New to this, how much for a feeder cattle?

[Hurley]

How much does a feeder cattle cost? I own a small farm that is ten acres. I was thinking about getting a couple of feeder cattle every spring to keep the back six acre in shape and raise my own grass feed beef. Your thoughts

I am just looking for ball park figures.

 

[Susie David]

Hurley....alot depends on your area, the time of year and the size of the animal along with local preferences as to color, breed and demand.

Facilities first then cows!

Always buy at least two...herding animals, they need company.
IMO the last sale before Christmas has the lowest selling prices of the year. In spring the demand is high as folks have new pasture and can feed the calves for free all summer to sell in the fall.
Just my two bits worth.
Dave Mc

 

[Hurley]

I have everything that it takes as far as the fence and the barn. I had 3 horses about 10 years ago. I just have never had cattle. I stayed with my uncle in Tennessee for a couple of weeks when I was a teen. He had somewhere around 100 or more cattle. We took them to auction. It was neat.

My dad built this place to do a little commercial style pig farming in the 70's after about 5 year he wasn't having any fun with it and quit. It was a hobby for him. I am not looking to make a profit. I just believe this place needs livestock on it. The pasture has grown up since I had the horses. I was thinking about getting some pigs or goats to clear the pasture. I would use portable electric fencing to mob stock them to the existing fence. Then I would break out the chain saw and seed the pasture. Then I would consider cattle. I would at least get three. I had no problem with the 3 horses on the pasture I have now. The farmer down the street would sell me the hay. The neighbors have 10 acres to left and right, they would have no problem with it if I had to use there back 5 for emergency pasture.

I really don't know if grass feed beef is even feasible or even if it would taste of it, but it would be a goal. If the cows didn't look good or where having a hard time of it I would have no problem feeding them grain. The pasture I have now is about 3 acres. If I like the idea I would extend the pasture to 6 acres and do rotationally grazing. And if I really like the idea I spend the twenty grand it would take to do the front 3 acres in vinyl white fencing and raise purebreds.

When I was riding around with my atv checking out the fence. I found two spools of daddies hog wire, it was about twenty years old. I would use that to do the portable electric fence with t-post. The only thing I would really have to do, is buy a water tank and pump for the barn. It already has a well point from the pig days.

 

[Susie David]

The cows sure like that white vinal look...
IMO, I'd spend the $$$ on setting up a good three or four pasture rotation as large as you have resources for.
Also I'd get off the atv and wiggle a few posts and pull on some wire...the cows will. Clean up all the old leavings...the cows will find snags of wire and the vet bills will make you wish that you did.
Draw a pasture plan with the chutes and pens, gates and bunks. The exercise will help when it comes time to collect the animals and sorting and loading facilities are needed.
Just another two bits worth.
Good luck...Dmc

 

[Hurley]

This is going to be a long term project. There is no way I could set up the rotational pasture in the back 5 acres unless I rented a bulldozer, its to overgrown. I could have one of my neighbors clear the field. One down the street is a good size corn and soybean farmer. The other owns and operates heavy equipment. But I really dont want to do that, it's a project. I would use pigs to clear the pasture. You know the bush hog technic. I use a the portable electric fence to clear perimeter of the fence with about 5 pigs or one mating pair moving the fence about once a week. I would imagine this would take a half a season just to clear the perimeter of the back 5 acres. Once that was done I would put up a new 6 wire Hi-tensile fence creating 2, 3 acres pastures. Then I would let the hogs lose to rome the new pasture clearing out the center. Once they had rooted up the whole 6 acres it would be the fall. Seed and Sausage time. If not keep a mating pair over winter and repeat. Once the new pasture seed had fully developed. I would purchase cattle. I might consider doing it with goats to but think it would be quicker with pigs. My job gives me a lot of free time in the summers and not much in the winter. I need some to do in the summers.

The white vinyl fence would be for around the house and road side. I would need about 1800 ft of that. The cows would have to earn their keep for phase 3 or I would have to get really sick of cutting 4 acres of grass every week.

 

[Hasbeen]

This is not exact as I didn't look up the current price of vinyl fence, but my quick calculations tell me that I started my herd (eight heifers) for about $150 more than 1800 feet of vinyl fence would cost. :shock: ;-)

 

[Hurley]

At best I would do the vinyl fence in about 3 years. I could do it all at once but, then I woundnt have anything to do. This is not a about money this would be a hobby. Is there any links or website that have the current price per lb for feeder cattle in the michigan area?

 

[Wewild]

I have everything that it takes as far as the fence and the barn. I had 3 horses about 10 years ago. I just have never had cattle. I stayed with my uncle in Tennessee for a couple of weeks when I was a teen. He had somewhere around 100 or more cattle. We took them to auction. It was neat.

You miss the main ingrediant and that is know how.

Go slow and learn.

 

[dj]

Hurley I spent about 30 min trying to find you a sale barn in your state. Apparently there aren't any that report. Nor could I find any through advertisment. What I did notice was there are a lot of people with horses in your area. Some Dexter and Highlands. And 1 repeat 1 hereford heifer in the classified for $600. It didn't state the age or condition. And I forgot to mark that one.
What do yo see when you drive around? I thought there would be some dairy you could maybe get a couple of calves from but couldn't even find any of those. Maybe my search skills were just in the toilet last night. Good Luck

 

[S.R.R.]

Of course a few Highlands would do a good job of cleaning up your over growen pasture as well as causing you very little trouble to keep. The thing is that not everyone wants as lean a cut of beef as they provide. Whatever you do make sure they are british based stockers if you plan to fatten them on grass alone. For price I can not help you. Your best bet is to ask around for prices from folks that have them for sale in your area then look at your list of prices to get your average.

 

[Hurley]

The highland is just the breed I am looking for. Thanks. There is several breeders in my area to.

I found a vary good site http://www.midwesthighlands.org The pdf breeders guide was some the best information that I've found so far. Would they sell well at a commercial auction, or is that a breed that you would have to direct market?

 

[Hurley]

I have everything that it takes as far as the fence and the barn. I had 3 horses about 10 years ago. I just have never had cattle. I stayed with my uncle in Tennessee for a couple of weeks when I was a teen. He had somewhere around 100 or more cattle. We took them to auction. It was neat.

You miss the main ingrediant and that is know how.

Go slow and learn.

I might go back down Tennessee to see my aunt Joyce during calfving season, an get real taste of the cattle life. I'm sure she would appreciate it, now thats she there all by herself. It would be a great learning experience for me to. I might even find me a southern bell while I'm there.

 

[Hurley]

Hurley I spent about 30 min trying to find you a sale barn in your state. Apparently there aren't any that report. Nor could I find any through advertisment. What I did notice was there are a lot of people with horses in your area. Some Dexter and Highlands. And 1 repeat 1 hereford heifer in the classified for $600. It didn't state the age or condition. And I forgot to mark that one.
What do yo see when you drive around? I thought there would be some dairy you could maybe get a couple of calves from but couldn't even find any of those. Maybe my search skills were just in the toilet last night. Good Luck

All I see is construction of new homes on farm land. My whole county was rezoned to residential in the early eighties and few farms where grandfathered in. I am only a 35 minute from Detroit. There is a guy a couple of miles away that has 3 Hereford purebred on a small farm. There is a lot horse around here, one cow here one cow there. I head west for about 5 minutes and get to another county. Over there its like it youst to be here all corn a soybean, not much livestock. The guy at the feed store was scratching his head for a couple of minutes trying to think of one person that had beef. He could only come up with one person that had pigs and I think he was the owner. He said the land prices are to high to raise cattle in Wayne county. This state does suck when it comes to information about cattle. I guess Michigan is the 14th largest in cattle production, that information was from 1999. Where we are now who knows. MSU need to get on the ball.

I did find some auctions. One is pretty close less then 20 minutes. Who knows how big it will be. The corporation that runs things around here is UPI. I think the big one is in Marion 200 miles north. It took me 2 days of crossreferencing a whole bunch of sites to find the UPI ran things. Thanks for trying though.

http://www.uproducers.com/index.cfm

Manchester Phone: 734-428-8352 Auction: Monday-10:30 a.m