I am coming from a totally different mindset here. Having an 8 year old myself (and a 11 and 16 year old), and each kid had their own cattle, I would say start him with a beef heifer. He will get attached, and not want to sell. Why not let him build a great bond, and foster the love for raising cattle? We bought our 8 year old son a 6 month old heifer, and halter broke her. He absolutely loves her, and showed her last year as a yearling (never won, but did not care since he raised her and loved her regardless). She calved this fall, and he has worked with that calf now. We steered the calf, and he will be sold to a church family we know to raise for beef. My son is OK with that. Since his heifer is just average, we both decided to put an embryo in her for her calf this fall. My son got to pick which embryo he wanted (out of the collection we have), and he is excited because his cow (Jackie) has been sexed as having a heifer embryo calf in October. Since you have such a small place to start with, you are limited on your animals to keep, so why not just start with a beef heifer and build from there.
In our household, the kids know that all bulls/steers belong to the ranch and the money earned from selling pays for the feed, taxes and grass. All heifers the kids get to keep, breed and sell or show or whatever they want to do. My oldest daughter has built up quite a fund in her account already. She now owns 9 cows ON HER OWN that she bought with her own money or raised from her cows. My middle daughter owns 5 heifers/cow on her own also. My son just has the one so far. They have all learned great money management skills because of this lesson, and we started each of them before they were 9.
