Information overload and a little disappointed?

[AlmostaTexan]

I am settling into the cabin on the mini (micro? since it's 20 acres) farm, and managed to get an appointment with the county extension agent.
Background - in case you didn't see my intro post - raised on a beef and dairy farm overseas, supplemented by merino sheep. Husband raised on a longhorn operation in Texas. We both left our respective farms for 15 ish years with military careers and are starting over in a state not familiar to either of us. Clear as mud?

The agent was fantastic, I got a crash course on the improved reproduction technologies and a list of resources to study up on, amongst a stack of books and papers and a million other things. I also got a brief overview of the local market.

I will admit, I was slightly embarrassed because I will have a very small operation, but the agent seemed encouraging. He also suggested some other ways to utilize the mini farm to help increase income and in addition to providing a product that demand outweighs supply historically.

I had hoped to raise longhorns, but there are very few established longhorn producers in this state, certainly for obvious reasons that the environment doesn't require a cow that can thrive on less. But for my end goal - I was hoping on producing small scale lean beef, as well as utilizing the hides. Longhorns do have some honestly beautiful hide.

I was told, however, there is simply no market for the longhorn here and that I would be better served with registered black stock or show animals. I know of another small operator that has approx 30 head of longhorn a few counties south of me, and from our discussions they don't have too many issue with moving cattle for sale.

So I guess my question is, am I barking up the wrong tree by wanting to bring more registered longhorns to Kentucky? Should I go with the registered black breeds?

 

[Muddy]

Why not crossing these longhorn cows to something? Charolais or Limousin are your best bet and they will produce better marketable calves.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

I hear ya, AlmostaTexan. I kind of have the same issue with my cattle, here in an area where black cattle are the real money makers -- I have "something different" and will never get the $$ out of them via raising and selling them on the hoof that I might get in another part of the country where they are more recognized and there are shows for them. We've sold a few on the hoof, and a couple bull calves for the first time this year. Most of our bulls fledge to steers, and we have a good customer base for butcher beef. But they'll never pay the bills around here; they pretty much pay their own way, but they are not my retirement ticket. Still, we enjoy them, and we know we can produce as good or better beef than anyone else in the area. That's enough. We keep what pleases us. I'd listen to the person near you that it's the same boat you are. Sounds like he/she might be a good mentor for you. Good luck! And thank you and your husband for your service!

 

[bball]

It truly depends upon what your goal is in the beef game. Are you looking for for a legitimate, supportive income? Just a hobby that you enjoy (should at very least pay for itself), specialty niche market? You can certainly make money on twenty acres and cows, but you have to put the lead to the paper and play by the rules alreadybestablished in your geographic area. If theres little to no market for what you desire to do, then you have a choice: attempt to build one(warning, CAN be challenging being a transplant (i know, i have been one ) or re evaluate your plan and use the market already established in your area. It really comes down to how much risk you can afford to take and how much you value your 'dream'. Best of luck to you.

 

[bball]

Since you asked, if it were me, i would start with black hided cattle, buy yourself some time in the area, get a feel for things and your market. Safe built in market for those animals, smaller risk comparatively. You can ALWAYS sell black cattle. I have no doubts some LH folks on here will disagree and thats fine...just telling you what i would do. Enjoy.

 

[Farmgirl]

OK, here goes. Longhorns will tear up a lot of feed troughs and hay rings among other things with their horns. Have a neighbor that has some. Can't eat horns.

My :2cents:
Farmgirl

 

[Muddy]

You don't need a black hide to making money. And can't eat a hide too.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

OK, here goes. Longhorns will tear up a lot of feed troughs and hay rings among other things with their horns. Have a neighbor that has some. Can't eat horns.

My :2cents:
Farmgirl

True -- it will take some special handling facilities for Longhorns. No matter what cattle you have, though, get a handling system put in. It'll save your life, and maybe the critters', too.

 

[greybeard]

OK, here goes. Longhorns will tear up a lot of feed troughs and hay rings among other things with their horns. Have a neighbor that has some. Can't eat horns.

My :2cents:
Farmgirl

so will any horned bovine if they are so inclined. My neighbor's Jersey tore half the boards off his barn and only reason just 1/2 was the bull wasn't 20' tall. She won't be able to eat the hide either, no matter what color it is.
almostaTexan--raise whatever makes you happy.

 

[Craig Miller]

I agree with gb. Raise what you wanna raise. I doubt you will notice any price diffrence on a small herd. Any cow can tear up facilities if inclined to.

 

[highgrit]

Why experiment stick, with what's been working for the last 40 years. Buy some good black hide cattle and start learning. How can you go wrong? Most Angus are calving ease, they sell good, are fairly calm, not sickly and the list goes on. Why try and re-invent the wheel?

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

You don't have enough room to run many cattle. So do what you want to. I have seemed to get by for a long time with out black hided cattle.

 

[AlmostaTexan]

Definitely not trying to reinvent the wheel.
There's no way whatever I do will affect anything in the greater scheme of things. I know that we simply do not have enough land to run enough head to make any kind of money from the cattle, thankfully however, it's not our end goal. I was hoping to utilize as much of the product as possible.

I sincerely appreciate everyone's replies!

 

[Dave]

If you plan to sell beef on the rail or in packages rather than live animals you can raise whatever you want. It is just a matter of promoting your product and selling it. If you plan to sell feeder calves or other classes of animals at the sale yard, raise black hided cattle. They will out sell LH by a bundle and your costs are going to be nearly the same.

 

[TexasBred]

Raise what you want to raise to a point. If you know longhorns take a beating in your area why would you insist on raising them?? Think about your 2nd choice. Might be a better fit for the area but it doesn't necessarily have to be black.

 

[fenceman]

I sometimes tease the high Brow registered AI type crowd. But I would think from a business standpoint it would make the most sense. You can't do enough quantity to break even. You have to focus on quality. You will have to put efforts into marketing to be able to reap those maximum prices. Now if you do something just because it's what you want to (and that's fine) you kinda got to look at it as a hobby, you should still try to make what you can. You just look at things a little different.

 

[HDRider]

I would just like to say best of luck!!! And thank you for your service!

Tim

x10

 

[Ojp6]

Do what you think you will enjoy because it's not gonna make much money. When we first got into cows and calves several years ago we bought 25 blue roan cows from random sale barns because that was what my mom enjoyed looking at out her window in the morning. They took about a year and a half to find but now we have got a pretty nice looking set of cows.

 

[Muddy]

Do what you think you will enjoy because it's not gonna make much money. When we first got into cows and calves several years ago we bought 25 blue roan cows from random sale barns because that was what my mom enjoyed looking at out her window in the morning. They took about a year and a half to find but now we have got a pretty nice looking set of cows.

should had sell these roan calves up north.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

You don't need a black hide to making money. And can't eat a hide too.

Don't need black hides to make money? How many head of feeder cattle have you bought in KY? Right or wrong black is the way to go there.