The Best Way?

[allenfarms]

"Hot" cattle?

 

[Caustic Burno]

Hard to go wrong with Brangus, just know as a beginner you are picking out "hot" cattle. You had better not skimp on the infrastructure.

CB, you better splain infrastructure and Brangus 101.

Brangus come in two forms the fuse lit and those that don't have the fuse lit have a box of kitchen matches.
When you build a set of working pens they will be tested, they have to be Alley Oop stout.

 

[dun]

I would like to be a little different and go with like Santa Gertrudis or BeefMaster or something.

If they aren;t being raised in your area there has to be a reason.
Nothing wrong with being different but you still need to be able to market the product.
How easy would it be to market Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys?

dun

 

[backhoeboogie]

Caustic I picked up a heck of a brangus cow at Mineral Wells Auction. She didn't like my place. Wife didn't want to sell her. The second time I caught her, she went to the sale in Meridian. They had huge corrals there and I didn't think they were going to hold her.

I lost 13 bucks on tha cow, plus gas money and time. Figure someone fed that gal a beer before the original sale at MW.

 

[Beefy]

good beginner breeds are beefmaster, herefords, and if you are careful angus.

bad beginner breeds include GERTS!, brahmans, half of all brangus, charolais bulls and any kind of heifer, lol.

 

[Caustic Burno]

"Hot" cattle?

Every thing you are looking at is Brahman influenced which is not really beginner cattle. You need to get around someone with brimmer influence cattle and learn is this the road you want to take.
I love the Brimmers and if I wouldn't loose my butt at the salebarn the pasture would be full of grey humpbacks. And it was at one time. If you plan to stay in this you don't get to do everything you like.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Caustic I picked up a heck of a brangus cow at Mineral Wells Auction. She didn't like my place. Wife didn't want to sell her. The second time I caught her, she went to the sale in Meridian. They had huge corrals there and I didn't think they were going to hold her.

I lost 13 bucks on tha cow, plus gas money and time. Figure someone fed that gal a beer before the original sale at MW.

Now thats funny. I have hauled a couple of them ;-)
Think I dropped them off at Granbury or was it Meridan.

 

[allenfarms]

So you think that if one spent the money on a very well known Gert bull from one of these big time farms that I might do OK.

I want a good temperment on whatever I get I won't tolerate an onry animal. My folks run Charolais Cross, but their bulls will get in your pocket in a second if you give them half a chance.

So I guess Angus are kinda onry also.

 

[Caustic Burno]

So you think that if one spent the money on a very well known Gert bull from one of these big time farms that I might do OK.

I want a good temperment on whatever I get I won't tolerate an onry animal. My folks run Charolais Cross, but their bulls will get in your pocket in a second if you give them half a chance.

So I guess Angus are kinda onry also.

Honestly No. You are trying to play the big boy game.
It doesn't have as much to do with the bloodline as the name of the Ranch.
It takes years to build a reputation and enough money to burn a wet mule to play in this game.

 

[Beefy]

who is going to buy your gerts?

 

[backhoeboogie]

Allen you do what you want to do.

You don't know me from Adam and I don't expect you to take my word for anything. Talk to some old timers in your area that you know and trust. They'll shoot straight with you.

 

[allenfarms]

Well with all the posts on the board a lot of them have mentioned Beefmaster, another breed that I have looked at. So what are your thoughts of them. Obviosly I will need to invest in something that I can sell. And from what I understand, their temperments are good.

To answer your question Rattler, yes I am all set up since I purchased and existing turkey farm that also ran cattle. I am farm born and raised, my folks run a 1100 acre mixed breed with registered Char Bulls. That is all I have ever known.

I might be best to stick with Chars. I would love to raise Gerts or Beefmaster, but like ya'll said, gotta sell em to someone.

 

[allenfarms]

Also if a man went Hereford would it matter if polled or what.
How is there temperment?

 

[allenfarms]

Should everyone trim their cattles hooves?
Didn't know that anyone did that! But I am still learning.

Also the place is fenced and cross fenced, and I have a working pen. But my question is do I need a squeeze chute, or is theire another way, and should I brand or are the plastic ear tags sufficient.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Also if a man went Hereford would it matter if polled or what.
How is there temperment?

Temperment is fine. There are folks still looking for good pure Herefords to cross breed. There is a very long and informative thread on Herefords over in the breeds board that is relatively recent. It is a good read. There is a little debate and a lot of expertise expressed in that thread.

As far as horns go, if a steer has horns, you are going to get docked at the sale. I personally hate dehorning and haven't dehorned anything in well over 20 years.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Should everyone trim their cattles hooves?
Didn't know that anyone did that! But I am still learning.

Also the place is fenced and cross fenced, and I have a working pen. But my question is do I need a squeeze chute, or is theire another way, and should I brand or are the plastic ear tags sufficient.

I have a headgate on the end of a chute and that's it. I can pretty much do anything.

Branding, Freeze branding, Tatoo, ear notching, chipping and ear tagging are all personal choices. Some breeds have requirements. Everyone on this board is going to have a different opinion and it has been discussed several times at length. You might try searching if you are interested in it and you can get some differing viewpoints and reasoning. Some of the reasoning may fit your needs. There are also laws in different states regarding this subject, when cattle are stolen. If you have a local ag extension office in your county, they can be a big assistance. That is what they get paid to do and they will be familiar with the local sherrif etc.

 

[allenfarms]

Does anyone sell border Collies or Ausie Shepards? I am pretty sure I want to get another Border Collie, but always here great things about Ausie shepards too.

 

[john250]

seedstock?

fixed cost?

So don't think a "small operation can make money"? please explain.

Thanks!

Taxes, cost of land, handling facilities. They are the same $ for you or the guy with 50 head.
Volume is oxygen in ag. I made more money with $2 corn than I did with $4 corn and low yields. Back there when I grew corn.

20 head at 1K/calf = 20000.

You'll spend that running back and forth to TSC.

My keyboard has just gone south. Won't accept numbers.

Fifty hd at five hundred per EQUALS TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND
Get more than five hundred with weight and quality and you are further ahead. Fifty isn't really enough, but I chose to make the example a comparison of twenty v. fifty.

 

[allenfarms]

But you missed the part about my turkey farm, it pays all expenses, every last one of them is run through it I have no payments, taxes, bills, feed, whatever, It is all run through the Turkey farm, which I figured that in my position It would enable me to do ALOT better and that it would be different than a normal joe doing the same thing w/out the turkey farm's money coming in. We run through almost 200,000 birds a year. So I have all the equipment, litter truck, "LITTER" etc.
Shouldn't this make a HUGE difference. Plus the place makes 100 round bales a year. And still runs cattle all year.

 

[john250]

But you missed the part about my turkey farm, it pays all expenses, every last one of them is run through it I have no payments, taxes, bills, feed, whatever, It is all run through the Turkey farm, which I figured that in my position It would enable me to do ALOT better and that it would be different than a normal joe doing the same thing w/out the turkey farm's money coming in. We run through almost 200,000 birds a year. So I have all the equipment, litter truck, "LITTER" etc.
Shouldn't this make a HUGE difference. Plus the place makes 100 round bales a year. And still runs cattle all year.

You posed the question as "stand alone" Twenty cows. As I took it. Maybe I misunderstood. Are there alternatives for the acres your 20 hd will use? Any renters possible? You arent very likely to cover feed cost on 20 hd.. But, hey, I've never made a nickel and I'm still here.