Rethinking Business Plan, Input please

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thommoos

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Letohatchee, AL
I have been raising registered cattles for several years now. I have a small heard less than 20. I have been wondering should I just give up on the registering and go stricly commercial.
Things I'm am looking at:

1. You have to have big bucks to promote your stuff, can us small guys really compete with the BIG seedstock producers?
2. Either way I figure it it works out about the same money, unless I were to get a real good price for heifers, like excess of 2k.
3. Pride factor when you sell at a breed sale for a good price.
 
thommoos":2xoatryr said:
I have been raising registered cattles for several years now. I have a small heard less than 20. I have been wondering should I just give up on the registering and go stricly commercial.
Things I'm am looking at:

1. You have to have big bucks to promote your stuff, can us small guys really compete with the BIG seedstock producers?2. Either way I figure it it works out about the same money, unless I were to get a real good price for heifers, like excess of 2k.
3. Pride factor when you sell at a breed sale for a good price.
Click to expand...
small guys cant afford to advertise like the big guys can, and if you dont aleast AI... let alone embryo work ..your better off commercial... but id operate my commercial herd as strick to registered as possible... maybe even better
:cowboy:
 
I would think it would be hard to be an independent seedstock producer with 20 head. The only way I could see it working is if an individual basicly got associated with a bigger outfit and sold through their marketed sales and just paid the fee to run your cows through their sale. The unspoken price from the bigger outfit doing this is usually you have to purchase most of your seedstock from them. In my opinion unless you got with a real top notch ranch it would not be worth it. I would think with Beefmasters or Gerts your key market would be replacement females. I think if you get a reputation even with less advertising dollars you could sell every replacement female you could produce without a problem with cattle numbers what they are now. And I agree by the time you haul your females to a sale pay to have them put in the sale and have them washed and groomed I am willing to bet you would be very close to what you could sell directly off the ranch for to someone that is looking for good replacements that they are not trying to register. Once you pay fees and fuel and pump the feed into them that you will need to compete with the big ranchers cattle and get a bid of $2500.00 from the big ranchers sale you will not be that far off from selling them for $1750 yourself.
 
ALACOWMAN":3u4icrke said:
thommoos":3u4icrke said:
I have been raising registered cattles for several years now. I have a small heard less than 20. I have been wondering should I just give up on the registering and go stricly commercial.
Things I'm am looking at:

1. You have to have big bucks to promote your stuff, can us small guys really compete with the BIG seedstock producers?2. Either way I figure it it works out about the same money, unless I were to get a real good price for heifers, like excess of 2k.
3. Pride factor when you sell at a breed sale for a good price.
Click to expand...
small guys cant afford to advertise like the big guys can, and if you dont aleast AI... let alone embryo work ..your better off commercial... but id operate my commercial herd as strick to registered as possible... maybe even better
:cowboy:
Click to expand...


Well there is some good ol' fashioned optimism! Follow the herd or you can't compete. WOW. this seems to be the prevailing opinion here lately. Beat the AI and embryo drum or failure.


Why not target a different type of market with something nobody else has?

I can hear the posse already......they are coming.....
 
AllForage":1czprkmo said:
ALACOWMAN":1czprkmo said:
thommoos":1czprkmo said:
I have been raising registered cattles for several years now. I have a small heard less than 20. I have been wondering should I just give up on the registering and go stricly commercial.
Things I'm am looking at:

1. You have to have big bucks to promote your stuff, can us small guys really compete with the BIG seedstock producers?2. Either way I figure it it works out about the same money, unless I were to get a real good price for heifers, like excess of 2k.
3. Pride factor when you sell at a breed sale for a good price.
Click to expand...
small guys cant afford to advertise like the big guys can, and if you dont aleast AI... let alone embryo work ..your better off commercial... but id operate my commercial herd as strick to registered as possible... maybe even better
:cowboy:
Click to expand...
Click to expand...


Well there is some good ol' fashioned optimism! Follow the herd or you can't compete. WOW. this seems to be the prevailing opinion here lately. Beat the AI and embryo drum or failure.


Why not target a different type of market with something nobody else has?

I can hear the posse already......they are coming.....[/quote] no posse here,, but you know where you can go :cowboy:
 
Just my thinking here, but here goes. If you are going to stay a papered herd you might want to consider this. Get only a couple of top notch brood cows and AI those to top flight bulls, use good commercial receipts. I have seen that work for some small producers.

AllForage suggested the niche market,thats possible , but the problem most of the time is you have to develop that market. That costs money
 
Takes a lot of time, money, ass kissing and following the leader to get included in the big money sales. The money is good but just don't think it's worth it anymore. I won't be doing it again. Seeing one of your cows or bulls bring a big chunk of money makes you feel good for a little while but think I had more fun and made more money being a cow jockey, sitting at the sale barn, BSing buying other people's cattle and then selling them myself. Still have a handful of registered stock with new calves but will probably just try to sell them private treaty and from now on just use a bull and sell calves.
 
Herefords.US":3rvgoxpi said:
Build a BETTER cow - and they will come! :nod: :nod: :nod:
Click to expand...


This is exactly what I meant as well. I could rattle off 4 or more niches that need filling and it does not take a ton of money to get out there. There is not one exact formula to success in the cattle industry.

But that better cow does not mean bigger and faster!
 
What have you been doing with your calves the past few years? Is it working fo you, do you have a customer base established? If the answer is no I would consider change. I don't think you have to compete with or be like the big outfits to have success in the seedstock business. You do need an established repeat customer base.
 
thommoos":1dnp7tdd said:
I wonder how a good simmi or Gelv would work crossing to Beefmasters, with retained ownership all the way to the rail?
Click to expand...

Because the carcass values would be so high?

I don't think they are paying a premium for AOC Beef!

BTW that's any other color!
 
I guess my first question would be how have you been marketing your registered cattle for the several years you have been raising them? What made you decide to start raising registered cattle? If you started the seedstock business because you watched or attended a few sales and saw registered cattle and saw some bringing big bucks and thought it would be great to do that also its sort of a pipe dream for most people who believe that. When I started raising registered cattle my goal was not to sell a $15,000 or $20,000 animal. It was to market 50 bulls a year off of my farm private treaty. It was also to market several females a year as well while maintaining and building a better genetic herd base and add younger females when I could. I have been unable to attain my bull goal but three years ago I did sell 45 bulls privately. This was mainly because I changed direction and started consulting on sales and not putting as much time in my registered herd. What was mentioned about AI and embryo was in my opinion correct for the most part. If your animals are not out of some top shelf genetics you will not be able to ask a preminum for them. I am not for sure what breed you are even raising but if you cannot market breeding age bulls from your place in the $2500 - $4000 range right now I would either recommend either consider going commercial or make a change in your breed or in your herd practices. As far as a niche market that would be good also but its hard to attain that with a "Joe" pasture bull and Ole Susie the cow. You will have to use either top or at least recognizable bloodlines to get top price. That is usually acheived through AI or Embryo work. I would suggest Embryo unless your females are very good. That way you can get good genetics on both sides of the pedigrees from the start. As far as advertising, Cattle Today offers websites that are priced reasonable, put out business cards everywhere you go, run cheaper ads in the local farmers bulletin or shoppers guide etc. The thing to remember is you WILL have higher cost to raise registered cattle. From there its just a choice you will have to decide on yourself and go with it. Just my :2cents:


Circle H Ranch
 
I too have a small herd of registered cattle. I plan on AI'ing about half of my cows each year to the best registered bulls available. I run gerts and will clean up with a solid registered horned hereford this year. I hope to get 5-6 registered gert calves a year. These will be sold private treaty, retained, or sold at local registered sale or if not very promising at the sale barn. My hereford gert steers sold well at the barn last year and I was able to sale all my hereford gert heifers off the farm. My registered cattle are what I would call solid pedigree, but not exceptional. I will be improving that year to year with AI. As inexpensive as AI is for me I enjoy working it this way.
 
Cattleman200":1fnps0xf said:
I guess my first question would be how have you been marketing your registered cattle for the several years you have been raising them? What made you decide to start raising registered cattle? If you started the seedstock business because you watched or attended a few sales and saw registered cattle and saw some bringing big bucks and thought it would be great to do that also its sort of a pipe dream for most people who believe that. When I started raising registered cattle my goal was not to sell a $15,000 or $20,000 animal. It was to market 50 bulls a year off of my farm private treaty. It was also to market several females a year as well while maintaining and building a better genetic herd base and add younger females when I could. I have been unable to attain my bull goal but three years ago I did sell 45 bulls privately. This was mainly because I changed direction and started consulting on sales and not putting as much time in my registered herd. What was mentioned about AI and embryo was in my opinion correct for the most part. If your animals are not out of some top shelf genetics you will not be able to ask a preminum for them. I am not for sure what breed you are even raising but if you cannot market breeding age bulls from your place in the $2500 - $4000 range right now I would either recommend either consider going commercial or make a change in your breed or in your herd practices. As far as a niche market that would be good also but its hard to attain that with a "Joe" pasture bull and Ole Susie the cow. You will have to use either top or at least recognizable bloodlines to get top price. That is usually acheived through AI or Embryo work. I would suggest Embryo unless your females are very good. That way you can get good genetics on both sides of the pedigrees from the start. As far as advertising, Cattle Today offers websites that are priced reasonable, put out business cards everywhere you go, run cheaper ads in the local farmers bulletin or shoppers guide etc. The thing to remember is you WILL have higher cost to raise registered cattle. From there its just a choice you will have to decide on yourself and go with it. Just my :2cents:


Circle H Ranch
Click to expand...
well i only mentioned that because, its the """reality""" of the registered business...
 
Cattleman200 wrote:I guess my first question would be how have you been marketing your registered cattle for the several years you have been raising them? What made you decide to start raising registered cattle? If you started the seedstock business because you watched or attended a few sales and saw registered cattle and saw some bringing big bucks and thought it would be great to do that also its sort of a pipe dream for most people who believe that. When I started raising registered cattle my goal was not to sell a $15,000 or $20,000 animal. It was to market 50 bulls a year off of my farm private treaty. It was also to market several females a year as well while maintaining and building a better genetic herd base and add younger females when I could. I have been unable to attain my bull goal but three years ago I did sell 45 bulls privately. This was mainly because I changed direction and started consulting on sales and not putting as much time in my registered herd. What was mentioned about AI and embryo was in my opinion correct for the most part. If your animals are not out of some top shelf genetics you will not be able to ask a preminum for them. I am not for sure what breed you are even raising but if you cannot market breeding age bulls from your place in the $2500 - $4000 range right now I would either recommend either consider going commercial or make a change in your breed or in your herd practices. As far as a niche market that would be good also but its hard to attain that with a "Joe" pasture bull and Ole Susie the cow. You will have to use either top or at least recognizable bloodlines to get top price. That is usually acheived through AI or Embryo work. I would suggest Embryo unless your females are very good. That way you can get good genetics on both sides of the pedigrees from the start. As far as advertising, Cattle Today offers websites that are priced reasonable, put out business cards everywhere you go, run cheaper ads in the local farmers bulletin or shoppers guide etc. The thing to remember is you WILL have higher cost to raise registered cattle. From there its just a choice you will have to decide on yourself and go with it. Just
Click to expand...

Well I think my herd has a real good mix on the Quote big names, I have Spartacus Grandaughters, Excite daughts and grand daughter, Captain Sugar, 6/2 synergy , 293, i have l2 breeding, Painted Tiger line bred heifer, I believe I have a good mix of a lot of good breeding. i guess my big issue is what to do from here, Do I go back and AI heavy to big name bulls.

Also what does other breeder semen sale for BM's on average with cert around a $100.00
 
I have found numerous ways to market off the farm sales Craigslist, Facebook, and cattle websites. Marketing is much easier then you think. I also see cattlemen who put one animal a year in a big breeders sale just as a way to get their name out there. Sales I am familiar with get 10% commission.
 

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