New from Illinois

[burtle05]

Hey everyone! I'm from central Illinois. I grew up on my grandpa's farm. He had horses, pigs, turkeys, pheasants, and cows.
I spent many years helping him. From taking care of the animals, mixing feed for them, bailling hay etc...


I'm much older now and to the point I'd like to get into cattle. I have a friend who has 5 acres. I was leaning towards buying 3. One for myself and sell the other 3 when they are ready for butcher.


I'm here to learn more about cows, the process, and hopefully meet some people in the meantime.

 

[A.J.]

Welcome!

 

[Warren Allison]

Hey everyone! I'm from central Illinois. I grew up on my grandpa's farm. He had horses, pigs, turkeys, pheasants, and cows.
I spent many years helping him. From taking care of the animals, mixing feed for them, bailling hay etc...


I'm much older now and to the point I'd like to get into cattle. I have a friend who has 5 acres. I was leaning towards buying 3. One for myself and sell the other 3 when they are ready for butcher.


I'm here to learn more about cows, the process, and hopefully meet some people in the meantime.

Welcome to CT. If you would go back into your profile and add your location, you will get more response.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Welcome to CT. Lots of good people and information here.

What part of Illinois? I'm in that Knox,Henry,Mercer county area.

 

[burtle05]

Welcome to CT. Lots of good people and information here.

What part of Illinois? I'm in that Knox,Henry,Mercer county area.

I'm near Springfield Illinois

I'm very familiar with those counties you mentioned!

 

[SBMF 2015]

I'm near Springfield Illinois

I'm very familiar with those counties you mentioned!

Sweet!

 

[Dsth]

Welcome to the CT forum. hope we can help you with any questions you may have as you get started. Maybe I am missing something in your post but if you are planning on buying 3; how can you keep 1 and sell 3? or is my math wrong today

 

[4hfarms]

If he was a bit further North, I would have to say Chicago public schools.

That's my excuse.....

 

[burtle05]

Welcome to the CT forum. hope we can help you with any questions you may have as you get started. Maybe I am missing something in your post but if you are planning on buying 3; how can you keep 1 and sell 3? or is my math wrong today

LOL!

I was tired when I made the first post.

I meant keep one and sell the other two.

 

[farmerjan]

Welcome from Va.... getting a couple, keeping one to go in the freezer and the others to help pay expenses is a good way to get started... might not make "money" but if the beef in the freezer is paid for that is a big plus.
Cattle prices are high right now unless you are in an area where drought is forcing selling of animals. We are in /near the highest cattle prices of cycles that occur in in 8-14 year trends...
Good luck and glad to have you join us.

 

[coachg]

Welcome from NE Alabama . My oldest son lived with a family and played wooden bat college baseball ️ for the Springfield riffles one summer . We went up for a weekend . Beautiful country.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Welcome to the CT forum. hope we can help you with any questions you may have as you get started. Maybe I am missing something in your post but if you are planning on buying 3; how can you keep 1 and sell 3? or is my math wrong today

This would be government math.

Welcome! BTW, I am a government employee.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

As it appears you are going to purchase 'stockers' (weaned steers) at about 450 - 500 pounds, 3 'should' be ok on 5 acres (not 4 stockers). In order to get the most out of your pasture (BTW, you are a GRASS farmer, not a BEEF farmer) you will need to set up a rotational grazing system. I typically recommend 5 pastures in rotation. If I were you, I would create divisions for pasture with temporary fence for the first year or 2. Look at the thread "4 never fail rules of grazing". Your grazing efficiency will be about 30-35% without pasture divisions (1 year long continuous grazing field) vs 65-70% utilization efficiency with the 5 separate "pasturettes". Roughly translated, that means your stockers will have twice as much to eat if you divide the pasture up.

 

[tex452]

Welcome

 

[MrChevy]

Howdy new farmer.