How do y'all do it?

[Busterz]

I'm having a tough time with figuring out how to balance the expenditures for assets properly. Everything just seems so expensive. I've started from scratch and find that having the patience for everything to work out is extremely difficult.

My Current Situation:

I'm financing ~155 acres (~115 ac fenced mesquite and ~40 ac fenced plowable). Cost per year is ~$8,500 with 8 more payments remaining. There is one well, which feeds one galvanized tank in the ~40 ac pasture and one earthen tank in the ~115 ac pasture.

I currently own 14 cows (Red Angus and Red Brangus mix), 1 Red Brangus Bull, and 14 calves.

I own a 16ft gooseneck stock trailer.


I've got a great job in town and can afford the land and operational expenses without much difficulty. However, there are some essential tools that would certainly come in handy to make my cow/calf operation better. I've got a pretty good idea of what else I need, but I'm not sure how to afford it or how to do without it until I can afford it. These would be things like:

working pens;
tractor;
implements;
barn;
squeeze chute;
additional fences;
etc.

How do you guys and girls do it?

Portable panels
Electric fence
Bale buggy

If you already have a trailer you can haul cattle to the vet or someone elses pens for a long time before it costs more than permanent pens, a chute and a barn.

 

[shaz]

You'll beat the dow jones industrial average no doubt........eventually. But, guys in the stock market don't get to ride the 4-wheeeler to the best view on their property, hoist a six-pack of bud lights and say "man ain't this great".

Enjoy your project!

 

[SRBeef]

as mentioned above, in any business there are startup infrastructure costs. i dont know what the carrying capacity of your land is but you will need to maximize it. i think rotational grazing, interseeding clovers, clipping to control weeds etc is the way to maximize carrying capacity. these require a tractor. i would buy a good used 75-100 hp tractor from a dealer who will be there for parts etc. i bought one which had been leased by the county as a mowing tractor. well cared for and much lower than new price. look for one with under 500 hours if you can find one. pickup a mower for weeds and a drag for manure at an auction. i like the flail type to control weeds. rent a drill when needed.

from my experience, some sort of handling facility is a must whether you have 5 head or 500 head. you can build a simple corral, sweep/tub, and alley loading chute yourself. just locate it near the road and design it so your vet can bring his chute and back it up to your alley. this will be cheaper than the doctor bills.

if you have good permanent perimeter fencing, keep it maintained but use electric wire for interior dividers in a rotational grazing system. set up paddocks and lanes to your watering points with electric wires.

forget the hay equipment. buy what hay you need. forget the barn. cattle don't need to be in a building. they do need windbreaks and shade hopefully from some trees. mine are never under a roof.

then increase the size of your herd. also decide what you are going to sell. calves? freezer beef? i think with that sort of acreage over time you can produce a profit on operations if not repay the land. good luck.

 

[Caustic Burno]

My operation is run like Brutes. The profit is in the real estate. I would buy a good used name brand tractor that you can use to improve the land as wll as help with the cattle. Good pens and fences add a lot of value. People looking to buy land want good fences, a water source, working pens and good grass. You will get a lot of your money back when you sell, so but them now so you can enjoy them and flip the property for something larger when the time is right.

There is no profit in real estate unless you sell it.

 

[backhoeboogie]

I play with some land investments but it has nothing to do with my cows.

 

[TexasBred]

My operation is run like Brutes. The profit is in the real estate. I would buy a good used name brand tractor that you can use to improve the land as wll as help with the cattle. Good pens and fences add a lot of value. People looking to buy land want good fences, a water source, working pens and good grass. You will get a lot of your money back when you sell, so but them now so you can enjoy them and flip the property for something larger when the time is right.

There is no profit in real estate unless you sell it.

Absolutely!!! And an appraisal is worthless....real estate is "worth" what someone will pay for it and reality is that everyone is looking for a sucker.

 

[Todd 02]

Thanks for all of the great advice.

Here's a little bit more information.

I plan on running this as a commercial cow/calf operation. Basically breed all the cows, wait 9 months, cull out the cows that don't calve and replace them, wean the calves around 7 months, sell the calves, repeat. I don't live on the property but the neighbor watches over the cattle carefully and knows I'm just a phone call away.

We recently made friends with another neighbor about 6 miles away that owns some pens with both a calf-size and full size squeeze chute. We used it recently to ear-tag the mommas. With a 16 foot trailer, it takes quite a few trips. Currently, I have a small 30'x20' catch pen made of portable panels. I can catch most of the cattle, but usually have one or two rogues that elude me. One jumped out of the pen twice and thus was not ear-tagged. I don't trailer them often, so it took quite a while to get them loaded. An alley to run them into the trailer would have been priceless.

I have land that I can grow hay on, but I do not intend on doing the haying myself since the cost of equipment is so high. I hope to pay one of the neighbors to disc and plant for me, since the soil is very moist this year, and then pay someone to come cut, rake, and bale on the halves.

I don't know what the carrying capacity of the land is, but I think I could potentially triple it with better pasture rotation. I think I can create a few more pastures, but will need to run some more water lines from the well and buy a few tanks. That shouldn't be a problem, but could potentially be somewhat expensive. I also need to clear out a lot of the mesquite brush to accomplish that. It would be easier with a tractor, but I can accomplish it with a chainsaw and a pickup.

My first and biggest need is a set of sorting / working pens and, eventually, a squeeze chute. Before I have any more cows, I need a better way to manage them. Right now, I catch the calves when they're a few weeks old to tag, castrate, and vaccinate them.

My next biggest need is a tractor or skid steer.

I bought the land cheap and plan to sell it high so that I can upgrade in the future. Right now, it's all I've got. I don't think leasing more land would be a good idea until I can successfully manage a small herd on a small place.

I'm not looking to make a huge profit, but I intend to run this as a business. As someone said earlier, it is a passion of mine and that's why I do it. I enjoy it very much and it has been a dream of mine since I was a little tyke (I'm 30 this year, BTW). I was tired of waiting to make that dream come true, so I jumped at the chance when I was given the opportunity.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Thanks for all of the great advice.

Here's a little bit more information.

I plan on running this as a commercial cow/calf operation. Basically breed all the cows, wait 9 months, cull out the cows that don't calve and replace them, wean the calves around 7 months, sell the calves, repeat. I don't live on the property but the neighbor watches over the cattle carefully and knows I'm just a phone call away.

We recently made friends with another neighbor about 6 miles away that owns some pens with both a calf-size and full size squeeze chute. We used it recently to ear-tag the mommas. With a 16 foot trailer, it takes quite a few trips. Currently, I have a small 30'x20' catch pen made of portable panels. I can catch most of the cattle, but usually have one or two rogues that elude me. One jumped out of the pen twice and thus was not ear-tagged. I don't trailer them often, so it took quite a while to get them loaded. An alley to run them into the trailer would have been priceless.

I have land that I can grow hay on, but I do not intend on doing the haying myself since the cost of equipment is so high. I hope to pay one of the neighbors to disc and plant for me, since the soil is very moist this year, and then pay someone to come cut, rake, and bale on the halves.

I don't know what the carrying capacity of the land is, but I think I could potentially triple it with better pasture rotation. I think I can create a few more pastures, but will need to run some more water lines from the well and buy a few tanks. That shouldn't be a problem, but could potentially be somewhat expensive. I also need to clear out a lot of the mesquite brush to accomplish that. It would be easier with a tractor, but I can accomplish it with a chainsaw and a pickup.

My first and biggest need is a set of sorting / working pens and, eventually, a squeeze chute. Before I have any more cows, I need a better way to manage them. Right now, I catch the calves when they're a few weeks old to tag, castrate, and vaccinate them.

My next biggest need is a tractor or skid steer.

I bought the land cheap and plan to sell it high so that I can upgrade in the future. Right now, it's all I've got. I don't think leasing more land would be a good idea until I can successfully manage a small herd on a small place.

I'm not looking to make a huge profit, but I intend to run this as a business. As someone said earlier, it is a passion of mine and that's why I do it. I enjoy it very much and it has been a dream of mine since I was a little tyke (I'm 30 this year, BTW). I was tired of waiting to make that dream come true, so I jumped at the chance when I was given the opportunity.

This is going to be a welfare operation for quite a few years, going in with your eyes open is the most important thing. Can you turn this into a profit operation I believe you can as long as you don't caught in keeping up the all hat cowboys. Doing what you enjoy has value as long as you don't go broke trying to achieve the air castle.
The best peice of advice I can give you get over the idea you are a cowboy you are going into the grass farming business. Learn to be the best grass farmer you can the goal is to convert grass to cash using a bovine and the most efficient breed of bovine you can find for your area. It is all about converting grass to pounds of beef across the scales at the salebarn.

 

[xbred]

30 years old!!!!! you're just a baby...i'd swap a fully rigged outfit.. to be 30 again....and you will too when you're 60....all the things you've mentioned will come in due time....quicker if you hit the lottery..

 

[dun]

First thing is to get rid of the fence jumper/escape artisits, second is to preg check so that you know when cows are bred

 

[Brute 23]

My bosses always say, land is the most enjoyable investment they have ever made. :tiphat: