mind235":1rh7p0i7 said:
I like him. I want to make a small point here let me get my flame retarded suit on firts!!
These boards I would estimate that for every person who has been doing this for years and full of answers there are 500 guys/gals that are running 10-25 head in their 50 acres. Seems like sometimes the qustions are answered for someone who runs 500 head and are on some program and has all the support they need.
I won't breed junk but nor will I be paying 5 grand for a bull either, So point I guess I am trying to make is the majority of the people ask for help are just looking for some advice that works for them. I wish and am sure there are many more of us would love to have 500 head and everything. Heck I don't even have a sqeeze shoot nor a lot of thiings I need since toook what was left to use on an old farm. My pastures are marginal, the hay is marginal, equipment is also marginable but the effort to rotate pastures each week and making sure they are getting hay supliments. Our herd of 25 are doing just fine we breed them to the best Black angus within 50 miles each year.
I took 11 feeders and what was going to be my herd sire to a sale yesterday. The stupid bull didn't care about the electric fence when there was a field of alfalfa next to it. I could not believe the crap that came through the sale. I know the owner and she told me our feeders brought the highest prices , I was late getting there and missed most of mine. Note the prices were terrible and today I called two others I know and they said prices fell right out at their sales as well.
So try to keep in mind that when some of us ask for advice we are looking for a general overall opinion not picking at any little thing I think most are asking "will it be ok to put this bull on my gals".
Do appreciate the advice eveyone gives just sometimes I get more confused when someone answers a question than before.
I have read Storey's guide to raising beef cattle good book for those of you like me with a small herd.
mind235-
I would like to respond to your post, and you don't need your flame retardent suit either!
I understand COMPLETELY your position in this wonderful business called "Beef Cattle Breeding." It is comprised of people from every walk of business, from the extremely wealthy to the young (or older) who do not have a pot or a window! Because this Beef Business is so complex and diversified, it takes a l-o-o-o-n-g time in getting to the physical and financial point of being able to START to do what your heart and soul really WANTS to do. It requires educating yourself in the pursuit and art (and it IS an art!), having enough money, or access to money, to function until you are established, the will and drive to press on during the tough times, and the EXPERTISE to determine what will be a successful protocol for your particular unique circumstances.
One way of looking at this situation is to realize that the gestation of a cow is about 9 1/2 months, give or take, and that you can't really determine with any degree of certainty what the potentiality of her calf
might be for another five to seven months. All during this time, she/they require care, housing, feed, Veterinarian attention (probably), and pasture space to subsist and, hopefully, be a posssibility for a profit for you. BUT - no guarantees! Hogs, sheep, rabbits and rats all require much less of EVERYTHING mentioned above - especially
TIME! Time is one of the prime factors which is not forgiving, nor changeable in the Beef Business.
With rabbits, you can have several litters per year, and very quickly determine if your breeding program is working to your satisfaction. You don't have that luxury with beef cattle! ....and because education and knowledge is IMPERATIVE for the success of your enterprise, most of us on the Board are in accord with your problems, and THAT is why we do (or try to do)
EVERYTHING that we can to give hou a SMORGASBORD of information from which you can pick, and choose, and select, and clutch to your bosom - OR discard because it won't work for your operation. That has to be YOUR decision, but at least WE have laid out the table and offered it to you for your perusal! To answer YOUR question, "...will it be okay to put this bull on my gals?" - - WE really hesitate to say, "Heck yes - dive right in and go for it!!" That particular bull might work in 98% of the cases, but he just might be a disaster in YOUR particular case, with your particular cows, and we don't want to be responsible for YOUR failure. YOU have to make that decision. All that anyone else can do is to point out the reasons, both large and also picky, that we observe.
Don't worry about getting confused. I am attempting to understand this #$*%# new Vista Computer I have had for a month or so, and my son, (who has been a Computer Programmer-Manager for 40 years!) looks at me with eyes that say "Dad - what the heck is the matter you?? I thought that you knew EVERYTHING!" Well, of course, I DO know everything, but - - - ->
Anyway, mind235, hang in there, and try to understand OUR point of view. It takes some effort on your part (AND a LOT of effort) to really get comfortable with learning about this wonderful BEEF BUSINESS. Large herd or small herd, the principles are the same.
But it is better than Hogs, Rabbits and Rats - and I have been there and done that, too!
DOC HARRIS
