about. I didn't grow up with it, but started on my own at 10 and I have been very happy so far.

Denver I work construction and see very few your age that want anything to do with anything that takes an effort. I commend you for yours. Stay at it.
Thanks, what kind of construction are you in?
 
denvermartinfarms":h9s0233r said:
B&M Farms":h9s0233r said:
denvermartinfarms":h9s0233r said:
what I see in a lot of young people who grow up with cattle in the family is, they either want no part of it, or there like me, they live for it and it's all they care about. I didn't grow up with it, but started on my own at 10 and I have been very happy so far.

Denver I work construction and see very few your age that want anything to do with anything that takes an effort. I commend you for yours. Stay at it.
Thanks, what kind of construction are you in?

I'm a pipe welder.
 

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