Starting over

[GreyGus]

Retired at 64 and my wife says let's move to the country, grandkids will love it.
Now Five years later, my son and grandkids have moved to California, and I'm a new farmer pushing 70 years old!

We have 40 acres in central Va. 20 acres of pasture, 4 acres house, yard, pond and the rest is wooded with lots of standing dead trees ,thanks to the beech blight, that I am slowly cleaning up to make more pasture.

When we bought the place, it had no stock, and hadn't for some time. Pastures overgrown and fencing in bad shape. Spent the first two years mowing, clearing brush and fixing fence and had an automatic waterer put in the pasture that had no access to the pond. Bought two bred angus heifers and a yearling heifer in 2021. First two calves born spring of 22. Currently have nine head on the place. (3) bred cows, (3) three bred heifers and (3) calves going to sale next week. According to the local USDA guys I can maintain (7) cows if I get the pastures in good shape and implement rotation grazing. My ,hopefully, (6) calves will come April/may.

So now you know the back story. I know I won't get rich on 40 acres, but I don't want to lose my a$$ either. My issue is economy of scale. I have been lucky with calving and no sick cows. But even with such a small herd I still need to spend on improvements. Right now I am looking at buying a squeeze chute for tagging, vaccinating, etc. My vet said don't buy a tarter, too light and not safe. But $6000 for a quality chute makes no sense for a (7) cow herd. Any advice from those with experience with small operations.

 

[wbvs58]

Welcome, sounds like you did well with those first couple of heifers calving. Heifers are not what is usually recommended for people starting up but it is not saying that they won't work either. Sometimes it is worth biting the bullet and spending the money on a good chute at the beginning of a venture like this, they will often seem cheap 10 years down the track when you have had good safe use out of it. It is not necessary but nice to get one that squeezes them though. Remember you are not getting any younger and at our age (I'm 72) safety with handling them is important.

Ken

 

[Little Joe]

I find used Prieferts for around $2000-$3000, might look at used ones.

 

[sstterry]

Check the local auctions around you. Used Prieferts come up often.

 

[tex452]

Welcome.
Good cattle handling equipment is worth it, like some already said buy used if you can.
I'm older now too and I can't bump around with cows like I use to.
If my grandpa could see my working pens today, he would say dammit boy.

 

[coachg]

What Little Joe said . I bought my Priefert new for about $4000 a few years back. Best money I have spent ! Look on Craigslist and Facebook marketplace for used ones . I advise to get the whole system not just a head catch gate .

 

[Brute 23]

You might consider just hauling the cows in to the vet for work or seeing if there are day workers in the area with a portable chute.

I love our squeeze chute but there are a lot of people with cattle that have never owned one. There are ways around it.

 

[GreyGus]

I find used Prieferts for around $2000-$3000, might look at used ones.

I was looking at Prieferts at my local Co-op last week. They list two models, the SO-1 and the SO-4, but only the S0-1 was in stock. Even looking at Prieferts website I am having trouble seeing what features justify the higher price on the SO-4.

If anyone familiar with these could give me some advice, I would appreciate it.

I was reading a thread on here titled "a train wreck waiting to happen" , the premise, before it turned into a debate about coffee vrs tea, was a new producer wouldn't take advice because he already knew it all. I am not that guy. I had a pretty successful career in business, but not agricultural business. Not afraid to admit what I don't know, which is a lot. Despite growing up in rural Indiana, my farming background consisted of working for others, mostly working in tobacco and hay fields. I left home at 17. I have always enjoyed the outdoors, but that meant hiking, camping, and horses.

I have tried to be pragmatic, spending time on the fences and fields before getting any livestock. I touch bases with the local USDA office but their emphasis seems to be bigger operations and their suggestions tend to be unrealistic for small producers. The District Soil and water guy has been very helpful. Also met a third generation farmer with a cow calf operation, very old school, but he has been very helpful.

My business background tells me that I need to work toward building a niche market that can be profitable on a small farm.

Sorry to be so wordy, but I know there is a lot of knowledge here, and I thought it would be helpful to explain some of my background and goals.

 

[Brute 23]

Here are videos for each. Looks like the difference is the heagate, tailgate, and size. We run an SO4 and I don't have any complaints.

If you search on here on just your web browser you will find some discussions about the difference between the two.

 

[cowman82]

Sometimes your local co-op or extension office will have a portable chute to rent... or you could also ask a neighbor that has one if you can borrow it. My neighbor let me come get his priefert with my tractor and i'd take it to my place and run them, clean it up, and bring it back.

or like brute said, just load them up and take them someone.. .. neighbor, vet, etc. with 7 cows i'd say that'd be the best thing.

 

[sstterry]

I love our squeeze chute but there are a lot of people with cattle that have never owned one. There are ways around it.

Brute just puts his arms around them and holds them still. Just notice his name.

 

[Hogfarmer10]

I'd just buy the head gate, post mount it, and set up an alley. For less than 10 cows, that'd be the most cost effective option and you'd still have a way to restrain an animal on your farm.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I used a headgate mounted to some 6x6 posts with a couple of heavy duty gates mounted on each side for many years on lots of cows.

 

[gman4691]

A guy told me the main reward in keeping cows is just in keeping cows…lol…Just keep a close eye on the cattle and pastures and keep infrastructure projects narrowly targeted…one step at a time.

 

[StrojanHerefords]

I bought a priefert head gate and palpation cage along with some panels that works pretty well and panels generally have good resale value. It is all light enough that a person or two could set up and tear down.

 

[Stonewall Joe]

Retired at 64 and my wife says let's move to the country, grandkids will love it.
Now Five years later, my son and grandkids have moved to California, and I'm a new farmer pushing 70 years old!

We have 40 acres in central Va. 20 acres of pasture, 4 acres house, yard, pond and the rest is wooded with lots of standing dead trees ,thanks to the beech blight, that I am slowly cleaning up to make more pasture.

When we bought the place, it had no stock, and hadn't for some time. Pastures overgrown and fencing in bad shape. Spent the first two years mowing, clearing brush and fixing fence and had an automatic waterer put in the pasture that had no access to the pond. Bought two bred angus heifers and a yearling heifer in 2021. First two calves born spring of 22. Currently have nine head on the place. (3) bred cows, (3) three bred heifers and (3) calves going to sale next week. According to the local USDA guys I can maintain (7) cows if I get the pastures in good shape and implement rotation grazing. My ,hopefully, (6) calves will come April/may.

So now you know the back story. I know I won't get rich on 40 acres, but I don't want to lose my a$$ either. My issue is economy of scale. I have been lucky with calving and no sick cows. But even with such a small herd I still need to spend on improvements. Right now I am looking at buying a squeeze chute for tagging, vaccinating, etc. My vet said don't buy a tarter, too light and not safe. But $6000 for a quality chute makes no sense for a (7) cow herd. Any advice from those with experience with small operations.

find someone with a used higher quality chute that wants to sell it. I bought a super nice WW with palpation chute and most of the bells and whistles for 2800.00. I already had a used chute and all it needed was a few boards replaced but this one was a bargain and is just as good as most of the new high dollar ones. If you weren't so far away I'd give you a deal on my old one which still works fine and needs a small amount of TLC.

 

[farmerjan]

We have a head gate in the barn .... all compliments of the farmer we bought the farm from. Mounted to the one weight bearing barn upright and another post sunk in the ground next to it... No squeeze.. The 30 ft long alley leading up to it is built along the wall that separates the main barn feeding area... has a small catch pen at the back that the cows go into, and then funneled into the alley and up to the chute. We work all the cows through for preg checks... and all the calves through for whatever they need... we are running over 125 cows in the cow calf operation and feed out 50-100 head at a time after weaning for 2-4 months.
Any decent used head catch and an alley/chute leading into it will be more than sufficient for a small operation like that... being able to restrain them by the head for treatments is the biggest thing. If your animals are fairly quiet from you working in and around them, and with a smaller number they should be.... having a way to just catch and work them is nice. Does not need to be so fancy or expensive.
We used to haul cows to the vet when we had a smaller 20- 25 cow operation, and there are a couple guys around here that have this whole catch pen, chute etc that is on wheels and folds up like an accordion... that they take to pastures where there are no facilities, and do "custom catching" . We have catch pen panels that we set up at pastures to get the cows in to catch and bring home. Our cows are pretty much "trained" to come to call with a bucket of feed and some nice hay put out in the catch pen.... and there used to be a vet that had a portable head catch/squeeze chute that he pulled behind his truck that he used on smaller places.... the farmer set up a short alleyway and the cows went in the head catch at the end that the vet had set up.
Some sort of restraint is nice/necessary if an animal needs some doctoring etc... for a small operation, spending a fortune on "infastructure" is often a waste of money when a basic set up will do the job.

 

[GreyGus]

I want to thank everyone who took the time to reply and offer advice, I truly appreciate it.
I am going to be checking Craig's list for a used Priefert SO-4. If that doesn't work out will probably just get a new head gate to mount at the end of the alleyway ( that I have not built yet)

 

[farmerjan]

Stick around and join in on things....

 

[uplandnut]

Welcome to the boards. There is a lot of great information here.