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You can look on Craigslist for bottle calves. They usually have quite a few listings. The economics are good for raising beef cattle. The initial investment will set you back a bit, however, assuming you have plentiful pasture, with good water sources, and a working pen, you'll make back your investment in a year or so and then start making a profit.
You can look on Craigslist for bottle calves. They usually have quite a few listings. The economics are good for raising beef cattle. The initial investment will set you back a bit, however, assuming you have plentiful pasture, with good water sources, and a working pen, you'll make back your investment in a year or so and then start making a profit.
You might get back 2/3 of your investment in the first year if you have zero expenses .
So, here's one scenario...you buy a commercial first calf black heifer, 3rd stage. You pay $1250. You have good fences and a water supply. She eats pasture and calves successfully. Eight months later you sell her 650 wt. calf for 1.50/lb. = $975. Or wait until the calf is a yearling 800 wt. 1.30/lb. = $1,040. The cow is bred two to three months after she calves. She is carrying calve number two, which is born a year after the first calf. So in one year, you have bought a cow, and had two calves. The second calf is not old enough to sell yet, unless you want to sell it as a bottle calf, but there is value to it. So, you may not make back exactly your initial investment, and there will be expenses such as supplemental grain, minerals, salt, vaccinations, hay, etc. Maybe my timeline is a bit off, and depends on everything going smoothly. Anyway..that's how I was looking at it.
DH and I have always maintained the theory that the cheapest way to get in is to buy old, (bred!) gummers in the winter, feed 'em through til spring, calve them out, summer them if you can and sell the cow in the fall, retaining the heifers and selling the steers.
We ran a ranch for about 6 years where the owner had never sold an old cow.
No teeth in her head? No problem, she'll gain on all the corn left behind when we got to stalks in the winter.
Consequently, we had some cows that were old enough to take to the bar, that were still having calves! A cow can produce a long time, (though obviously it's not good herd management to let them. Younger stock makes the entire herd more efficient) But my husband made the point that those old leg-draggers that are nothing but a bag of bones, raising a calf...THOSE are the genetics we want.
My husband and I are new to the whole cattle deal. We bought land in Missouri 4 years ago, with no intention of raising beef cattle, but here we are. We started with five first calf heifers. It's been an interesting learning curve. Schedule F is your friend!
Guess there are many ways to approach the business. I do like that idea about old age genetics with buying old cows on their last calf. We've known farmers here who sell their cows when they are getting old to prevent having to face taking them to the killer buyers. They know someone else will buy them, calve them out and sell them. One can get very attached to cows you've known for years, especially with a small herd.
Dairying seems like a hard way to make a profit with government regulations, but I don't know much about how that plays out.
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