JH_cattle_co
Active member
Hi everyone,
I work on a ranch in north central Tx. My boss has turned over 150 acres to me to do whatever I please with, free of charge as long as I take care of his cattle. It is cross fenced into 5 pastures, two of which are coastal and total about 50 acres. The other 100 acres is native grass, little blue stem and switch grass mostly. All brush has been cleared with the exception of some large hardwoods for shade.
I was planning on fertilizing the coastal and using it for hay production, I might rotate some cattle on it if the native pasture gets too short. Now, I grew up ranching in west Texas so coastal is something I know nothing about. I have been told that right about now is the best time to fertilize. Is there a standard fertilizer to use, or is a soil test a must?
I was planing on purchasing about 15 cows and a bull. Ideally I would like to run an Angus bull on brangus cows. But honestly I would be open to whatever I could pick up for a fair price, maybe even a few longhorns. What are your thoughts about what to run? I know there will be a lot of different opinions but I am curious to see what everyone thinks.
I do have the opportunity to pick up some 9-10 year old brangus cows that have been exposed to a brangus bull for $300-$400 per head. They belong to one of our neighboring ranchers in west Texas where there is a bad drought, he said he needs to get rid of them and would just a soon sale them to me cheap then haul them to the sale. I figured I would take a look at them and pick out as many decent ones as I could, haul them back to the ranch I work on, turn them out for about 60 days then preg check them and sell any that aren't bred. Thoughts on this?
One last thing, I have a budget of Ten Grand.
Sorry for the long read, any input is greatly appreciated.
I work on a ranch in north central Tx. My boss has turned over 150 acres to me to do whatever I please with, free of charge as long as I take care of his cattle. It is cross fenced into 5 pastures, two of which are coastal and total about 50 acres. The other 100 acres is native grass, little blue stem and switch grass mostly. All brush has been cleared with the exception of some large hardwoods for shade.
I was planning on fertilizing the coastal and using it for hay production, I might rotate some cattle on it if the native pasture gets too short. Now, I grew up ranching in west Texas so coastal is something I know nothing about. I have been told that right about now is the best time to fertilize. Is there a standard fertilizer to use, or is a soil test a must?
I was planing on purchasing about 15 cows and a bull. Ideally I would like to run an Angus bull on brangus cows. But honestly I would be open to whatever I could pick up for a fair price, maybe even a few longhorns. What are your thoughts about what to run? I know there will be a lot of different opinions but I am curious to see what everyone thinks.
I do have the opportunity to pick up some 9-10 year old brangus cows that have been exposed to a brangus bull for $300-$400 per head. They belong to one of our neighboring ranchers in west Texas where there is a bad drought, he said he needs to get rid of them and would just a soon sale them to me cheap then haul them to the sale. I figured I would take a look at them and pick out as many decent ones as I could, haul them back to the ranch I work on, turn them out for about 60 days then preg check them and sell any that aren't bred. Thoughts on this?
One last thing, I have a budget of Ten Grand.
Sorry for the long read, any input is greatly appreciated.