How many could you run?

[Brute 23]

You can run a lot of cattle with the right set up. Had a mentor that ran near 1000 cows basically by himself but he used a lot of contractors. Fence work, cowboys, shredding, all got contracted out. Little to no hay was fed. He had big pastures that you rotate every couple months, lots of tanks for water, etc. Very low maintaince and demanding of time given the volume. He had like one old cabbed tractor, a 32' cattle trailer, and a single cab long bed diesel, but not much else major equipment. Cattle got liquid feed that was delivered as part of the price or ground feed in bulk feeders during the worse part of the winter that also had delivery built in.

It's a very interesting deal. He has some tough Braford type cattle but they can be pretty wiley. They don't get a lot of interaction.

 

[gcreekrch]

Ranching For Profit schools claim you should only have one full time employee per 1,000 cows. Pretty easy for one person to run over 3,000 yearlings or move well over 1,000 cows several miles by themselves if they use the right stockmanship.

Ranching for Profit schools are for dreamers who don't like physical labour. The few in this area who swallowed the hook line and sinker 15 years ago are all broke.
I have taken the school myself and there are valuable parts in the financial planning portion for every type of business going. As for the practical part, there are no two areas the same and management in California, Arizona and Texas has little value here.

 

[midTN_Brangusman]

I think 300 to 350 is very doable and shouldn’t take more than a couple hours a day if structured properly. I’m currently running 6 loads of steers a year, app. 420 hd. Other than preconditioning it’s a part time job. I think the key is to what you mentioned. Contracting work, buy all your hay, hire all your fencing and spraying( although I do my own). Unrolling a large round bale per 50 cows a day or possibly every other day and feeding a few cubes to supplement and keep them gentle shouldn’t take but a few minutes.

I would highly recommend Gordon Hazards book if you haven’t already read it. He ran 1800 steers on 3000 acres and his main complaint was there wasn’t much to do.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

As said it's all regional. If I wanted to hire a contractor to put up fence, cowboy, install water tanks, etc I wouldn't be in business because those people don't exist around here. Having any sort of feed delivered (including bulk hay) would have to be trucked hundreds of miles from areas with much more expensive hay and would get real costly.

 

[Lucky]

The number one time consumer I see in the cattle biz is people baling their own hay. It's funny because hay is also the most wasteful thing I see.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

LOL - I must be doing something right! I don't own any hay equipment except the 2 spears on my tractor!!! But - I am lucky to have a neighbor that has done my hay for probably over 30 years. He does his first (small dairy farmer), then mine. Then any other customers after me. So, mine is always done at proper timing.

 

[Silver]

The number one time consumer I see in the cattle biz is people baling their own hay. It's funny because hay is also the most wasteful thing I see.

Making hay is certainly a time consumer. But in large swaths of North America you better be doing it or you won’t be in business long.

 

[Travlr]

LOL - I must be doing something right! I don't own any hay equipment except the 2 spears on my tractor!!! But - I am lucky to have a neighbor that has done my hay for probably over 30 years. He does his first (small dairy farmer), then mine. Then any other customers after me. So, mine is always done at proper timing.

Good neighbors always reciprocate in some way. What do you do for him? A share of the hay? A beef quarter, cut and wrapped? Or something else of use? I've always found a good barter arrangement better than money with neighbors.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Good neighbors always reciprocate in some way. What do you do for him? A share of the hay? A beef quarter, cut and wrapped? Or something else of use? I've always found a good barter arrangement better than money with neighbors.

$$$$

 

[Bob Kinford]

You can run a lot of cattle with the right set up. Had a mentor that ran near 1000 cows basically by himself but he used a lot of contractors. Fence work, cowboys, shredding, all got contracted out. Little to no hay was fed. He had big pastures that you rotate every couple months, lots of tanks for water, etc. Very low maintaince and demanding of time given the volume. He had like one old cabbed tractor, a 32' cattle trailer, and a single cab long bed diesel, but not much else major equipment. Cattle got liquid feed that was delivered as part of the price or ground feed in bulk feeders during the worse part of the winter that also had delivery built in.

It's a very interesting deal. He has some tough Braford type cattle but they can be pretty wiley. They don't get a lot of interaction.

You don't need a lot of interaction, just the right kind of interaction when it happens. My second trip to Australia was helping transitioning from 30 years of gathering with bikes and helicopters to horseback (mainly because they had too many mavericks which had never been in the pens.) When we got to working them through the chute it was fascinating to see three and four year old slick cattle which had never been penned being the calmest cattle in the herd. Strays from the neighbor's (used to being rammed and jammed on) were the worst ones.

 

[Lucky]

@Silver In our area you need to be feeding around 1,000 rolls a year to justify owning your hay equipment. Our feeding season is 100-120 days long. I feed 250-300 rolls and have always bought my hay. With the solar fields moving in things could change though.

 

[Silver]

@Silver In our area you need to be feeding around 1,000 rolls a year to justify owning your hay equipment. Our feeding season is 100-120 days long. I feed 250-300 rolls and have always bought my hay. With the solar fields moving in things could change though.

Yes, there can definitely be a case made for not owning haying equipment if you don’t feed enough to warrant it. My thoughts were mostly about ranching as a stand alone business.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

If you don't need large volumes of hay and have an affordable custom operator or hay producer then buying hay makes lots of sense.

Not all areas have large scale hay producers, or custom operators.

 

[Dave]

As said it's all regional. If I wanted to hire a contractor to put up fence, cowboy, install water tanks, etc I wouldn't be in business because those people don't exist around here. Having any sort of feed delivered (including bulk hay) would have to be trucked hundreds of miles from areas with much more expensive hay and would get real costly.

They don't exist out here either. That is why ranches have hired men. They provide housing, generally half a beef, a ranch pickup, and pay around $3,000 a month. My wife had a ranch on the Oregon Nevada border that was 2 hours to the closest grocery store. A county bigger than any of the 7 smallest states with a population of about 7,000 people. There are no contractors in those areas. Nobody to hire as pert time help. You hire full time help or do it all yourself. Hay in this part of the world gets hauled 200-400 miles and even more on a regular basis.

 

[Brute 23]

You don't need a lot of interaction, just the right kind of interaction when it happens. My second trip to Australia was helping transitioning from 30 years of gathering with bikes and helicopters to horseback (mainly because they had too many mavericks which had never been in the pens.) When we got to working them through the chute it was fascinating to see three and four year old slick cattle which had never been penned being the calmest cattle in the herd. Strays from the neighbor's (used to being rammed and jammed on) were the worst ones.

It doesn't matter if it's a horse or an atv, it's only as good as the operator.

I have have talked many times about moving cattle on here by simular methods as you described.

 

[wbvs58]

Spear traps around water are being used a lot on bigger operations to help with musters, one going in to the water and one going out. When you want to muster the out gets closed for a couple of days.
https://www.facebook.com/lifeonredh...hat-have-been-used-for-prob/3526442000818744/
Ken

 

[showdown]

Off hand I would say you are about right. Or to put it another way, It's no country for old men!

Whatch it young’n. I was runninn’ 300 head alone AND buildin’ fence before you were just a gleam in your daddy’s eye.

 

[greybeard]

Whatch it young'n. I was runninn' 300 head alone AND buildin' fence before you were just a gleam in your daddy's eye.

Lee is no longer allowed on here but he's no spring chicken himself.
(Welcome to CT. From whence, do you hail?)

 

[Stonewall Joe]

LOL - I must be doing something right! I don't own any hay equipment except the 2 spears on my tractor!!! But - I am lucky to have a neighbor that has done my hay for probably over 30 years. He does his first (small dairy farmer), then mine. Then any other customers after me. So, mine is always done at proper timing.

our biggest issue when we bought our place wasthe timing. We had a man that baled for us but had a lot of customers, he would cut rake and bale but we were always late, I thin made a deal with him to cut and rake, that made it better but finally he got pretty old so we bought some ok used equipment and then some better. It doesn't pencil out for us very well but the land is getting better and we're making enough to sell so we get a bit back but for us it was all timing and convenience. If we hade another 50 acres of good grass we'd have to cut a lot less hay ad rotate pastures better

 

[Dave]

Here the standard rotation by the dirt farmers is potatoes, wheat, and alfalfa. Thus there is tens of thousands of acres irrigated alfalfa within 100 miles. Drive down the freeway and you will see semi loads of hay going by everyday. When you figure equipment cost and up keep along with time it takes you can buy hay delivered 9 years out of 10 cheaper than doing it yourself. With my new feeder using big squares I could easily feed 300 cows in the morning and be done before 11:00. And that is old slow fat me.