I have rented 300 acres of pasture land here in Alabama. My intentions are to start a cow- calf operation. I am wondering if anyone has any advice. I have never owned cattle before so most any advice will be helpful. The only information I have is from listening and watching local cattlemen ,reading college information on cattle farming.
I have a lot of spare time . Although I dont have to make a profit I certainly wouldnt mind making a little extra money. Thank you in advance for your time
What part of Alabama? There is a "Grazefest" in Montgomery on September 11-12th. Some of the people you should be reading will speak there including Joel Salation and Teddy Gentry.
The Sustainable Ag site at http://www.asanonline.org/2004_GrazefestAlabama.html
says "Full day of farmer and farm-industry education workshops followed by a chef-prepared dinner featuring pasture-raised foods. Speakers including Jo Robinson, Teddy Gentry, Joel Salatin, Gearld Fry, Kit Pharo, Allen R. Williams, and Bill Casey
Cost: Free, preregistration required
Registration forms can be downloaded at http://www.eatingfresh.com/
Grazefest Banquet Featuring Pasture-Raised Meats (Saturday night)
Guest Speaker: James Horne of the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Cost: $20; Children 12 and under free"
My quickest source of valuable learning has been via AcresUSA at http://www.acresusa.com/magazines/magazine.htm
Read anything by Charles Walters. Eco-Farm is great.
I also liked Bill Murphy's "Greener Pastures on your side of the Fence" for a good how-to on rotational grazing.
Also get a subscription to the Stockman Grass Farmer.
See http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.com/sgf/
I also have a friend who is breeding Dexters, if you haven't settled on your type of cow yet.
My best advice would be to wait. Cattle are at an all-time high right now and you are going to pay alot to get going. It's very easy to lose alot of money when cattle are this high.
Cowboy doc --- I hear what your are saying about waiting but If I dont rent the land now there may not be another chance to rent land this close to my location. Do you think it would be wise to rent the land,3500 per year, and wait on cattle prices to go down?
If I dont take any profit from a 50 cow operation am I going to loose money if the price goes down 20 or 30 %?
Thanks for your input I really appreciate it.
It would sound like you had best draw up an action plan detailing the economics of your situation.
Egon
If I wanted to do it I would buy feeders. If the price goes down you may not make any money but if you've got the grass to feed them you should come out even on the cattle as they will gain. If you've got good pasture that should be all they need besides mineral supplement and a little protein supplementation. Also if you decide that you don't want to do this and the cattle are too much work then you don't have cows to sell which you will lose your shirt on if prices come down.
Thats not a bad idea. I think they call them stockers. I will look into it.
If you opt for stockers vice cow-calf you want to be sure you have GOOD FENCES. Cows that are kept for years LEARN the routine. Their calves usually don't want to stray too far from the moveable feast (mom) but stockers are burgers on the hoof and don't mellow.
The other GOOD ADVICE is to find someone who knows a heck of a lot more about animal husbandry in general and cattle in particular than you do and get them to help you "handle" your stock. Reading is one thing and a demo at a dinner meeting of the local cattlemens association is nice too but until you have put stock through a squeeze chute and used a head gate, innoculated IM and sub-Q, know when to aspirate the syringe, "install" ear tags, castrate, dehorn (cauterize the spurting arterial flow) etc. your "petting zoo" is likely to get out of hand and not be fun or profitable for you nor healty for the animals.
Gone are the days of Texas Longhorns, range cattle who were hardy and smart and could fend for themselves most of the time. Most of todays breeds NEED proper intervention to "make it."
Just remember the guickest way to wind up with $20,000 dollars raising beef is to start with about $40,000. Still, if you don't mind the hard work and can keep your feet out from under theirs you could give it a whirl. I sugest that if you don't have access to a good working consultant (not the extension agent but someone who can spend a workday with you every so often) the smartest thing you might be able to do is to start smaller. Try 10 head for a year, learn something, and then decide if you want to scale up or quit. Since you say you don't have to make a profit, starting smaller should insure against the downside losses. You might be glad you had some extra time to get pastures in shape as well.
Yeah cattle prices are pretty high and lots of folks are afraid of being caught on the downswing which could really put you in the red if it was a large "correction." There are also smart folks who think prices will stay up for a couple years or so longer. You pays your money and you takes your chances.
Best of luck to you,
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
This is the thread I've been waiting for. I want to do the same thing and I want to do it right. The question I always wanted to ask the pros is if you were starting from scratch what would be the smartest first step. I have about 40 acers of good grass and about 20 of not so good. I've got good fence and would like to start a small herd. I've always heard that cow / calf pairs were the way to go but maybe stockers are a possiblity.
It all depends on how labor intensive you want to make the effort. Your maximum use of your pasture is going to be a rotational grazing system. This requires moving cattle every couple of days though. Your benefits are going to be nearly 100% as opposed to 50% pasture utilization, better growth, better weed and erosion control, and the list goes on and on. Then you need to be reseeding every few years, fertilizer, etc. All this just depends on your soil and what grass you already have. Within two miles of my property I treat each place completely different. One place is pretty much black soil and the other place is sandy clay. I grow one pasture mix on one and another mix on the other one. My grazing times are also very different.
With regard to cow/calf vs. feeder cattle to start out with I would no doubt go with feeder cattle. With feeder cattle you get them in early spring and sell in late fall. This way you don't have to worry about hay and feeding over the winter. YOu also reduce your losses due to disease. Also in the winter you are going to need more shelter, sacrifice areas to feed hay, etc. Then you have to worry about a bull. You also need to worry about getting all your cows pregnant and then you have calving in the spring. Now if you are experienced and know what's going on all of this is not an issue. But trying to learn cattle, learn breeding, learn calving, castrating, vaccinations, etc. If you buy feeder cattle you can buy preconditioned cattle and your mortality rates go down to near zero and your work also goes down to near zero unless you are rotational grazing. Do feeder cattle for a couple years and then if you can handle that ok move up to a cow/calf operation. Just realize you are going to have 10x the work and need to know 1000x the information.
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