Starting a Herd...

[cypressfarms]

Do not let people on this board , have to much influnce in your decision, start with a five year plan and run with it ....

I agree with alftn about not letting people on this board make a decision for someone. However, there are some people who've posted above that really know what they are talking about.

From my small producer point of view, here's what I see with the cattle "market".


To be a successful seedstock producer it's not good enough to have great quality, you must have the connections/customer base. This isn't developed overnight. (I'm a cow/calfer), and I buy my bulls (and occasionaly a cow or two) from seedstock producers. The bulls I buy are a minimum of $2000 normally, for a 2 year old ready to breed - but this cost pales in comparison to what a "dud" bull would cost in lost revenue.. I would NOT take a chance on buying a bull from someone that I know little about when purchasing such an important part. Think about it; if the bull is a dud and doesn't breed your cows, what recourse do you have? Your basically out of a whole year of calves, and I can't afford that. I would rather buy from a established seedstocker that I know will back everything up. Nothing against new people entering the market - this is just my take.

Commercial, on the other hand is a whole different ballgame. I don't have to have "connections" to make money. If I manage my cows and bulls right, I'll be able to sell all of the calves (at the stockyard or other venue). I may not get as much, but feedlot calves are a very liquid asset. I can bring my calves to the stockyard Sunday and have a check in my hand Monday. The price may go up and down, but the feedlot calf remains a very liquid asset. You can't say that about seedstock.

In the end the decision if yours, ofcourse. There are some very experienced members on here, though, and they wouldn't just tell you something that isn't true. There have been many train wrecks on this board that the experienced members saw coming. Some were averted because of this board. Chances are if a "guru" tells you something, he/she is genuine (why else would they stay around long enough to be a guru?)

Good luck!

 

[hillbillycwo]

I like the advice of starting with commercial cows and breeding them to produce marketable calves for the feedlot/sale barn customers. I think the advice on starting there and building a registered herd from there is very sound. The registered herd can be used in conjunction with the commercial herd to improve your cows. In our area we all look over each others herds as we drive by them and many times we trade around to improve our herds. You can develop your name by breeding your registered stock and improving your commercial stock as well and then sell cross bred stock off the farm. Wouldn't that work to get you more into the ful time registered stock over time?

 

[alftn]

Yell , you are right there are some who know what they are talking about..At least for/in their location...
It is hard sometime , at least for us novice, to tell who know what on this board...

 

[3waycross]

Do not let people on this board , have to much influnce in your decision,...LIFE IS SHORT, AND FAILURE IS NOT A OPTION....

SAY WHAT?????? ..........quite the contrary. FAILURE is always an option, and very easily achieved. the trick is to not let it end your run, but to learn from your failures. Very few great innovations came from early successes. But moreso from failure and the lessons learned therein.

So, take some risks learn some lessons and do your best. If you're young enuf and don't quit you will eventually gain some knowledge that will help you succeed.

What's not an option is getting knocked down and staying there.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Yell , you are right there are some who know what they are talking about..At least for/in their location...
It is hard sometime , at least for us novice, to tell who know what on this board...

Not many of the old time posters mean anyone any harm. Someone asks for opinion and very few actually respond. Sadly, the best way to stay out of conflict is to not respond.

 

[novatech]

I want to start a registered herd. It will me small to start unless I decide at a later time to buy/lease more land. I think the place will run 25-40 cows year round.

I want something that is going to be a big deal or really on an upward curve like Balancers or Black Gelbvieh. The only breed I am not going to consider at this time, is Angus. I live in North Arkansas btw.

I would like ya'lls thoughts on breeds and if there are any other small registered herd owners.

Thanks

I thought it would be a good time to go back to the original question.
The breed you select should be first and formost something that will sell. The only way to determine that is by some type of market survey. You have to ask people in your area what they want. If you raise somthing you think or hope to sell without first determining the market you are doomed to failure.
Personely I don,t know a thing about Balancers or Gelbvieh so I cannot help you there.
As far as what the rest of the descution has led to; The regestered business is tough. If you are going to do it I would advise going to a lot of shows that have the breed of your choice. Rub shoulders with some of the people. Often times you can buy very good cattle that are less expensive because of their age. Then go the AI route. Eventually you will have enough of your own cows of your breeding to sell. You must have a controled breeding season. The reason is you want to produce enough to take to special sales for your breed. This is the best way to get anything close to what they are worth. You still will be geting a lot less than the big boys. On the other hand you will get more than commercial stock. At the end of the year I think there would not be much difference between the profit and loss. That is after maybe the first 4 or 5 years. You cannot come out raising your own heifers, but to buy high quality regestered heifers will put most of us in the poor house.
Been there, done that, still doing it, finally starting to see daylight.

 

[bigbull338]

ill jump in here an give you my thoughts a a breeder of reg beefmasters.i eat breath an sleep cows.ive done that for 40yrs.i jumped into reg beefmasters 4yrs ago this month.an it has lite a fire in my gut.i read alot about bloodlines an all that goes with it.i read sale catalogs an keep my focus on the bloodlines.an i buy the best reg cows that suit my needs.an i dont mind paying for them.now mind you there are risks.the cow could not breed back.she could get sick an die.thus youd loose money.but those things happen.1st decide on your breed.2 then find top notch breeders to buy from.3 it takes years to build your rep in the reg game.4 do not give up on your dreams.

 

[slackerzranch]

im 24 years old and jst got started with my own herd in the beef business. I'm very blessed to have baught my uncles 160 acre, 55 acres of pasture, farm for much less than its value. I bought 10 angus-x cows and i get to use a really nice reg. angus bull to breed em back. Now I want to get into the seeedstock business too, but theres a lot of guys in my area of wisconsin (one being woodhill jst 2 miles down the road.) that have purebred angus herds so the compititions stiff. So i'm thinking of taking another approach and breeding my cows for calving ease, rate of gain and feed efficiency...can it be done? does anyone have an opinion? good luck to other beggining cattleman.

 

[wtrapp]

Really, Really good discussion here. I've enjoyed reading everyone's opinion. I tried the registered business about 6 years ago. Bought 6 Black Angus heifers and bred them (natural service) to a direct son of 1680. Had great calves and the bull turned out to be really good. Went to a local registered sale and bought 4 more cow/calf pairs. Anyway after two years I put 2 cows with February calves along with 2 bred heifers in the same sale I had been going to and purchased from. You know, everybody loved me, patted me on the back and even gave adivce when my hand was in the air, but didn't know my name when I was ready to sell. I still have some of the original heifers and they raise wonderful F1 Black Baldies. They do well at the salebarn and for freezer beef. I've gone to a mixture of Hereford cows and Angus cows while running a Hereford bull. Have fun with the direction you decide to go in.

 

[Aaron]

im 24 years old and jst got started with my own herd in the beef business. I'm very blessed to have baught my uncles 160 acre, 55 acres of pasture, farm for much less than its value. I bought 10 angus-x cows and i get to use a really nice reg. angus bull to breed em back. Now I want to get into the seeedstock business too, but theres a lot of guys in my area of wisconsin (one being woodhill jst 2 miles down the road.) that have purebred angus herds so the compititions stiff. So i'm thinking of taking another approach and breeding my cows for calving ease, rate of gain and feed efficiency...can it be done? does anyone have an opinion? good luck to other beggining cattleman.

It can be done. You may have to modify your management a fair bit to help in selecting those animals that excel in certain conditions, thus identifying the key traits you want to market.

If you can't compete against the bigger purebred guys, a good fall back is to maintain a purebred cowherd and breed to another breed to market F1 open and bred heifers to the commercial market. You should find lots of commercial buyers looking for some solid, uniform F1 replacement heifers, whether by private treaty or in special bred heifer sales. This will allow you to keep your cowherd purebred, just in case some of your competition goes south and you can get into a cut of the purebred action. :cowboy:

 

[dieselbeef]

sounds like most of this depends on having a good eye for buying..and yer only 24..

 

[allenfarms]

Def. a lot of knowledge on in this thread, some negative posts as well but this site seems to offer a ton of helpful posts.