TexasBred
Well-known member
Boogie, it's been 3 1/2 years. You haven't got all your free shyt yet?? :shock:backhoeboogie":23y6tran said:
Neighbor's cattle profits
- Thread starter herofan
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Massey135
Well-known member
Dead on.1982vett":3ts83uuk said:
sackshowcattle
Well-known member
Were I think the big difference is in this thread is location, situation, and what people use for calculating profit. Some areas simple can't operate the same as others. Water table, rainfall, soil type, and growing season all effect how productive the land is and what can be done to lower costs. With location I'm not talking across the country either. Within counties or even on your same property it can change depending on how close to rivers and lakes you are and how close to water table you are. My place is on the back side of a lake and everything against the dam and at a lower level you can dig down one scoop with a shovel and hit water. Out under the pivot at a higher elevation haven't turned the sprinkler off in 4 days in this 110 degree heat. All around me everyone is starting to feed hay and my pasture is just now starting to show signs of stress. All of our equipment is 40 years old and still going strong. Newest tractor on the place is a 1086. red not that expencive green color that cost more to buy and burns more fuel. We have a 4440 that sits for that very reason. Pulling same equipment in the same dirt that international burns 35% less fuel then the john deere. for raking and small jobs use a super mta. Again burns less gas and cheaper to buy gas then diesel here. don't have a shiny new side by side or atv to fencing and such have an early 80's truck for that. Now if your lucky enough to be in the farm belt that is were figures can really start changing. my corn and alfalfa production pays for all upkeep on place. Pays the land payment, irrigation expence, taxes, fuel, and all upkeep. Also puts up enough hay to winter the cows over what is sold. No at this point is were calculations can show a huge swing in cost of production. I could figure the hay at market price when calculation cost of cows, or since everything is already paid for off the crop production I can calculate it as waste and show the cows pure profit. I have herd it argued both ways and agree with both but my point of view, and anyone who has raised hay for profit knows, There are waste bails that in non drought years you can't give away. if it gets lots of rain after cut it is stockpiled for cattle. When you put up small bails unless barn stored you lose top and bottom bails even in shed you can lose the bottom bails unless you want to hand stack on pallets. heavy spots in the field can cause some bailes to mold a little. All this to me is what would be just waste and I use it to winter. So very little input cost for me. Like I previously said crops pay everything for the cattle and property cattle are there to not waste ground to wet to farm and not waste hay that can't be sold. I also pasture the corn stocks off for winter feed. I know a lot of the people on here can't run their numbers this way, They have a longer winter feed schedule, Pasture burns out earlier from heat and lack of rain. They get one maybe 2 cutting of grass not 4 cutting of irrigated alfalfa. Some have to feed protien tubs cause there isn't as much protien in the grass as the alfalfa. All I have to put out is good mineral. with winter kill off and regrowth and the type of soil we don't have to fertilize as hard here to keep the grass going. So yes some areas of the country input costs can be next to nothing compaired to others. Had a buddy run to montanta to help his girlfriends grand parents process cattle and they laughed at the fact we pastured corn stocks they said it was unheard of in the area they were in because of the short growing season and all the grass they have to put up. I bet the other members on here from colorado that are up in the mountains, down south or over on the western slope operate way different then I do on the northestern plains. Just since they have the most differnt views and have a pretty strong stance on their views we will use agmantoo and cb. For their specific area maybe they are both making max profit for the situation they are in due to all reasons mentioned above.
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
TexasBred":10rwgqw7 said:
Wild wimmins, whiskey, hard living............ (I wish)
things are good. I am buying another 58 acres of river bottom at the moment. Premium coastal. It aint free.
You could say that I am still spending.
Just not buying new boats, new trucks etc. It is only half mine anyway.
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
BTW, the hay is mine - doesn't belong to the cows. If I burn a few rods on the side, or help our the vet, or sell a bale or two, the extra nickels are mine too. The cows have to earn their keep. I could burn rods without them being around supervising me.
OP
OP
herofan
Well-known member
sackshowcattle, good points. I think everyone's personal situation makes a difference, but some here can't seem to think so. My heifers didn't touch any hay last year until the end of December and stopped in March because we have plenty of pasture. We have dry summers here sometimes, but not a harsh drought like I hear about in some places, so we never had to feed hay here in the summer, and we don't have a need for irrigation. We don't fertilize much her either. Like you, we don't have barns full of new equipment that we make payments on.
I can't argue with other peoples records; they know what they spend, not me. But it would stand to reason that different circumstances for different people could make a difference. And no, I didn't say anything was "free."
I can't argue with other peoples records; they know what they spend, not me. But it would stand to reason that different circumstances for different people could make a difference. And no, I didn't say anything was "free."
You're in Kentucky right Hero?
What part?
What part?
TexasBred
Well-known member
Seldom does it not pay off when you invest in good land. Limited supply. ;-)backhoeboogie":3q6qsfmg said:
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
TB I could not pass this one up. It is a heck of a deal. My eldest daughter is buying half of the place and I am buying the other half. We're splitting 116 acres of the best sandy coastal fields in the county. I was done buying land until this offer came.
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
TexasBred":3uu5k0fm said:
I don't know a whole lot of people got left holding the bag in the late 70's during the saving's and loan snafu.
The land and housing market is pretty much set back twenty years in this country right now unless you own in downtown Houston.
You can be land rich and dirt poor as well, the land, cattle, hay etc has no value until you sell it.
It is all a liabilty until it is sold.
mwj
Well-known member
Massey135":237di8s5 said:
Land in my part of the world runs 6-11,000$ per acre. That is with no fences buildings or surface water!
Feel free to convince the local bankers that you just want to hold onto it for a while and run a few cows :cowboy: I am quite sure that they will see the light and cut you a check.
I am sure that a lot of people have never had to submit a business plan to borrow money or they would have a different out look on what cost is.
TexasBred
Well-known member
Yessir I know what you mean. A lot of good folks got hurt in the S&L fiasco and very few crooks went to the pen. Land out here has gone thru the roof, not that it's worth it, but rich folks from DFW have bought up tons of it for high fence deer ranches for tax right offs. Even 1000 acre tracts are asking over $5,000 an acre and won't even grow mesquite....rocks, ravines and deer. "Land rich, dirt poor"...one of my dad's favorite sayings. Priest said one last week I liked too...he did a dollar and sense wedding. "He didnt' have a dollar and she didn't have a lick of sense. ". :lol2:
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
sackshowcattle":1vrkpyjn said:
Sounds like a very efficient approach. I don't see many mixed crop & cow operations like this anymore. Why is that?
Ryder
Well-known member
Land is bought and sold-that constitutes a market.TexasBred":oje2xo4n said:
Markets go up and they go down. Nothing, I repeat, nothing goes up forever.
sackshowcattle
Well-known member
I actually Think it has a lot to do with water being bought up for cities, water restrictions made tougher every year, and land price. As long as you get away from the metro area land can still be had for around 2000 an acre, but water rights are touch and go in a lot of places. They augmented or shut down a lot of wells and started cutting ditch water rights to a 1/3 of what the use to be to be able to give all the new people moving in water. I got lucky and found land a few years back that has non tributary status to the aquafer so they can't stop me from running no matter how short water gets and can't cut back on amount I can run per minute. Goes back to different areas different operating costs. Being up against the reservoir I can run pretty close to 1 animal unit an acre and the grass holds out till september at that point the cattle wont eat it anymore since its salt grass. Most people that have lived in the area for a while say it gets a bad taste to the livestock when it starts to go dormant. But between those stocking rates, way cheaper land prices than some have listed on here and 1300 dollars in taxes a year its real easy to keep inputs low.
bigbull338
Well-known member
boogie your never to old to buy land if you have the money an the price is right.i know an old feller that payed his place off in his 80s.an then at 95 bought some more land.when asked why he would buy more land at 95 his answer was you can never have enough land.an it was priced right an i had the money so i bought it.backhoeboogie":pvkfymzr said:
TexasBred
Well-known member
Forever is infinite. But I bet you can think of a lot of things that have done nothing but go up since you were born.Ryder":2da1yzl8 said:
ALACOWMAN
Well-known member
of the 10k plus members on here,, i wonder what percentage actually make their living raising cattle.. i can think of maybe a handful
TexasBred
Well-known member
Heck I've said it a dozen times, I do it because I enjoy cattle. If I make a profit great. If not, hopefully the loss is minimal. My life nor livelihood does not depend on it.ALACOWMAN":y36unm9p said:
