Thank you all for the post so far... I'm just getting into it to make a little pocket change here and there, its by no means for a source of income I would depend on. That makes things A LOT EASIER!! My grandfather was the biggest cattle man in the county for a long time, he knew his stuff, but I was too young to learn it all from him before he passed away. He was the ol timer that everyone ran to to ask questions. He ran a spotter bull to let him know when cows were in heat, then AI-ed the cows all the time. I'm not looking to run a pure breed fancy top notch show cattle like he did though. I'm thinking more along the lines of just getting 600-1000 lbs calve crop then selling em... I know bred heifers take a lot more watching em than I can do just yet, I don;t want to be having to pull calves, that why the more experienced cow thats already had a few calves is more appealing.
What I have in mind is starting out with a hand full of weened calves, and slowing getting a handfull of cow and calf pairs, or bred cow and calf pairs... Where am lined to to get calves dropping for the next year or so while I save up for a good bull. grow out the calves I got for cheaper, then sell em... take that money and buy a few more bred cow calf pairs or such... That way I always have a bred cow lined out, and always have a few calves to feed out to sale... Then once I have a hand full of cows and a bull, well they can just keep the cycle going... I figure the best way to make the quickest dollar to put back into cattle is growing out calves and selling em...
I like angus cattle, but some brahmen in em would help with weight, that gives me brangus cows... black brangus cows on a hereford bull would give me the black calf with a white face for the most part I would think, and the auction barn says thats what they want to see.
I keep my eyes open driving out to my ranch and around this area and most people tend to have black cows and a brangus bull, I dont know if they are just doing brangus cows and brangus bulls, or if they are angus cows and a brangus bull. Either way that kind of mix seems to be the most popular around here, then you always have some small places that all their cows are different colors and they look like crap... I tend to like to be a little more uniform with things.
I figure a bull aint necessarily a big hurry as its cheaper to AI cattle most of the time if they need bred.
My biggest problem I see is cuttin balls on bull calves. I know how to do it with a knife, but it aint something I can do by myself... This is the only thing that really makes me hesitant. BUT a bull calf here and bull calf there, I'll kill hit and cut it up for meat in the freezer... problem is when I get more than one bull calf at a time! Haha!