upfrombottom
Well-known member
All that beer drankin and head bangin gets some people riled up :drink: :devil2: :compute:
Starting out
- Thread starter Sierra
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cypressfarms
Well-known member
Sierra":v964r5vs said:
When I was a kid I used to look at my dad's cattle magazines and dream about having my own cattle operation. For some reason I thought red brangus were the most beautiful animals around and wanted nothing more than to have hundreds of them grazing and making me rich. Well that was just a dream, and I still have not yet owned one red brangus.
I'm guessing your a younger person, which is great, but your at a very important stage. I'm also assuming that your not very experienced yet with cattle, again no problem. If I were to give advice to someone I really cared about, I'd tell them to just make hay on the land for a year or so - don't be in a hurry to be a cattleman. Find you a good mentor that you can learn from, save up money from the sale of hay and study how you should begin. You only get to start once. Investing your money in things that rust (I stole that one from Caustic) will inevitably cost you. Go to your local auctions so much that you can guess the weight of calves as they come through. Meet people at the auctions, learn which calves bring the most money and why. Talk to as many real cattlemen in your area as possible. They will know much better what's best for your situation than a bunch of computer cowboys. No offense to anyone on the CT board, but your the only one that knows all of your details. Costs vary. Raising cattle in the north means you'll need more hay. Raising cattle in the south means you'll likely have more "eared" cattle. Attend cattlemen classes at your closest university, and Texas has some good ones. There are many, many things you can do to educate yourself; I'd work on that before buying the first cow. Even the best of cattlemen are struggling to make a decent profit as cattle prices remain low. This isn't something that a person can just get "lucky" with. It takes a lot of well thought out planning and hard work.
Ofcourse, I'm just as full of BS as the next guy, so take my advice with a grain of salt. Oh yeah, and good luck!
Bez+
Well-known member
upfrombottom":3emuh6r1 said:
Hope you are not one of them - if you are - suggest you take valium and relax
Bez+
Sierra":2jjl8amx said:
Yes, you are out to lunch with this idea. In order to be able to sell registered animals off the farm you need to have an established, rock solid reputation - the kind of reputation that makes people call you to buy your cows! That will not happen until you've been in the business for a while, built up your reputation, and established a name for yourself. A registered herd with no reputation is going to incur costs that you are not in a position to pay with a commercial herd - especially since cattle prices are down in a lot of areas. I would go with a commercial herd, get my management program up to snuff, manage, manage, manage, get my name out there in any way I could, and then - once I had achieved that - start expanding into the registered aspect of the business.
I don't understand how you can justify spending thousands of dollars on interior and exterior fencing, hay barns, and fancy working pens when you are just getting started. If you are talking about making money, you will be lucky to not go under in the time period when the cattle are trying to pay themselves off... much less if they are trying to pay off thousands of dollars in fences and such.
In my opinion, until your cattle are paid for all you should be concerned with this:
-keeping the cattle alive
-getting the calf off the mother to the auction barn. That takes a circle with a chute and 3 gates max
-keeping the cattle on the property (alot of patching can be done for the price of a new fence)
In my opinion, until your cattle are paid for all you should be concerned with this:
-keeping the cattle alive
-getting the calf off the mother to the auction barn. That takes a circle with a chute and 3 gates max
-keeping the cattle on the property (alot of patching can be done for the price of a new fence)
1982vett
Well-known member
You just made it. ;-) Now on to the second. :lol:Sierra":za0pllsp said:
Sierra":344rgat6 said:
Listen to Cypress he gave you sound, reasonable advice. Don't get in a hurry. Learn, learn, learn.
and by all means when yer hangin around the sale barn try to find yourself a mentor, preferably NOT someone who stands to make a profit off your ignorance.
