Good afternoon!
We are looking into starting a small operation where we feed out backgrounded steers to market weight. We currently have 50 acres and run a small cow calf operation and have gotten it where it has balanced the last couple of years(what we have netted on the cows have covered the land payment)
We don't want to buy more land at this time and have not had any luck finding lease land to expand our current cow calf operation. We have a set of pens on the land that would hold about 50 head to feed out. My worry is that it wouldn't even be worth the effort/time with only 50 head. The goal would be to let it grow slowly. My husband and I both currently work and do this on the side and are able to put all profits back into our tiny ranch so we would hope to be able to buy more and expand our pens as the years pass by.
So in short do you think we should move forward with the 50 head and expand later or get a loan and add on to the pens and buy more from the start? If you think we should buy more how many would you suggest? I want to mitigate some of the risk with the lower numbers since this will be our first time to try a feedlot type operation.
Any input is greatly appreciated! Y'all have a good day
We are looking into starting a small operation where we feed out backgrounded steers to market weight. We currently have 50 acres and run a small cow calf operation and have gotten it where it has balanced the last couple of years(what we have netted on the cows have covered the land payment)
We don't want to buy more land at this time and have not had any luck finding lease land to expand our current cow calf operation. We have a set of pens on the land that would hold about 50 head to feed out. My worry is that it wouldn't even be worth the effort/time with only 50 head. The goal would be to let it grow slowly. My husband and I both currently work and do this on the side and are able to put all profits back into our tiny ranch so we would hope to be able to buy more and expand our pens as the years pass by.
So in short do you think we should move forward with the 50 head and expand later or get a loan and add on to the pens and buy more from the start? If you think we should buy more how many would you suggest? I want to mitigate some of the risk with the lower numbers since this will be our first time to try a feedlot type operation.
Any input is greatly appreciated! Y'all have a good day