What to do with land ?

[Stepper]

I would like to get some opinion's from some of you more experienced cattlemen and any opinion is welcome to.

I have a chance to lease 180 acres of good pasture. A good friend of mine had it leased and recently died. He took real good care of this peace of property. He owned about 300 acres and had several lease's like the one i am describing. But since his death some of these leases are coming open.

This 180 acre's has new fence mostly. It is not crossfenced but does have holding pens, head shoot etc...., other word's set up good to work cattle in. It has 3 good pond's on it. He keep the place well fertlized and sprayed. It has lots of red top clover, bermuda, fescue grass on it. All roads into it are well maintained. In a good location. Would not have to worry to much about theif's.

The only thing about it is it seems kind of high on the lease. $20 a acre and will probably be a little higher than that when it is leased out again.

I have been wondering what would be the best way to make money off of it would be. And how many cattle that much land could support ? And how much it would cost to keep it up. Spraying, fertlizing, brush hogging and fence repairs, stuff like that etc....,

I was figureing if a person was to try to run cattle on it they had better figure about 4 acres per head to graze and cut hay off of it. But i thought also a person might be better off cutting it for hay and using it to raise heifer's on in the winter and then put a couple of bulls on them the following summer. Turn arround and sell them in their 3rd trimester. By doing that it looks like if everything worked out. You could count on about a 25 % profit over the cost and exspenes of the whole operation. If a person was to run the maximum number of heifer's that he had hay to feed to them.

I might have my figures wrong but i was kind of thinking you could cut enough hay to safely feed 90 head of heifer's through the winter and then turn arround and graze that 180 through the next summer. And sell them off in the fall when the pasture is gone.

So let her rip and tell me what you think. Is this virtually impossiable, wont work, will work or what ?

 

[denoginnizer]

20 dollars an acre is pretty standard around my area. I pay 25 for some with great fences, water, grass and facilities. Pay 10 per acre for some with mostly briars , cedar thickets and a suggestion of a fence.
I would say go for renting the property. Good property is scarce these days. There are many ways to make a profit on a good tract.

 

[curtis]

I wish it was close to me , i would rent it.
I paid $1000.00 rent for 80 acres an had to rebuild all the fence an cut an spray all the thorns.

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

Rent it and put some good Murray Greys on it! ;-) :cboy:

 

[Stepper]

SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE,

I am going to have to look at a murray grey. As much as you have talked about them. They must be pretty good cattle. I had never herd of a murray grey until i found this forum. But now that is not saying much because i am not real familiar with all of the different breeds of cattle.

How far North of little rock do you live Springer ? Is the 67 hwy that runs through little rock to bald knob ?

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE,

I am going to have to look at a murray grey. As much as you have talked about them. They must be pretty good cattle. I had never herd of a murray grey until i found this forum. But now that is not saying much because i am not real familiar with all of the different breeds of cattle.

How far North of little rock do you live Springer ? Is the 67 hwy that runs through little rock to bald knob ?

Check your pm

 

[Anonymous]

Rent it and put some good Murray Greys on it! ;-) :cboy:

Hey...you seem to be very proud of your cattle...maybe you should start giving out sample steers ...you know how at the foodmarket there are people giving out samples...so people can try and see if they like the product...well...I think everyone on this whole board needs a free sample Murray Grey ...just a thought... ;-)

Have a good day

 

[DoubleK]

Hello Stepper

I would think that you should do wonderfully on this lease. There are a lot of factors that I'm sure you already know about but here are a few that comes to mind.

Proximity, how close is it to your daily operation?

Do you have the capital, or already have cows to utilize the new lease? Sounds like you should be set for pasture (assuming you get some rain). In Missouri, I have been told about 3 acres per animal. Using these figures, you should be able to run 50 cows pretty easily and still have some room to cut hay. To be safe, you need to figure 1 large round bale of hay per month per cow and I usually start feeding hay mid November and stop early April.

I think your heifer idea is a good one and if the market holds you should be fine. Your looking at $600 minimum for just weaned heifer right now and I'm guessing it will take you about 16 months to get them in the green tag. What does the market bare in your area for 3rd stage first calf heifers? I would estimate them to be around $1150 to $1200 but, thats just an estimate.

Bottom line, the lease is a bargain, jump on it and then decide which way you want to go.

Good luck stepper and let us know what you decided.


Dub

 

[Stepper]

Double K

Thank you very much for your reply. The market here has been averaging between $1000 to $1200 on a 2 year old heifer in her 3rd trimester. The lease would be very convinent for me. And I know alot of farmer's in the area who i fill very confident that i could count on it i needed their help or advice.

I have just started tring to get into the cattle business a couple years ago. I started off with 350 to 400 lb calves a couple years ago and sold the first bunch to try and make a little money off of their weight gain. I lost money tring that route. But i learned a little about cattle and putting up hay.

So i backed up and am tring this first time heifer idea since the market here seems to have a high demand for them at the present time. I have been easing into this (tring to learn a little to see if i think i can handle it first) before tieing up to much money. At the present time i have 1 registered black angus bull ( 17 month old ) and 9 mixed breed black heifer's(they look to be of angus breed themself's) I just put my bull with them a week ago. When i bought them in October their average weight was 550 lbs. When i put the bull with them a week ago. Their average weight was a little over 800 lbs. They look pretty good to me. I would guess their BCS to be a high 7. My bull i hope will make a good heifer bull. His EPD number is a + .4 but he has low accuracy numbers.

I will have to make a decesion as to weather or not if i want to take the lease some time next Spring. So i am tring to weigh all of my option's before i take the plunge. I am going to weigh allot of my decession on how much trouble i have calving out these 9 heifer's next Spring. It it turn's out that my bull works good on heifer's ( them not throwing to big of calves because of him.) I may try to lease this property and buy 30 maybe 40 young heifers' not this fall but the next.

 

[RedAngus121]

20 bucks an acre Good pasture up here with good fences brings 50+ This is with no Pens just grass. Some just was Leased for 50$ a Cuple weeks ago.

 

[Stepper]

RedAngus121,

I have noticed since i have been coming to this forum. That things here are a little cheaper compared to other states. But the average wage here for most of the work force is not but about $10 an hour and that might be figuring on the high side a buck or so.

I guess i am just use to things costing less. Although gas is about $ 2.80 a gal here. The more i think about this lease the more i like it. I dont jump into things real quick and this would be a good 2 year project before ever seeing a payday out of it. But i think i could pull it off. As long as i did not have to many unexpected thing's happen. (loss of heifer's due desease or something) It would be a gamble.

 

[Stepper]

Would it be pushing it to run a 3 year old bull on 45 head of heifers ?

 

[cypressfarms]

SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE,

I am going to have to look at a murray grey. As much as you have talked about them. They must be pretty good cattle. I had never herd of a murray grey until i found this forum. But now that is not saying much because i am not real familiar with all of the different breeds of cattle.

How far North of little rock do you live Springer ? Is the 67 hwy that runs through little rock to bald knob ?

Check your pm

Uh Oh, watch out, the perpetual promoter is at it again. :lol:

Stepper, whatever breed you like, I think that the price you found there is a good one. I wish I could lock into something like that for 10 or 15 years.

 

[cypressfarms]

Would it be pushing it to run a 3 year old bull on 45 head of heifers ?

Tricky question.

If the bull is experienced, and all the heifers don't cycle at the same time, I would say the bull could do it. If, however, your going to control the breeding season (like 45 days for example), he may have problems. You didn't say what type of bull. A M. gray bull would have no problems with that, and give you calving ease to boot. ;-)

 

[moocow]

excuse my ignorance, but I've never leased land before, always owned it. When folks say $20-$50 an acre, for what length of time are we talking about?

 

[DoubleK]

excuse my ignorance, but I've never leased land before, always owned it. When folks say $20-$50 an acre, for what length of time are we talking about?

Hello Moocow

You know, your right, he didn't mention it but I assume he is talking about $20 per acre and that is for a one years lease.

Thats the way most leases work. I have seen some where they charge you by the head on how many you will be running but, thats not the norm.


Dub

 

[moocow]

Thanks, guess that's what I was thinking. Seems that a restriction on max head per acre might not be a bad idea if I was concerned about the condition of the pasture, but I'm not into the leasing thing.

 

[arkcowman]

How long will they let you lease it for at that price ?

 

[Stepper]

I mentioned to the owner i would like to get a 5 year lease on it. And he said we could probably do that. We have not sit down and discussed the details of the lease yet. So that is something i have not thought about. He would probably have some type of restriction's as to how many head he would want to run on it. And how many time's a year he would want it brush hogged, fertlizer, sprayed etc....,

The owner is 92 year's old now and his wife is close to that. They said they had 100 head when they quit farming. I am sure with that many head they had other land beside the 180 acres to both cut hay and graze that many head. And i am just assuming that was a 100 head of moma cow's.

A friend of mine daughter is in the hospital right now and i am just checking his cow's for him to help out for a while. And he has 2 bull's 45 moma cow's. And you know it is a pretty good chore just to check and make sure they are all there and that they are all ok. When you start tring to get a head count on them they start walking off or get mixed together. Make's them hard to count. Not to mention all of the calves. It would be a full time job just checking on a 100 to 200 head of moma cow's.

 

[Stepper]

cypressfarms,

I am sorry i forgot to mention the breed of bull i was asking about. It is a black angus bull that i was wondering if it could service 40 to 45 head of heifer's. If i do this he would be about 3 years old at the time. I was just going to leave him with them. Ideally i would like for them to all be bred in a 60 no more than 90 day time frame. I thought that i would probably need a second bull for that many heifer's to get them all bred with in that time frame.