Adam Freeman
Well-known member
Greetings. Just wanted to let everyone know how things are going with our new Ranch. My name is Adam Freeman and with my wife Ashley and our 3 girls and 1 boy we are getting into this new adventure full bore. A little Background. I am a soon to be retired 20 year vet from the Army. After these last 20 years I wanted to get back to my roots and become a farmer/rancher. We looked into it and with the help from my family we applied for the FSA's New Farmer Loan program. There was a ton of paperwork and we had a lot of great help from our local FSA agent Kevin. He answered all of our questions told us when we were dreaming to big and helped us to get started with something that would work and wouldn't break us financially. We ended up applying for and getting approved for funding to purchase 160 acres of land in north central Kansas near my hometown of Bennington. We were able to buy the land for 1575 an acre which was pretty much in line with the market. The FSA was also able to help us get started with an operation loan to go out and purchase our cows and bull as well as erect a Barn/ machine shed, bring power out to it and purchase a tractor. We couldn't have done any of this without the help of Kevin or our real estate agent Chris who is also a farmer.
So far we have spent the last month checking and making minor repairs to the fence as well as tearing out some old catch pens. We have been out cutting hedge post and getting ready to build fence around our eventual homesite as well as update and enlarge the remaining set of pens in order to be able to work our cattle efficiently. We ended up buying Our registered Angus bull from Gairdner Angus Ranch. We went to the local sale barn in Salina and we were able to purchase 11 cow calf pairs as well as 12 more heavy bred heifers and one older heavy bread cow. As a gift I also received a heifer from my mothers farm to help get us started. So in the end we ended up with 25 head plus 11 calves with 13 on the way and a bull.
We have the electricity being brought in by the power company this week as well as the dirt work getting started for the barn. Cows are all purchased and happy with their new home. Only thing left to do is get a decent tractor and finish out calving the remainder of our heifers. One spot of bad news so far has been the loss of one heifer that we found this morning. We are going to try and investigate what happened but there is no telling what it might be. The kids were sad about it but they all understand how life works.
If anyone has any pointers or is from the area and would like to discuss cattle or anything else I am always open to learning and helping out. I am trying to attach a few pictures from our adventures as the kids call it. Hope you all enjoy and have a blessed day.
So far we have spent the last month checking and making minor repairs to the fence as well as tearing out some old catch pens. We have been out cutting hedge post and getting ready to build fence around our eventual homesite as well as update and enlarge the remaining set of pens in order to be able to work our cattle efficiently. We ended up buying Our registered Angus bull from Gairdner Angus Ranch. We went to the local sale barn in Salina and we were able to purchase 11 cow calf pairs as well as 12 more heavy bred heifers and one older heavy bread cow. As a gift I also received a heifer from my mothers farm to help get us started. So in the end we ended up with 25 head plus 11 calves with 13 on the way and a bull.
We have the electricity being brought in by the power company this week as well as the dirt work getting started for the barn. Cows are all purchased and happy with their new home. Only thing left to do is get a decent tractor and finish out calving the remainder of our heifers. One spot of bad news so far has been the loss of one heifer that we found this morning. We are going to try and investigate what happened but there is no telling what it might be. The kids were sad about it but they all understand how life works.
If anyone has any pointers or is from the area and would like to discuss cattle or anything else I am always open to learning and helping out. I am trying to attach a few pictures from our adventures as the kids call it. Hope you all enjoy and have a blessed day.