US Herd Size Trends

[Lucky]

USDA Reports Smaller Cow-Calf Operations Still Outnumber Large

cow-calf operations are relatively small and have fewer than 50 cows though a few very large operations (with more than 1,000 cows) can be found. On cow-calf farms, calves are birthed, raised, and weaned on site.

www.nationalbeefwire.com

 

[Lucky]

We get a daily email that has cattle sale data and articles like the one above posted. If anyone is interested it's National Beef Wire....[email protected]

 

[Brute 23]

 

[BFE]

View attachment 33961

Uh yeah. Try buying land today and paying for it with cattle. Heck the cows won't hardly pay for themselves half the time.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Uh yeah. Try buying land today and paying for it with cattle. Heck the cows won't hardly pay for themselves half the time.

We are about to fart around and find out!

Won't be this year tho

 

[tex452]

My grandparents bought a farm lived off of it and paid for it, if land is given to you it would be hard to make it.
I've always had a full time job plus other ventures going on.

 

[Dave]

Uh yeah. Try buying land today and paying for it with cattle. Heck the cows won't hardly pay for themselves half the time.

If the cattle won't pay for themselves you need to take a serious look at the how much you are paying for them and their expenses.

if land is given to you it would be hard to make it.

Once again you might need to take a serious look at what you are spending money on and how you are marketing your cattle.

But then once again I am not surprised at the negativity on this board.

 

[Rmc]

But then once again I am not surprised at the negativity on this board.

Numbers don't lie. If you aren't making money you aren't making money .
Some choose to deal with reality, and some live in fantasy land with fantasy numbers . In many parts of the u.s. it isn't financially possible to but land and run cattle on it and make a profit. Those are the cold hard facts .

 

[Brute 23]

Numbers don't lie. If you aren't making money you aren't making money .
Some choose to deal with reality, and some live in fantasy land with fantasy numbers . In many parts of the u.s. it isn't financially possible to but land and run cattle on it and make a profit. Those are the cold hard facts .

No body ever makes as much as Dave... and they never will. We should all strive to be half the cattleman he is.

 

[tex452]

If the cattle won't pay for themselves you need to take a serious look at the how much you are paying for them and their expenses.


Once again you might need to take a serious look at what you are spending money on and how you are marketing your cattle.

But then once again I am not surprised at the negativity on this board.

We are making money, but not enough to live and buy a ranch, I don't live beyond my means and own 3 ranches I paid for by saving and living responsible and making decent decisions.
One of the most important things I learned from my grandparents is if you don't need it don't buy it.

 

[coachg]

Son and I have slowly been backing our way into this . Can't say we have made money but have paid the bills and bought new equipment. When I say new I mean new to us . We do our own hay , built a hay barn , added a brand new cab tractor to the one we do most of the hay with . Just bought a 16 ft batwing bush hog . Added a 20 ft cattle trailer last year . This could be the year to actually make money . 70+ calves on the ground . My tax lady told me to get in the cattle business so I could show losses and purchases of equipment. Never understood her line of thinking but she always tells me I did good .

 

[Brute 23]

Son and I have slowly been backing our way into this . Can't say we have made money but have paid the bills and bought new equipment. When I say new I mean new to us . We do our own hay , built a hay barn , added a brand new cab tractor to the one we do most of the hay with . Just bought a 16 ft batwing bush hog . Added a 20 ft cattle trailer last year . This could be the year to actually make money . 70+ calves on the ground . My tax lady told me to get in the cattle business so I could show losses and purchases of equipment. Never understood her line of thinking but she always tells me I did good .

You need a new tax lady.

 

[Texas G@l]

The property on our north side sold for $2.1 million last year. It's 165 acres with house, pool, barn ,etc. There's some nice pasture around the house but lots of gullies and wash outs. There's no way you can run enough cows on that place to pay that mortgage.

 

[Lucky]

There's money in cattle.....you have to feed them.

 

[bird dog]

Of course you can't make money on cattle alone you silly fools but if you consider the tax exemptions they give you, its pretty simple to make a decent return on the land they run on. The 175 acre tract I bought 12 years ago for $1750 per acre is now worth at least $7000 per acre. I have put about $40,000 in improvements on the place. Probably be worth 10 grand a acre if I would spend the $50,000 more to get electricity to it. Pretty good return on my investment I would say. I have yet to see a year when land prices went down.

 

[Dave]

I just came home from a meeting at the community hall. There was 30 + people there. The majority make their entire living off cattle. The few who don't are either relatives or employees of the ranches. There are some generation ranches and some who are the first generation. About a even split in that regard. I remember when when I was in college 54 years ago people were saying there is no way you can make it in ranching anymore. Amazingly those who made the decision to try it anyway actually made it. Not saying that it is easy. And purchasing land was most likely one of the last thing they did.

 

[BFE]

No way to do it but purchase or rent here. No free ground to run them on.

I said they won't pay their way half the time, that includes time it takes to make it happen. If you only figure dollars you'll be ok here.

 

[shaz]

Of course you can't make money on cattle alone you silly fools but if you consider the tax exemptions they give you, its pretty simple to make a decent return on the land they run on. The 175 acre tract I bought 12 years ago for $1750 per acre is now worth at least $7000 per acre. I have put about $40,000 in improvements on the place. Probably be worth 10 grand a acre if I would spend the $50,000 more to get electricity to it. Pretty good return on my investment I would say. I have yet to see a year when land prices went down.

Probably more perks than you mentioned. Some of mine are 3 freezers full of beef, wood for heat, cash from hunting lease, tax exemptions ect...

Haven't seen a football game in years, never off on the weekends, got really good calluses for an engineer, can handle heat and cold really well...

 

[dave_shelby]

Reasons why I find it hard to make money: time working a primary day job, sickness and injuries (last year has been tough), buying equipment I want but don't need, buying poor doing cows, selling through the local sale barn.

I agree with Dave on negativity here at CT. Now Dave is apparently blessed with good neighbors and role models who are making it. There are some making money here but its primarily as secondary operation to day jobs, row crops or the chicken houses. Its a tax game. I hear talk about those west Virginia boys "they have good cows because they have to live off of them". Suspect that's close to Dave's area.

 

[Dave]

Just one of the points. Selling through the local sale barn. One of my young neighbors sells on the video. They charge 2% less commission than the local sale barns. Also selling that way the buyer pays for the trucking. I calculated that out and it came to $11,520. That is just one point where a person can make more money. It doesn't take into account that selling on the video will most likely bring in more money than the local sale barn because you are selling to a much larger group of buyers from a broader area.