Can you make a living with Cattle

Yes u can.

 

Couple hundred mommas, or couple thousand feeders, or milk a 100 or 2 should get you started.

 

Depends how fancy you wanna live and how well you manage the place.

 

It depends on how many you wish to raise and how. Since you're not interested in milking, that leaves dairy replacements, beef for sale to customers through various ways, beef calves to other start ups or to the beef auctions. You will need to raise at least 50 to have any type of income and you will also need another job somewhere to live decent or raise at least 100 cattle if you don't have another job. I raise Angus beef cattle and still in the start up phase with 21 right now. I plan to raise 100 total with myself working another self employed job and my wife working full time as well. I have other friends who raise Angus and make a decent income but also work outside the farm. As of right now, I want to start cutting my own hay eventually, but I can buy it and still make about $200 per calf when they reach 500 lbs at the current price for feeders. If you could cut all your own hay, that would increase about $300 to profit a total of $500 per calf after expenses. Now, the difficult part is coming up with the money to start farming. The average cost is a million dollars invested to raise 100 cattle. You could also just cut hay and sell the feed without raising cows or you could go to auctions and local farmers to buy calves and send them to one of the areas higher paying auction places or advertise the feeder calves for replacements. Some farmers prefer to just sell to an individual like that so they don't take a hit at the auction houses due to the feedlot buyers not showing up for some reason. It's guaranteed money for the farmer. For instance, if the current auction houses are in the $1.70 to $2 price range per lb. for 500 lb. calves, these feeder buyers will typically pay the low end at $1.70 and sell them for $2.20 to feedlots or other area buyers. That will result in less investment to you with immediate returns. Good luck

 

Don't buy cheap unhealthy looking cows or calves. They can have diseases like BVD or Johne's that will infect your entire herd. They will die from these diseases, there's no cure for these things. Try to buy healthy calves from a closed herd from a local farmer. It might be a little more money, but if you buy good 500 lb. calves to start a breeding stock herd from a closed herd, then you will be farther ahead not dealing with diseases coming through the auction houses. Just make sure the farmer is someone you trust and hasn't brought any cows in his place in several years. Vaccinate and worm your herd. Do not buy any until you get rid of anything you have now and put the new herd in a separate area for at least a year so you can be sure not to infect the new herd with diseases the others might of had. Do not buy newborn calves and try to bottle feed them. It's very difficult to raise them that way. They take longer to grow and can get scours very easy from the formula, temperature, and feeding times must be the same everyday.

 

We just sold some black fiiiine heifers weighed at about 400lb over 1000$ each. But its crazy to buy expensive cows

 

Yes U can. U gonna Have

to Love Cattle though.

Any kinda Smooth runnin cow calf deal makes dough ( 300 cows is best....but 25 cows makes plenty of dough 2 )

your biggest expense is feed....get that down to bout $0 .....there may even be folks in your neighborhood that can save a Lot of Tax dough by owning a couple cows...and you run ( or partner ) nother 100 head on their dirt, AND they Pay U say 10 to $200 per cow per year to manicure the place with mostly Your cows.

also diversify...run some sheep and goats with your cows.

perhaps get into sourcing livestock for other folks too.
...

 

There is always overhead cost. Nothing is $0

 

BoldVenture, What I was referring to was keeping a breeding stock to raise and sell calves or buy calves at auctions and send them directly to feedlots. It's a different way to make money and personally I wouldn't buy calves at a sale barn then bring them into my own herd. Bleach will help clean disinfect your barn but there might be other things available at your farm supply store like Tractor Supply.

 

Vaccinate, test your herd for any diseases every year until your absolutely sure after 4 or 5 years of bringing in any type of livestock you don't have any diseases. Doing this, you will be sure to protect your investment and have the proof when selling calves to others that the entire herd is disease free and demand top dollar for those calves. No one wants to take a chance with a diseased cow or calf coming into a herd and you can see why. Try to find a farmer who also has a closed herd and has tested to be sure they don't have a diseased animal to set you back. If you stay on this course, you will make good money. Do not believe anyone because a single animal will cause you to lose all of them if it's a disease carrier like BVD or Johnes.