WAAAY New and need some advice

[Hipy]

Hi! We have just moved to 35 acres and currently have 4 horses. We would love to get some cattle, to remain ag exempt, and make some money. A good friend of mine has offered to sell us some heavily bred Brangus to begin with. He suggested letting them calve, then selling the cows, and keeping the babies until they are bigger. What is the time frame for weaning? Is this the best way to make $ ? The grass here is gorgeous coastal with 3 stock tanks. We are total horse people and I am so glad I found this forum! Thanks.

 

[G&L Cattle]

Welcome to the board!

G&L

 

[jerry27150]

what is the age of those brangus cows? if they are old & only good for one more babe, then yeah you could buy them, get a calf & then sell cow & calf at weaning ( normally around 6-8 months). or you could keep heifers, if you want for replacments. if cows are not to old you could either keep for another year or sell as bred cows if you have them bred back

 

[jerry27150]

welcome

 

[Farmhand]

Welcome. I'm a little worried about your reasons for wanting cattle. Raising something just to be ag exempt is no reason to have animals. Money isn't exactly the totally right answer either. Been raising cattle all my life and I'm STILL waiting for the money. If you are looking for a get rich quick scheme - cattle ain't it. You can make a living but rich ain't gonna happen. I'm worried about the kind of care these animals are going to get when you realize some of the work, troubles, and heartache that the rest of us have seen. I'm not sure your heart is in it if you are using ag exemptions and money as reasons to have cattle.

If you go ahead with this plan - How many head are we talkin'. What do you plan to do with the calves if you keep them and sell the cows? Worse case scenerio - these cows all have bull calves. You would have nothing left to have more calves later on. Then you have to buy more cows or lose that ag exemption your wanting. I would keep the cows and sell the calves. Keep breeding these cows to have calves every year. Keep replacement heifers out of these cows and if things go right, you won't be spending a lot of time looking for new cows.

I would suggest you do some more research before jumping into this. Let us know what you come up with.

 

[Texan]

A good friend of mine has offered to sell us some heavily bred Brangus to begin with.

My advice to you is that you try to find another source for cattle. Maybe with advice from your "good friend." If you are just starting out with cattle, you will need that "good friend" to help you out. Probably many, many times. You will need to always be sure that you are getting fair, accurate and impartial advice. I wouldn't jeopardize that right off the bat by trying to do business with him. My costly experiences say that you keep friends and business associates separate. A "good friend" is never worth risking over a business dispute.

He suggested letting them calve, then selling the cows, and keeping the babies until they are bigger.

Hmmm. Sounds strange to me. I don't understand why he would suggest that unless they were short term, brokenmouth cows. Even then, I would want a cow that could raise her own calf. When cows get their calves raised, or close to it, is the time to start thinking about whether to carry the calves over or to sell them at weaning.

What is the time frame for weaning?

Depends. On condition of cows, calves, grass, markets, etc. Anywhere from 90 days to eight months could be acceptable, with 205 days being considered the "standard" by some people.

Is this the best way to make $ ?

Sorry, but there is no "best way" to make money with cattle. Everyone has to find a niche that works for them. What works for me, might not work for you. Normally, when you buy cattle right, let them harvest their own feed and raise their own calves, you have a much better chance of seeing profit. I emphasized the buying right because that is where many losers or winners are decided. You could not have picked a worse time to get in as far as risk is concerned. My opinion.

Welcome to the Boards and good luck!

 

[Caustic Burno]

Hard to beat Texan's advice, but you have already eaten up 15 acres of good cow feed with usless horses. I totally agree on purchasing cows for an ag exemption is the totally wrong Best stick to your horses

 

[la4angus]

Hard to beat Texan's advice, but you have already eaten up 15 acres of good cow feed with usless horses. I totally agree on purchasing cows for an ag exemption is the totally wrong Best stick to your horses

I have to agree with Texans advice and also Caustics. The horses should be kept seperate from the cattle, so at 12 to 15 acres for the horses you would have about 15 to 18 acres for the cattle. If you are living on this property you probaly have 2 to 5 acres for house, driveway, dooryard and barnyard. Hard to make any money worth talking about on the few cows that you could run on this amt of pasture.

 

[Craig-TX]

Don't have anything to add. You have already received excellent advice.

Craig-TX

 

[Elsie]

Don't have anything to add. You have already received excellent advice.

Craig-TX

Wow, you fellows are brutal ;-)

:roll: I don't even want to tell you what I am doing on 6 acres with my few feeders. I will assure you I am not in it for a tax write off.

Am making tons of errors. Dehorned in fly season last year! Bought a steer, banded with one testicle up. He developed a bad attitude. Had to watch him every minute but he sure is tender and tasty eaten.

This is a great place to find help! I've learned lots drifting from subject to subject.

Elsie

 

[Craig-TX]

He developed a bad attitude. Had to watch him every minute but he sure is tender and tasty eaten.

Sounds like you might be a fast learner and a slow forgetter.

Craig-TX

 

[Alan]

Hipy,

First off, welcome to the board! Lots can be learned here if you learn how to sift through it and take the good advice and leave some of the opinions behind. Lots of good knowledgable people here.

My advice to you is that you try to find another source for cattle. Maybe with advice from your "good friend." If you are just starting out with cattle, you will need that "good friend" to help you out. Probably many, many times. You will need to always be sure that you are getting fair, accurate and impartial advice. I wouldn't jeopardize that right off the bat by trying to do business with him. My costly experiences say that you keep friends and business associates separate. A "good friend" is never worth risking over a business dispute.

AMEN! Fasted way to lose a friend is to do business with them, they can always sell their cows at the sale barn... find other cattle.

Is this the best way to make $ ?

Not much money to be made with few head of cattle ... as a hobby rancher no real net profit... just a few dollars per head. You have to do it because you like it. We have a few head of cattle on a 70 acre parcel. But we also have 6 horses on our place, they don't take up much room. We keep them in stalls and they each have a 150' by 400' turn out area, plus a 60'x120' indoor arena, plus an acre fenced pasture, just for the horses. All on less then 5 acres... you have plenty of room for horses and cattle. We use about 60 acres for cattle and trail riding.

You have the benifit of owning your own piece of the earth, to do with it what you want (to a point ). The key is to enjoy it, cause God isn't making any more.

My opinion,
Alan

 

[Caustic Burno]

As usually you giving advice that won't help the man at all.

He said he is in Red Rock Texas by the end of July he will be scratchin his head and butt and wondering where his grass went. We are having one of the wettest years on record everone has grass this year. That country needs a minimum of 2 1/2 acres per cow. Lets see horse consumes 3 times the feed a cow does, unless you are feeding out of a sack. If thats the case might as well buy a boat so he can have two bottomless pits to throw away money on.

 

[Alan]

Lets see horse consumes 3 times the feed a cow does, unless you are feeding out of a sack. If thats the case might as well buy a boat so he can have two bottomless pits to throw away money on.

So you don't like horses or boats.

I didn't say you could make money with cattle or horses, I said you have honor of owning your own piece, so enjoy it and don't count of making money. But if you feed your horses hay year around and "out of a sack", (as we do) you have plenty of room for horses and cattle.

Alan

 

[Hipy]

WHEW! Okay. I have 6 dogs all in various stages of life, two on medication. I RESCUE horses all over Texas and am quite aware of how much time, money, and veterinary care that animals cost. My 4 current horses are not just holes I feed and care for, I use them for riding and showing, I actually LOVE them and they are part of my family. We rescue approx. 1 horse a month, rehab it, if neccesary, and place it in a good home. My good "friend" is just that, and is not making anything off of providing me a source to purchase some cows, we're talking two to start off with. I cannot remain AG exempt with riding horses, and hate goats. I am lease/purchasing my property and part of the agreement is that we provide cattle or the owners will lease the land to someone else's cows. HMMM nope don't want that. I am not looking into neccesarily making money, my wife and I do quite well. I am an avid outdoorsman and cattle is something I've dreamed of learning about and owning for a long time. Now I have the place, BTW I am perfectly aware of drought and have.....YES a good friend in the hay business......oh the same one that I shouldn't do business with, been doing hay business with him for years. I understand people's concern, but I just have some basic questions.
I guess I'll do some more research, and when I have something more specific, I'll post.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Well Hipy have you considered longhorns since this just a tax break operation.

 

[Medic24]

Or, you could try something totally different.........and get the tax folks all worked up.

Try keeping and selling horses for slaughter, I am told one of the few horse packing houses is , (or was) in Taxas , errrr. I mean Texas.

Now for all you horsie lovers out there,, please don't go getting all riled up, and standing straight up in your saddles, rattling your spurs and all. I am not talking about slaughtering young, riding horses here, but just as we do our cattle the older, less useful horses. I am refering to the ones that have seen better days, if ya know what I mean. Aint no need to watch a horse die of old age, only to go through the expence of digging a hole some where, when it can be used to feed our loving cats and dogs, or the french peoples for that matter.

I actually had some pretty good horsemeat dishes whilst in europe some time ago, although beef is by far a better choice.

Keep in mind that horsie is a prime meal in many countries, just as cats and dogs are. It would give me great pleasure knowing that we are shipping our rejected horsemeat to france, the same stuff we put into our pet food, and keeping our lovely beef for ourselves, and our real friends.

Just a thought. :cboy:

 

[Caustic Burno]

Or, you could try something totally different.........and get the tax folks all worked up.

Try keeping and selling horses for slaughter, I am told one of the few horse packing houses is , (or was) in Taxas , errrr. I mean Texas.

Now for all you horsie lovers out there,, please don't go getting all riled up, and standing straight up in your saddles, rattling your spurs and all. I am not talking about slaughtering young, riding horses here, but just as we do our cattle the older, less useful horses. I am refering to the ones that have seen better days, if ya know what I mean. Aint no need to watch a horse die of old age, only to go through the expence of digging a hole some where, when it can be used to feed our loving cats and dogs, or the french peoples for that matter.

I actually had some pretty good horsemeat dishes whilst in europe some time ago, although beef is by far a better choice.

Keep in mind that horsie is a prime meal in many countries, just as cats and dogs are. It would give me great pleasure knowing that we are shipping our rejected horsemeat to france, the same stuff we put into our pet food, and keeping our lovely beef for ourselves, and our real friends.

Just a thought. :cboy:

Now thats funny I would love to see the look on the appraiser, might even be able to make a buck .

 

[Hipy]

YES! Longhorns were what I origianlly wanted. I was looking into getting a 3 in 1 package and going from there. I have heard that they are easy keepers and require less food than meat cows. I ultimately would like a tiny breeding operation, with 1 bull and maybe 2-3 cows.

 

[Caustic Burno]

YES! Longhorns were what I origianlly wanted. I was looking into getting a 3 in 1 package and going from there. I have heard that they are easy keepers and require less food than meat cows. I ultimately would like a tiny breeding operation, with 1 bull and maybe 2-3 cows.

Don't buy a bull run an extra cow and AI or haul the cows to a breeder and pay the stud fee.