A
Anonymous
Been lurking for awhile and thought I'd finally register. Am in Kuwait and sit at a computer all day being bored (it's good that I'm bored because when I'm busy many others are having a hard, miserable day). So I thought I'd post something to kind of introduce myself.
If anyone is interested, this is how I got my start.
Went to the FSA (I live North-Central Nebraska) who has special loans for beginning farmers/ranchers. They'll lend you enough to get by but not enough to make a living. I borrowed $57,000 (nothing down) and got 76 bred, black angus, 4-5 year olds, fall calvers. My herd was actually pretty well put together, if I do say so myself, even though it came from 3 different sellers. Before I bought I went to the sale barns and learned what the buyers were after. Everyone sells through salebarns here and except for the bull breeders and purebred operations I really don't know anybody who sells private treaty. Dad has a heart condition which is why I came back to the ranch in the first place. So I worked for shares on my winter hay and machinery use. Basically, for me, it worked out like this: $10k/yr loan payment. $150/summer pasture. We promptly went into drought conditions so I had to buy hay for a couple years.
What are my lessons learned?
The cows work for themselves, not for you. I paid my 7 yr loan off in 5 years and in that 5 years I took about $4k for myself. When I sold cows to come to Kuwait I only had 58 of the original 76 through death and culling. But then I sold them for $1300/pair last Sep and they looked excellent.
If you don't have cattle or land given to you it is extremely hard. But then I've seen people who've been given both and driven it into bankruptcy.
Pencil everything out, time and time again. Figure $400/yr expenses for a cow. $150/5 months summer pasture, and a cow will easily eat $1/day in hay. (ex. $60/1 ton hay = $.03/lb x 40lb/day consumption (or more, remember cows and calves through the winter). So in feed cost alone a cow costs $360/yr. Figure $10/cow for vaccine. $15 for salt/mineral. Now figure what you will sell at the end. I always figure $500-$550 for my weaned calves. Yes, I've sold for much more but I've also sold for $450.
Machinery. It's an expense, a necessity, and won't make you a penny (unless you sell hay, but even then). So watch your expenses.
Vets. I figure if you have to go to a vet you've pretty much lost the profit for that cow for the year. C-sections cost me about $110 and there's no guarantee that I'll have a live calf or a live cow at the end. Vets have killed several cows for me (of course they would have died anyway, you just have to determine if you want a vet to say your cow is dead and that will be $100 please).
Feedstores. Figure out who knows what they talking about and stick with them. I am lucky and have a feed dealer who knows more about cattle than the vets do. But at the same time I know what feed I know will work and what I don't want. If everything worked the way the salesman said it would I'd be weaning 1000 lb steers. As it is I know I'll spend exactly $25/calf for creep and put on about 50-75 more lbs.
Sales. Before weaning I start checking out the sales and peoples market projections. Some years it pays to sell weaned calves, some years I sell off the cow. Sometimes it pays to keep calves and put another hundred pounds on some years there's a $10 difference in a 550 lb calf and a 650 lb calf. I figure if a calf dies during my weaning I've lost the profit for weaning in the first place.
Weaning. Good luck. Stampedes can break legs, run off weight and cause a lot of extra work. We've tried different strategies and now we pretty much corral the calves right next to the mommas. The boss cows will stick around and beller for a couple days but then they'll get hungry and go back out to pasture. If the calves do break out they'll just go back to the cows and we'll just get them in again. Otherwise, I've seen calves end up 7 miles away before they get found again.
There's a lot more to it but I better quit before you kick me out for talking too much or I get in trouble for using a gov computer for this kind of stuff. Just killing time. Regards from Kuwait.
If anyone is interested, this is how I got my start.
Went to the FSA (I live North-Central Nebraska) who has special loans for beginning farmers/ranchers. They'll lend you enough to get by but not enough to make a living. I borrowed $57,000 (nothing down) and got 76 bred, black angus, 4-5 year olds, fall calvers. My herd was actually pretty well put together, if I do say so myself, even though it came from 3 different sellers. Before I bought I went to the sale barns and learned what the buyers were after. Everyone sells through salebarns here and except for the bull breeders and purebred operations I really don't know anybody who sells private treaty. Dad has a heart condition which is why I came back to the ranch in the first place. So I worked for shares on my winter hay and machinery use. Basically, for me, it worked out like this: $10k/yr loan payment. $150/summer pasture. We promptly went into drought conditions so I had to buy hay for a couple years.
What are my lessons learned?
The cows work for themselves, not for you. I paid my 7 yr loan off in 5 years and in that 5 years I took about $4k for myself. When I sold cows to come to Kuwait I only had 58 of the original 76 through death and culling. But then I sold them for $1300/pair last Sep and they looked excellent.
If you don't have cattle or land given to you it is extremely hard. But then I've seen people who've been given both and driven it into bankruptcy.
Pencil everything out, time and time again. Figure $400/yr expenses for a cow. $150/5 months summer pasture, and a cow will easily eat $1/day in hay. (ex. $60/1 ton hay = $.03/lb x 40lb/day consumption (or more, remember cows and calves through the winter). So in feed cost alone a cow costs $360/yr. Figure $10/cow for vaccine. $15 for salt/mineral. Now figure what you will sell at the end. I always figure $500-$550 for my weaned calves. Yes, I've sold for much more but I've also sold for $450.
Machinery. It's an expense, a necessity, and won't make you a penny (unless you sell hay, but even then). So watch your expenses.
Vets. I figure if you have to go to a vet you've pretty much lost the profit for that cow for the year. C-sections cost me about $110 and there's no guarantee that I'll have a live calf or a live cow at the end. Vets have killed several cows for me (of course they would have died anyway, you just have to determine if you want a vet to say your cow is dead and that will be $100 please).
Feedstores. Figure out who knows what they talking about and stick with them. I am lucky and have a feed dealer who knows more about cattle than the vets do. But at the same time I know what feed I know will work and what I don't want. If everything worked the way the salesman said it would I'd be weaning 1000 lb steers. As it is I know I'll spend exactly $25/calf for creep and put on about 50-75 more lbs.
Sales. Before weaning I start checking out the sales and peoples market projections. Some years it pays to sell weaned calves, some years I sell off the cow. Sometimes it pays to keep calves and put another hundred pounds on some years there's a $10 difference in a 550 lb calf and a 650 lb calf. I figure if a calf dies during my weaning I've lost the profit for weaning in the first place.
Weaning. Good luck. Stampedes can break legs, run off weight and cause a lot of extra work. We've tried different strategies and now we pretty much corral the calves right next to the mommas. The boss cows will stick around and beller for a couple days but then they'll get hungry and go back out to pasture. If the calves do break out they'll just go back to the cows and we'll just get them in again. Otherwise, I've seen calves end up 7 miles away before they get found again.
There's a lot more to it but I better quit before you kick me out for talking too much or I get in trouble for using a gov computer for this kind of stuff. Just killing time. Regards from Kuwait.