Information overload and a little disappointed?

[denvermartinfarms]

I guess if it was me I would decide what I wanted to do, raise what I like? Or make money? With 20 acres I think I would try to make the most of it by raising the best and most acceptable cattle I could for my area.

 

[Ojp6]

Go black or good yellows or reds if you want to make money. If you do go with good colored calves you need to make a little bunch of them that match and run them through a sale that doesn't grade them though.

 

[Muddy]

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.

where did the OP said where he/she sells the animals at?

 

[Kell-inKY]

I guess if it was me I would decide what I wanted to do, raise what I like? Or make money? With 20 acres I think I would try to make the most of it by raising the best and most acceptable cattle I could for my area.

agreed, 2 different directions. If you can cultivate a niche market for your longhorns meat I suppose you can make money that way, but if you go black you can sell a cow or calf at anytime to cover a bill if needed.

Out of your 20 acres, what is useable pasture? Do you have any infrastructure yet such as fences/gates?

 

[Lucky_P]

20 acres, you're not going to be raising many. Likely not going to be doing much more than supplementing the grocery bill; sure not gonna get rich at it (but who is?).
Agree with the ext. agent...you're not going to have folks beating down your door for those Longhorn cattle, and if you send them through any of the local livestock auctions, you'll likely not bring home much of a check; it may be VERY disappointing.
But, if you want 'em, go for it...horns and hide only go so far... and if you want a lean, stringy piece of meat... well, you can probably produce a little of it with those LHs.
I wouldn't go that route, but if it's what floats your boat...it's no one's business but your own.

Guess you could do as some here advocate...have some LH cows, and breed them to a growthy polled Charolais bull to get something that will actually grow - and it might 'disguise' what they are enough that you won't get your shorts eaten if you run one through the salebarn.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Just curious Lucky have you ever had longhorn beef?

 

[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.

where did the OP said where he/she sells the animals at?

No where did they say. most often when someone has the cattle that will fit on 20 acres they are not hauling there calves out of state to sell though.

 

[LRTX1]

I would raise cows that you could market in your area, it sounds like black cattle sell good there just like everywhere else. Use your 20 acres to get a good start and get over the learning curve then go find some lease ground, you can be as big as you want.

 

[Lucky_P]

RBB,
I have... granted, it was from a mature LH bull that came visiting, wouldn't leave, and the owner wouldn't make any effort to retrieve(over a 2-yr period). When my dad & uncle finally hung it up and sold out, they couldn't get that crazy thing in, so they shot him in the pasture and had him ground up into hamburger. Nastiest ground beef I ever had in my life. Think they finally ended up throwing most of it out.

New neighbors two places south of me sound not unlike the OP...really nice folks, active military, only they had NO experience with cattle; they'd heard they were gentle and birthed easily... Somebody down around Nashville saw some tenderfoots coming and sold 'em some LHs. They've got not much in the way of fence, and no working facilities... don't know how they'll manage to do anything with them. Little steer left home Day 1 and came visiting right away, and spent nearly 2 months here before we could get him tranqued and hauled back home. Big head, noassatall, and little in the way of muscling. Probably weighed 350, and I'd hazard a guess he's at least a yearling. I'm sure at some point, he'll be eaten...but I'm not betting on it being a unforgettably pleasurable gustatory experience.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Was just curious. Thanks for the answer. Lots of times we offer other ways to go. When we might should be telling them how to do the best they can with what they are wanting to do. 20 acres just not going to let them do much any way they go.

 

[AlmostaTexan]

True. 20 acres is a bee fart no matter how I look at it.

Frankly, I had planned on starting itty bitty and if I don't make a crap shoot of it, perhaps either leasing or purchasing more pastureland at a later date.
Spent last year in Texas with a herd of LH and Corriente. Not cattle I would consider beginner friendly! But, meh, it is what it is.

I've forgotten already who asked, I have 15 acres of grazeable pasture (that has not been grazed in over a decade but has been hayed) with one side fenced, I still have to put up the rest of the fencing and redo the perimeter fencing to the back of the property. I do have someone coming to test the soil for me. I do need to install pens and a chute.

Obviously I don't plan on running out and buying the first wet nose heifer that looks at me sideways, at this point I'm thinking nothing is going to happen until next year. Thinking of it, might be longer before all this comes to play as a new fence and the handling pens are bookoo bucks that I am going to have to save for.

 

[Ojp6]

RBB,
I have... granted, it was from a mature LH bull that came visiting, wouldn't leave, and the owner wouldn't make any effort to retrieve(over a 2-yr period). When my dad & uncle finally hung it up and sold out, they couldn't get that crazy thing in, so they shot him in the pasture and had him ground up into hamburger. Nastiest ground beef I ever had in my life. Think they finally ended up throwing most of it out

We fed some roping steers that were about 2 and 1/2 years old corn for about 2 months and then killed them. It was pretty good beef. We grind them entirely into hamburger except maybe a little jerky and beef sticks. We have ate Longhorns on and off for years. Usually eat choice angus cross steers or Longhorns all the time. There is less of a difference in the ground beef than you would expect if you feed the LHs right. If you killed a longhorn that had never seen feed I imagine it wouldn't be too good. A lot of grass fed beef is stringy and tough.

 

[Muddy]

I never liked grass fed steaks, they tastes weird to me. Buffalo, venison and elk steaks tasted better.

 

[greybeard]

I never liked grass fed steaks, they tastes weird to me. Buffalo, venison and elk steaks tasted better.

You mean they are on momma's milk, then only grain their entire growing life, from weaning till slaughter?

 

[SJB]

I never liked grass fed steaks, they tastes weird to me. Buffalo, venison and elk steaks tasted better.

What do the buffalo, elk and venison eat, if not grass?

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Don't know about Buffalo, but deer and elk eat a lot other stuff besides grass.

 

[highgrit]

I never liked grass fed steaks, they tastes weird to me. Buffalo, venison and elk steaks tasted better.

What do the buffalo, elk and venison eat, if not grass?

That's the reason why I believe some breeds of cattle taste better than others.

Muddy your dead on in my book. I've never ate longhorn that I know of. But grass fed cracker cows are terrible. It's easy to raise good beef to eat. Let them eat grass till their a 1k pounds, then start feeding them corn. Just keep up the corn weekly till their diet is mostly all corn.

 

[Lucky_P]

Grew up eating 'grass-fed' beef; we always just picked a low-end heifer and had her slaughtered; don't remember any that I thought were particularly good or bad... it was just meat.
Nowadays, we just buy whatever; mostly ground beef...calves are worth too much for us to be eating 'em!

Ground beef... I have always thought the whole 'Black Angus' burger deal was ludicrous. It's ground beef, for goodness sake; They're not grinding up a prime carcass to make it; you add in fat to get it to whatever % you want it. You could grind up a 10-yr old Holstein cow and add trimmings from an overfat carcass, and I'd bet no one could tell the difference between it and ground beef from an Angus steer.

 

[Big Cheese]

I think all the advice that is being given here is great advice. Let me put my 2 cents in here since you have mentioned Longhorns and that is what we run. We have Longhorn mommas with Charolais bulls and the calves are doing great. Your not going to get as much for the calf ($900-$1100) but you can run more head. 3 Longhorns to 2 beef cows is what I have gotten from my calculations. They don't eat as much so less money spent on hay.

The main reason to get into Longhorns is you can get them cheap and turn your money over faster. If you cant find good cheap Longhorns then I would go with the black like everyone else is saying. BUT...you said some of your pasture is grown up and Longhorns LOVE grown up woods. Ours stay in them all the time and has eaten all the growth that is in it they love it.

You can run 10 to maybe even 12 (if they are smaller) Longhorns on a good 20 acres but I would recommend 8 where as you would be pushing your land with 5 or 6 beef cows until you get it built up. Even though black is the thing in your area DO NOT put a black bull on Longhorns. For some reason they just do not grow as good (from my observations some people has had success with them) I don't know why. You have to go with a Charolais or a Limousine bull.

If I were you I would buy some cheap heavy bred Longhorns (unless you just have to have the horns get them cut off/short) and start out with them and start replacing as you see fit. Our process is to keep our Half Charolais Half Longhorn heifers and replace our Longhorns with them. Then you have the growth of the Charolais and the toughness of the Longhorn. There is very little calving problems with Longhorns....at least we haven't had any problems yet (knock on wood) you never know.

That's what I would do if you are wanting Longhorns. You can make money with them.

 

[Ojp6]

They are probably hard to tell the difference. We have a five year old cow that was really fat go choice a couple times and a lot of 3 and 4 year olds so it's hard to see how the grading works. You would be surprised how many times you can put a fat cow on with a load of fat heifers and they won't even mark the cow over thirty months which is the cut off for age at most of those plants.

I was simply saying that if you are marketing lean hamburger longhorn is not the worst place to get it. Everything else on a longhorn sucks.