For a young person like yourself i would recommend waiting several years. Not only is a cattle herd a big responsibility but at your age you may or may not know what will come next. Are you planning on going to college? are you going to get a fulltime job? will you have time for the cattle and a job/school? what about land? do you want to go out onthe weekends, date, have a social life in general, and go on vacations? because cow flop happens. cows get out. they have difficulty calving, they get sick, they have to be fed. Not to state the obvious here, but life after high school is completely different. plus i think prices are going to go down significantly in the next year or three.
I am only 26 but i would definitely suggest not jumping in unless you know you want this and can handle it and have all of your I's dotted and your T's crossed. I bought my cattle my last year of college and there is no way i would have been able to go to school, work, and take care of cattle all thru college. no way.
The FSA loan programs are great for young people like us starting out, but they have the beginning farmer/rancher loans that are just as good as youth loans and they last up until youre 35. If it were me, i wouldnt jump in just yet, and definitely not with a par'ner.
