How do you know when you should quit?

[Betty]

How do you know when it's time to just sell the cattle, get someone to rent the farm, pack it in.
I've thought about it a few years now, at this time of the year.
I'd like to know what others are thinking.
I LOVE MY COWS

 

[backhoeboogie]

A widowed neighbor lady offered up her place for lease yesterday. She sold out. Told me if I would take it she would lease it. Said she couldn't imagine those pastures empty after all these years.

It is going to be awfully hard to tell her I'll take it. Going to be even harder to say no.

 

[dun]

When you can;t afford to do it, or it sems like everything you do with it is a pain or your health tells you that you can;t do the stuff anymore.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Where are you located Betty?

My mother in law will be 78 next weekend and she looks after 100 head of Angus cattle as well as my father in law who has Parkinson's Disease and is pretty much wheel chair bound and an invalid. I asked her a year ago to consider selling out or downsizing or cutting back in same way or another but she said it was in her blood and she couldn't imagine life off the farm.

I guess everybody has their reasons.

Good luck to you Betty.

 

[Isomade]

If you have to ask......

 

[Beefy]

How do you know when it's time to just sell the cattle, get someone to rent the farm, pack it in.
I've thought about it a few years now, at this time of the year.
I'd like to know what others are thinking.
I LOVE MY COWS

if you find out let me know. i have the same thoughts every year about this time. and then again towards the end of winter.

 

[Ryder]

If you have to ask......

Right. The question is empty rhetoric.
When there is work to be done, you work from can to can't.
You stop with cows when you can't do it anymore. This could be because of economics, physical health, or whatever.

 

[bigbull338]

theres no right or wrong time to sell out an quit for good,your the only 1 that would know that.personally i know i could never sell out,because the cows are what gets me from 1 day to the next.but then here in texas we are fighting a bad drought.an that has me thinking differant.i know we will cull the herd down to nothing.

 

[cross_7]

How do you know when it's time to just sell the cattle, get someone to rent the farm, pack it in.
I've thought about it a few years now, at this time of the year.
I'd like to know what others are thinking.
I LOVE MY COWS

when it becomes a job or when you no longer enjoy it.

 

[cow pollinater]

The previous owner of my ranch is ninety-four. He ran one hundred and twenty mother cows by himself(it holds one fifty with some management or one twenty with no help) up until the day he sold it. He's told me repeatedly that he wouldn't have sold it if he hadn't found someone who would treat it right. He's been telling everyone he should sell for twenty years because he felt like he should feel like he was ready to sell it... I guess he wasn't ready. :roll:
Cows are way to much work if you want to see it that way.

 

[tsmaxx47]

When you can;t afford to do it, or it sems like everything you do with it is a pain or your health tells you that you can;t do the stuff anymore.

i just came across a lease i've been looking for. fell in my lap. that night i figured i was gettin too old to be fight'in droughts, patchin fence, breakin ice and then tend to the stock. dun pretty much nailed it; i'm sellin the bull friday and just gonna keep eat'in beef. i love my cows too, but i know someone will pick up that lease and be able to manage it better than me. besides, my wife has a few things that she would like to do too..........good luck with your decision!

 

[gimpyrancher]

On the other side of the coin, how do you decide if you want to start? If financing is required, I'd say in this day and time, it'd fairly easy to decide. But what if you worked your whole life and now had enough to start without debt. What if you don't need to support a family off profits but did want to raise a small number of livestock? Most of us have lost plenty and faster in the stock market over the last 10 years. Without any debt, would it be any different?

Putting everything in annuities and getting a sufficient paycheck every month to allow someone to sit in the recliner in front of the T.V. doesn't sound like living to me. I don't like to travel so I need to work to keep myself alive. I don't want to run a herd that takes all my time to manage. I don't want to work 16 hours a day anymore. I still want to sit on the porch with my wife and enjoy our morning coffee together. Get out of the city and go where there are fewer but better people. :compute:

 

[tsmaxx47]

hey gimpy, i say go for it! you can't take it with you and you have worked all your life to try something you'd like to do, presumably. get a few cows and try it out! you likely won't make any money, but the satisfaction of eating your own beef will be worth the while........

 

[gimpyrancher]

ts,

Thanks. What we want to build is something fairly simple to leave my autistic son for his future. We are researching making it a small operation where a few autistic adults can come to live and work on the place without their parents but with limited supervision. It won't be about money but will be full of learning, experience and the benefits of working the land and working with nature. Won't have to pay them as they get social security. Don't want to have to charge them either. Selling our extra garden bounty at the local farmer's Markets.

Leaving money behind is one problem my son could never handle. I don't trust others to hold the money either. Leaving a lifetime of work and a place to live away from the challenges of the cities is what my son needs.

All housing, garage and shop will be butt and pass real log buildings built by us with trees on our property. The barn I will have built. :kid:

 

[tsmaxx47]

gimpy, as grandfather of an autistic child, i applaude your effort and wish you success