How many cows?

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jltrent

jltrent

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How many cows now to be able to farm full time and make it? I haven't seen this come up in a few years and things have changed lately. A few years ago, as I couldn't find the thread it was 300 cows if I remember right.
 
coachg said:
If you’ve got them I’d say 50-100 . If you’ve got to buy them to get started I wouldn’t even try to guess ! Unless you hit the lottery and needed a tax write off to get started .
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Agreed. I think 50 to 75 mommas and direct market/private sale all of the calves and I might could live comfortably. Relying heavy on rented ground and the small family spot as a home base.

Cant see buying land and the cows then paying for it with Cow/Calf moneys.
 
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All I know 300 cows at old prices it would be hard to make it with not a lot of outgoing (people seem to forget). Now with input inflation I am going to say 150 cows, but you better have the old farm paid for, not a lot of liabilities, and not to spendy wanting a lot of new material things at that.
 
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🤔 WAY, WAY, WAY too many variables to consider in the question. In a nutshell, to give a 'calculated' answer, I'd need 2 things. First, How much and in what time frame NET PROFIT is considered to be 'making it'? 2nd, how much profit are you making per cow? The answer to either really has an infinite number of answers.

There are really an infinite number of answers here without any parameters, unless of course you are actually incurring a loss on each cow, and then the answer would be you can't 'make it', unless of course you had a 2nd enterprise (or job) that is turning a profit greater than the loss generated by the cows.

(OK, sorry I ruined the 'speculative' question with a bunch of concrete facts and information. Let the attacks on me commence. :sneaky:)
 
jltrent said:
How many cows now to be able to farm full time and make it? I haven't seen this come up in a few years and things have changed lately. A few years ago, as I couldn't find the thread it was 300 cows if I remember right.
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Everybody is fudging on their answers to the question. And I can see why. But I think all of us would agree that "making it" means paying the bills and having enough left over to live comfortably. For some that might mean paying for a heavily mortgaged ranch, cows, equipment, and buying a new truck every year while taking the family to Disneyworld whenever they feel like it. For me, because I paid cash for the ranch, cattle, and any vehicles, it means paying the utilities, real estate taxes, insurance, gas, and groceries... and having enough pocket change to take my wife out to a meal every day of the week. To me, that would be making it.
I can't answer for anyone else, but with the prices today I could do with a lot less cattle than in 2008. I figure I can live very comfortably paying all the bills I mentioned ($700/1000 or so a month) and having the money to take the wife out ($40/100 a day) (Not saying we would go out, but that's the extra cash that would make us comfortable), so $50K net would be good for us although we could get by on half that. But that's only because we have investments that allow us to pay cash. Anyone paying interest would probably be looking at more animals... which of course means they'd be paying additional interest. It's a vicious cycle...
 

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