What to buy starting a herd

[Big Cheese]

Longhorn's are not quality cattle. You have longhorn on the brain my friend. My suggestion is to get a quality beef cows older in age, and stay away from heifers.

I was just saying that he could get into Longhorns cheap and he wont have to take care of them as hard. He can learn how to handle and take care of cattle and start replacing here and there with the types of cattle he wants in his herd. He will also start profiting faster so that he will be able to buy the expensive pairs. Its just a suggestion.

Come on now Highgrit don't downgrade the Longhorn breed. My Longhorns are quality cows. It just takes a little work to get them there.

 

[Utbuckaroo22]

Of course I would like a deep angus influenced herd with good genetics but how does one find that when every group of cattle for sale is advertised as " good cows, strong, healthy, great addition , ect ... Ect... without buying purebred. Everyone who's selling cattle think there herd is gold and I don't know enough cattlemen to even get any leads .. Ok Ok at this point I'm just making excuses and complaining.. In the meantime thanks for all the input and I'll keep searching for the right ones.

 

[wacocowboy]

I wouldn't start off with a herd of heifers. I would probably go bred cows and pairs to start with maybe a few heifers if you get a good deal. If you are going to buy at a sale barn go and watch and listen to the bids and learn how to guess weights before you start buying. Longhorns are a good breed for someone learning especially if you don't have someone who knows what they are doing helping you out.

 

[angus9259]

It's depending on if you want a defined calving season or calving year round. If year round, buy some 5-7 year old pairs that are bred back, for fall calving the same. For spring calving, 3rd stage cows or ones with a little calves. 5-7 year olds are little lower in price but get get quality. Those older cows are generally proven producers by this time or they wouldn;t have gotten to be that age. If you have to start with fewer do it as long as they are quality cows. Did I happen to mention to buy quality?

I started about 20 years ago and remember it like it was yesterday. I started with no background in animal husbandry or farming. If you know what you're doing, I agree with buying quality. If you don't, I don't recommend buying quality. It's amazing how many cattle and calves i accidentally killed (or failed to prevent their suicide). Nothing I'm proud of. Accidosis (I had no idea corn could kill cattle), acorn poisoning, calving problems, crooks in trees, apples, prolapses, hardware.... all things waiting to kill you're cattle. All learning curve stuff. I'm glad I didn't pay top dollar for anything while I learned what I was doing.

 

[Utbuckaroo22]

Wait!! Apples can kill cattle? I have raised a few cows for slaughter and nothing has ever crossed my mind to feed them anything but hay and a little grain so now I'm curious. I own two lowline heifers now that will calve late May. I bought them because I thought they were neat and wanted to see what they can offer. Now I got out of the military, Sold my house and made some $$ now were moving back to the family farm that my dad currently operates and I want to invest in a small herd around 25 and grow. So yes and no on experience but no cow calf as of yet.

 

[LauraleesFarm]

Angus 9259 stated my thoughts exactly. When you are starting out you wants something you can experiment with until you learn enough to handle something better. I think Longhorns and crossbreds are perfect for that without a huge capital investment per cow. You are going to make some mistakes along the way. Might as well not make those mistakes on high dollar cattle.

 

[angus9259]

Wait!! Apples can kill cattle?

They get stuck in their throat. Folks on this board help me diagnose that problem before she actually died. Ran a stiff hose down her throat and pushed it into her gut. The one that surprised me more was the one that hung herself in the crook of a tree. Somewhere on these boards I picked up the phrase "cattle are born looking for a way to die".

 

[Deepsouth]

Of course I would like a dedon't andngus inexperienced usd with good genetics but how does one find that when every group of cattle for sale is advertised as " good cows, strong, healthy, great addition , ect ... Ect... without buying purebred. Everyone who's selling cattle think there herd is gold and I don't know enough cattlemen to even get any leads .. Ok Ok at this point I'm just making excuses and complaining.. In the meantime thanks for all the input and I'll keep searching for the right ones.

The biggest problem I see you facing is that you don't know many exprienced cattlemen. I grew up on about a 50 head cattle farm and worked cows for other farms as well but was away from cows for many years. When I decided that I might want to get into the cattle business I was fortunate enough to know plenty of experienced cattlemen who were plenty willing to point me in the right direction. I spent alot of time with these guys before I pulled the trigger. I actually started out thinking that I would do a few stockers but was advised that they could take alot of doctoring and also market fluctuations were a risk also. I took the advise and decided to go commercial cow and calf. Next was deciding what kind of cows. Almost everyone recommended angus influenced crossbred cows of the best quality I could find. My one requirement was good gentle cows. I was advised not to buy from the barn. I'm not bashing the barns or the cattle that come from the barns but was told to go to the farms and watch how the cattle act as they are being handled in a similar situation in which I would be handling them. One breed I wanted to stay away from was brangus. I'd had experience with them growing up and it wasn't good. To make a long story short I ended up buying a group of cows that half of which were brangus with good dispositions. But one of my experienced buddies actually went with me twice to look at them and recommended that I buy them. My whole point is having some experienced cattlemen to advise you is invaluable.

One more thing you need to think about is your pastures. While starting with the right cows for you is important the pasture that you will be putting them on is extremely important. This is also where advice from experienced local cattlemen is invaluable. As caustic burno likes to point out a good cattle grower is a good grass grower first.

 

[dieselbeef]

be sure yer willing to chase them thru the orange groves at 8pm after the neighbor calls...

oh yeah..thats the pasture I moved em to after the tree fell on the fence and blocked the highway....sheriff let me know bout that fence.

2 days and now I got about 800 ft of fence to fix. and not all n the same spot

 

[angus9259]

be sure yer willing to chase them thru the orange groves at 8pm after the neighbor calls...

oh yeah..thats the pasture I moved em to after the tree fell on the fence and blocked the highway....sheriff let me know bout that fence.

2 days and now I got about 800 ft of fence to fix. and not all n the same spot

Indeed. When your cattle have determined there's no way left to kill themselves on your property, they'll get through the fence and kill themselves at the neighbors.

 

[Rafter S]

Of course I would like a deep angus influenced herd with good genetics but how does one find that when every group of cattle for sale is advertised as " good cows, strong, healthy, great addition , ect ... Ect... without buying purebred.

Don't assume that registered (or purebred) cattle are good just because they have papers. I've seen a lot of registered cattle that I wouldn't have on my place.

 

[Big Cheese]

Like I said earlier. If your inexperienced in cattle and since this has been brought up now your pastures may not be in the best of shape yet....Longhorns would be the way to go. They dont cost much so you can learn at a cheaper price....they eat ANYTHING so no matter how bad your pastures look or are they will eat and get fat and raise a good calf. They are also easy to take care of. I think that would be a good route for you. A lot of people will bash this idea after I post this but a lot will agree. You get Longhorns and breed them to a Charolais bull you wont miss a beat when you sell your calves. I just posted a couple of new pictures of our Charolais Longhorn cross calves on the Longhorn cross topic on the breed boards if anyone would like to look. A lot of good conversations going on on that topic if you haven't already seen it.

 

[Kell-inKY]

Accidosis (I had no idea corn could kill cattle), acorn poisoning, calving problems, crooks in trees, apples, prolapses, hardware.... all things waiting to kill you're cattle. All learning curve stuff. I'm glad I didn't pay top dollar for anything while I learned what I was doing.

Acorn poisoning?!?!? I had no idea, had to google it, they all love acorns and eat them like candy in the fall, don't know any way to keep them away from them since I have quite a few oak trees. There was a larger than normal crop this year for some reason on a few trees and they were munching like crazy.

Sometimes I come on this site and I learn a lot about how to do things, other times I come on here and get scared to death :shock:

Please don't tell me persimmons are bad too?

 

[LauraleesFarm]

Persimmons can cause bloat and horses will colic.

I had a friend growing up, she had a masters in horticulture. Their 20 acres was like a golf course. She had 2 horses, no cows. Every day she mowed a section of the pasture with the riding lawnmower. And scooped up every single manure pile to be placed on the compost pile. SUPER industrious person, she was. That pasture was beautiful.

And then the overhanging oaks from the neighboring property had a bumper crop of acorns one year. After they had lived there for 1.5 decades. And the two horses foundered, abcessed, and eventually after a grueling year plus battle with the hooves, they had to be put to sleep.

Cows can get very sick from overconsumption of acorns. Once they have a taste for them, they will go back to them time and time again.

Yet other people feed the netwrap to their cows, have all sorts of hazards, and nothing ever comes of it.

 

[angus9259]

Accidosis (I had no idea corn could kill cattle), acorn poisoning, calving problems, crooks in trees, apples, prolapses, hardware.... all things waiting to kill you're cattle. All learning curve stuff. I'm glad I didn't pay top dollar for anything while I learned what I was doing.

Acorn poisoning?!?!? I had no idea, had to google it, they all love acorns and eat them like candy in the fall, don't know any way to keep them away from them since I have quite a few oak trees. There was a larger than normal crop this year for some reason on a few trees and they were munching like crazy.

Sometimes I come on this site and I learn a lot about how to do things, other times I come on here and get scared to death :shock:

Please don't tell me persimmons are bad too?

Mine ate em like crazy too - till we had a bumper crop year - happens every 3 or 4 - and a group got terrible sick. One finally died. Had a autopsy done to confirm to make sure it wasn't something else. Now I keep the cattle off that pasture in late summer/early fall on heavy years.

 

[nobull82]

How much experience do you have? Do you have someone that can help you out when problems arise? If you have good grass and plenty and have some basic equipment already I would buy bred heifers, make sure you have plenty of time to check on them. I started out with 6 heifers with no experience so I had a million questions thank god for good neighbors!