[Blaundee]

Hi! I'm so happy to have found this site! I haven't owned cattle in about 5 years, but my family had them for many years before that, mostly Santa Gertrudis. Hubby & I would love to get a herd of Naturalean Piedmontese going, & hopefully we will be doing so in the near future. I got started in sheep a year ago, am getting started in meat goats this year, and have raised dairy goats for 27 years, & showed them for many years, too. I have NO show experience with cattle, but plenty of experience working & caring for them on the ranch. I also raise & train barrel racing horses

 

[Blaundee]

BTW if you have any helpful hints on HOW to make money with cattle, I'm ALL EARS! lol

 

[RanchWife]

I went to one of those ranching for profit things, it didn't do anything for us. They basically said if you don't have land to lease it, if you don't have cows, lease them. Well I don't think that works so well, I think you have to own AT least one or the other. Making money is different in every location because the details vary so much. We own our land, own our cows. We use bulls and don't AI but we have 400 cows, we dont have a hired hand or expensive new equipment. We graze out pasture, mow our meadows to put up for hay, and do all our own fencing. Our calves are sold in one of the best markets in the nation at around 530 lbs. We've never had a problem making a profit enough to support two families. But all this will mean nothing to you as our situations are different. Find the oldest and most successful ranch in your area, go there, and ask them what it takes to succeed. I kinda feel it's not how much you MAKE, it's how much you SPEND.

 

[Angie]

Hi everyone. Welcome to the forum. Nice to see others that have actual experience with cattle to help the new people along.

 

[jchandler]

Those Piedmontese are great looking cattle. Good luck!

 

[DoubleR]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you've joined us!

 

[sohanlal]

Am sohan frm India I want to work and study in USA dairy farm . Plz reply with u suggestion or else to [email protected]

 

[ejack]

Missouri boy here just wondering what everyone thinks is the best bulk feed out there rght now?

 

[Fairfarmhand]

Listen to ranch wife. You may, like many other farming families, need an off farm job for awhile, while you're getting things established. If you haven't inherited land or a bunch of cows, it will take time and big money to get started.

Start small. Would you rather make a mistake on 10 head of cattle or 100? I know you've had cattle experience, but we've found that working with registered animals has a few...quirks that you have to work through.

Pay cash for equipment as much as you can, and don't count on making farm profit for at least a few years if you are starting from scratch. This means that you don't take out notes on farm equipment counting on the farm to pay them off in the early days of your farm.

We don't show cattle either, but in the current market you really don't have to.

I know you;ve expressed interest in a registered herd; you may want to consider running 2 herds, one commercial, one registered. That's what we do. The commercial cows actually make more money in beef sales. Eventually, we hope to make money on our cows' pedigrees but that's off in the future,

 

[rene]

Missouri boy here just wondering what everyone thinks is the best bulk feed out there rght now?

Well I've been able to "secure" year round feed with a farm that plants and harvests grain like corn, oats and I think wheat. The oats r a lil high in my opinion, but it's really good roughage for calves I found gets them eating good. And a ton of corn is running 175. But it took me 2 years to figure this. I use a ton a month on 14 steers and 5 heifers. I add cottonseed meal also.

 

[ejack]

Yea I'm running 440 head of older cattle and have 60 replacement heifers I'm tryn to put some weight on to get artificially insimanated thanks for the input

 

[rene]

Yea I'm running 440 head of older cattle and have 60 replacement heifers I'm tryn to put some weight on to get artificially insimanated thanks for the input

one factor ive noticed with mine... A stable routine. If u feed at 4pm ... Try to do it at the same time everyday.

 

[steerboy]

Cow/calf operations make ok money depending on how many head u have.

 

[rene]

At these prices at the sale? YEA!

 

[Markwright]

Feed and water is what it takes in NM. so get a lease rounded up on the cost effective side.

Bought a real nice set of angus cows P 3's n P 2's in NM last week.
were $1650 per average. I figure the 1st set of calves off em will almost pay for the mom.

where you located. I find a lot of cows and land in NM and AZ.

that AZ high country is Good.