MAKING MONEY WITH CATTLE : How to build a profitable herd
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ธ.ค. 2016
- Making money with cattle is about sharing advice to help people starting to raise cattle. I share ways to build a more profitable herd. This video is about the how to make money on small farms. How to buy cattle to save you the most money. How to build a herd into a profitable long term money maker. How to make more money with your calves. How to save money buying calves in the first place.
A lot goes into making money with cattle. Raising quality stock is only one part of the equation making money with your cattle. This video will give you ideas on how to make money buying and selling cattle
Answering some questions about how to make money with cattle. Making money with cattle and calves is pretty simple if you watch your costs starting out. How to market cattle allowing you to increase profit margins. This is all about how to build a profitable herd. Really a basic how to make money with cattle. Cattle is a great foundation to be making money on your homestead or farm.
Once you master the ways to market cattle off the farm or at auction. You'll turn your place into a money making operation because a profitable herd can be the backbone of your plan to start making money on a homestead.
This video will give you the tips on how to make more money at auction and save money when buying calves.
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Its raining cats and dogs here,its been a wet spring,the grass is knee high and a lush green colour.
Keeping warm watching your videos and im learning so much,changing bulls over (didnt even click on that at first haha) all the different options for herd set up.
Your knowledge and the gift of the internet is saving me a whole heap of problems down the road.
I work full time as a mechanic and on weekends im on the property doing all i can with the tools and resources i have.
Bought my first set of fencing pliers and fencing strainers today and have ordered new posts and wire for repairs.
Your vids give insight and motivation.
Thanks from Australia
Thanks James, May sound strange, but I always enjoyed running fences. Something peaceful about it. ~ Rich
Thanks! :) It's good to hear tips on how to actually make money from farming. My neighbor behind me has a beef operation on about 400 acres and I get to see the cycle firsthand...I swear he does little to keep it going - the cows are pretty much all year on grass. I see his foreman inspect fence once a year; the cattle are gathered about twice a year & mamas released. They calf down by my fence and spring. I enjoy the landscape much more with them dotting it over the hills & listening to them all the time. Since we don't get too much heavy snow any more they are pretty self sufficient without hay even though I don't believe he practices pasture rotation...they pretty much move wherever they want. About the only problems are coyotes and he keeps a small herd of donkeys for that (I think they are sweet but over 400 acres not that effective). I'd love to have a small herd of our own someday.
Enjoyed it...i always learned something new when i watch these older videos.
Your right Rich about the USDA. They, like most agencies, use what are termed "trailing indicators". That's a lot like trying to drive cross country by only looking in your rear view mirrors. Anyone in any kind of business (making money) needs to use 'leading indicators" to see where the market is heading. A perfect example is the current weather situation. Areas under significant drought have farmers culling because their land will no longer support their products and are culling. This means that next year, if the weather turns, many of them will be looking to re-establish their products ... supply and demand. If you've managed your land and stock correctly you'll be in a position pull in a better than usual profit. Just one year can make a huge difference especially if next year is better suited to maintaining crops and pasture.
David your 100% correct. If your to make money you have to know and understand the driving force behind the current markets. I know folks that can't tell you the going pricing of the market until the pick up the check after the sale. If a person wants to make money on a homestead, they have to run it as a business. Thanks for your comment, it was a good one. God bless my friend. ~ Rich
Great advise! I wish you were my neighbor. Lol All the best to you. Your a good man.
Thanks for this. Very informative, God bless you.
Thanks for the advice
Good video - I'm in Texas, I bought some cheap longhorn and corriente cows that were bred. Kept the heifers and sold the bulls. Bought a one year old registered charalois bull that was a cull. Put him on the cows. They made amazing calves. So far it's a money making combination.
Sounds like you have it on track. Right now we are in a pretty normal market, so if your making money in this market your doing it right. Good luck, and may God bless. ~ Rich
J.B. Crouse what is a cheap price for bred cows?
Excellent advise. Thanks. Hope folks will listen. Jon
Thanks ~ Rich
Agree
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Thank you! Glad it was helpful! ~ Rich
hey thanks a bunch makes a lot of sense
loved the video! 1st one I've seen of yours. just subscribed!
Thank you and glad you have joined us. :-)
Thanks for the wisdom
Thank you for info
Thank you, this is so helpful!
We’re just starting out and need as much help as we can get
Don't be shy about asking questions. ~ Rich
Thanks so much for this video. Great info!
Thanks Jane, I'm glad you found it helpful. God bless. ~ Rich
Looking to get into cattle farming. Appreciate the information.
I agree with you on not listening to USDA
voice of experience -- really interesting --- thank you !
Thank you. ~ Rich
Hi Rich.. thank you so much for putting together this information.. i found it very helpful! My father passed away a couple years ago and left my brother and I with a 300 acre farm in West Tennessee.. looking to retire from the corporate jungle and raise cattle.. and build my own homestead. We have about 180 acres of tillable soil that has been leased out to grow soybeans and corn for 20 years. The soil was not cared for, so I've got my work cut out for me to build some good pasture.
Do you have any advice about how to get started?
Thanks Rich, retired Army vet trying to start a small farm.
Good time to be starting out. With China lifting the ban on US beef we should see demand for cattle starting an upward swing. Good luck with your startup. ~ Rich
Thank you sir for the great knowledge and information. I've been wanting to get in to the cattle market for a few years just really had no knowledge of how to start and to continue to make a prophet. But now I know thanks again!
Glad you found it useful. ~ Rich
Thank you for that talk.
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. ~ Rich
i know this is an old video but anywhoo,,thank ya fer the video,,,jist subbed
Thank you Russ. ~ Rich
Best information Iv herd on u tube so far on cattle
Thanks Dylan Thurman I'm really glad you enjoyed it. ~ Rich
Informative video thanks
Thank you. I'm glad you found it useful.
Thank you Sir. Very valuable info which will help me start my herd and cattle trading. We have common pastures and camps, nomads, less cost.
You are most welcome. That sounds a bit like America was a couple of hundred years ago. Good luck and I wish you well.
Great video - thanks for the information. I'm about to start buying weened steers, grazing and finishing them myself. Just want meat for my family and hopefully a little profit. Not to mention the tax write-offs for all the equipment I was going to buy anyway.
Sound like you have a plan. Now is a really good time to insure meat in the freezer. ~ Rich
thank u for the advice
I glad you found it useful. :-) Rich
Excellent advice Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it. :-)
Thank you so much for sharing . God bless you . Amen
Thanks for watching! Hope you have a wonderful weekend. God bless you and yours. ~ Rich
Great video. What about waiting and selling the calves as yearlings? Does the cost of feed, loss of pasture space, herd management, etc., outweigh the additional profit?
From a cost-volume-profit analysis standpoint it seems that one would need a large number of cattle just to reach a break even point. Besides a fixed cost commitment, the intangible qualitative characteristics of the animal seems to be an extremely variable component. This is what intimidates me from venturing into cattle farming. I appreciate your sincere and insightful suggestions in the video. Thanks
It's all dependent on how much land you have available. You want enough to utilize every acre you have to graze them on. You aren't going to make any money trying to feed cattle on grain and/or feed bags like you could with poultry. Grass fed is cheaper and better for the cow and your land.
Smart man
great video I am looking forward to getting my first calves soon maybe next year we just got 2 goats to try out our skills with livestock before we make the investment in calves thanks for the great wealth of info!!
Best advice I can give is to go slow and build your skill set, one type of animal at a time. Know your production costs and keep good records. These two thing will help make your homestead successful. God bless you folks efforts. ~ Rich
sunny patch farm agree
You touched on this a little in the video but, would this scenario work with dairy - beef. Buying a Holstein(s) and raising them cow calf pairs and selling the weak and breading the strong?
Hi! So I have some farm land and I was wondering if you think we could make money by buying 3 or 4 calves fatting them over the summer and selling in the fall. We have the hay the fenced land and could make a water supply. We just don't know much about cows.
I see people advertising bulls for rent. You can rent a bull for a month or two so that you breed your cows exactly when you want to breed them, and then all the calves are born at about the same time. Renting also prevents having to own a bull that has to be traded or sold every year or two. It might also be a good idea to find a neighbor who owns a bull and work out an arrangement to allow the bull to visit your cows. Of course you want a bull that is a good beef breed. Another important thing is to have good pasture and a climate that will not require much feeding in the winter. If you live in a place where it is warm most of the year and there is good rain or irrigation, your costs will be much lower than if you live in the desert or a place where the winter lasts half the year. I was reading how Texas Longhorn cattle are very easy to care for. Use Texas Longhorn cows and rent or borrow a bull like a Hereford or an Angus and you will get great beef cattle that grow fast and are very hardy.
Can you use Dairy cattle( like holsteins and Jerseys) in a cow calf operation?
Awesome knowledge, can u have more than 1 bull?
thank you so much I've got young females who get bread very young when should I split them up from the mail I've had one lose a calf already she lived but the calf died
My rule of thumb was always that I had a pretty good chunk of land that just won’t farm due to terrain, rocks etc... so why not keep cattle on it, and let them forage on cover crops on the cash crop land.
I spent quite a bit on genetics, but I built the herd over time. It worked great, both demand and supply grew at the same rate.
Tom, it's a simple fact that each place is different. You nailed it with taking what you have and build the genetics of your herd for your land. Once you have got it right, it feels really good to step back and say " I got this". Sure sounds like you got it right. ~ Rich
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Cost of calves...you covered the cost of calves based on selling a weaned calf but what about building a herd off of those $2500 cows? I'm in a situation where I'm going to be handling cattle for the benefits to my crop land soil health. I don't need to make profit from my cattle enterprise for a while, I want to build a herd out of some top quality $2500 Red Poll heifers. Wouldn't that cost per calf significantly drop over a five year period of building my herd with my own heifers? The steers I will sell and some I will finish and I may get into doing a few breeder bulls by the third year. I have about 450 acres of pasture and roughly 700 acres of crop land that will be in seasonal cover crops. It seems like producing my own breeder stock (with new bulls for clean genetics) would spread that cost out a great deal and make that $2500 breeder cow worth her weight in gold, rather than 10 calves you'd be talking more like 50 as the production rate and cost would scale exponentially. Or is this the wrong headed approach? Thanks, really enjoy the videos...they're an invaluable resource to me.
Ideally yes. But at the same time you can find the herd of high quality cows that some one else has built. And just piggyback off there hard work by buy-in there quality calves. At a much cheaper rate then there breeding stock. Just buy the best calfs from the person with the already established breeding herd.
Looking into starting a beef cattle operation and raising them from calf to the end. Very new to farming and and willing to build up. So I got a couple questions.
1. Is the only time when I will be without income from my herd when I am initially starting??
2. Also when you say follow the market to get the best price, what exactly do you mean?? Are you saying to hold sending them in a given year until you can get the price you want or are you saying that if it takes over a year after they have reached there sell weight??
3. If you mean to hold and sell within the year they reached there weight. I guess sometimes you will have to take a lesser amount depending on where the market is correct??
Thanks!!
Me too
MrPhotomedic you will also be with low income but have a bigger herd if you keep back your best heifers every year
You are right about Mcdonald's. Another Pawpaw story.
I was telling him how I had gotten a job on my birthday. As soon as the law allowed me to work. I babysat up until then. He said...Where? I told him McDonald's. He said oh honey! Just don't eat there. They buy the oldest and sickest cows of anyone. He said some of them couldn't even walk or stand up and were visibly near death. Needless to say, I already knew the "chicken nuggets" were nasty. We called them chicken booties. This was back in 1983. I may have worked there in high school. But, nope, I DO NOT eat there. I don't eat fast food anyway. He's probably the main reason for that. LOL
I will never raise cattle I don't think. But, from what I remember seeing and hearing back then...you just dropped some knowledge, Mr. Rich.
Your Pawpaw was right, I saw some cows that were clearly very sick old cows be bought by suppliers to the fast food industry. Not eating there was a very wise move on your part.
I know my advice is not what some would want to hear, but sometimes to get where you want to be takes a little time to build up to it. Good hearing from you and may God bless. ~ Rich
Rich all we have is scrub land. So I was wondering if you have any suggestions on what we could raise to make money on our farm. Currently were raising chickens and rabbits. Thank you a lot!!
Beth, goats and grazing pigs like Kunekune and AGU do well on scrub land, plus they can help turn the land into pasture land. Let your chickens free range the areas then once you move the animals through the area, put down some grass seed and you'll be amazed the change in the land. Hope that helps, God bless you and yours. ~ Rich
Hey Tennessee :
Good chat ... but what about buying [or being given] retired Dairy cows for freezer .... -I'm sure their 'marbling' is about perfect
for good BBQ 's......
Any experience with this ?
thx: CS
While I raised beef cattle, I have had dairy breed meat (Jersey), and it was very good beef. As far as flavor it was as good, or maybe better than beef cows. With retired cows you have to spend a little time tenderizing large cuts, steaks and roasts, but it is good tasting meat. You won't get as much meat out of a dairy cow, but you will enjoy the flavor of the meat. ~ Rich
@@TennesseeHomestead give the retired cow beers waste and spent grains combined with fresh pasture, good hay and good silage the meat will be soft and tasted 😋
I looking to buy a Lemflex bull that doesn't have a good birthweight, he scored a 4. Should I buy that bull? He has good epd's on milk and ween weight.
How do you get in contact with people in your area or companies to sell your livestock/cattle?
Thank you for sharing your experience! What about NOT keeping a bull and using AI instead to fertilize your home raised heifers? This would preserve more acres for the heifers, plus there's lots of AI options out there for developing a herd! Is it too good to be true?
AI is a good option, but keep in mind that even a Vet most times only has a 70% success rate, and it is not cheap. You might be better off talking with the County Extension Office in your area to see if they have a bull rental program. You only need the bull for 90 days to breed you girls. Sometimes a neighbor is a good way to go. They will sometimes let you drop your cows off at their place for a few months, or if his herd is bred they might bring the bull to your place. Hope that helps. ~ Rich
Hey I'm in Covington Tn an hour north of Memphis and I'm only 16 now but I really plan on starting a grass fed cattle farm when I get older. I need all the help and tips I can get.
Well, I am starting to really put out information on grass fed beef, so there should be a lot of information coming your way.
What time of year would you recommend someone buy some calves to start with? Also what combination of calves, bulls, heifers, etc. would you recommend to start with?
What to buy would depend on the type of operation your wanting, Breeder, Commercial Herd, so on. Best time to buy calves is in the fall. ~ Rich
“Don’t listen to the USDA”
LOL AMEN!
Also I’ve learned when you start reading/hearing “experts” saying “the price can’t go down” when the market is high--sell
Amen ~ Rich
Beef cattle, cattle to the market.
Hey guys I'm really new into this. I'm a city boy who fell in love with the country. Anywho, can someone tell why you can't breed the same bull with the same cow? Or can you breed the same bull with different cows? Please and thank you. Great video by the way.
You can breed a bull to a cow repeatedly. When you hear someone talking about changing out a bull, it is due to them integrating heifers, or young females into the herd that were sired by that bull. Kinda think of of it along the lines of humans. There are some big genetic problems that can arise from a father breeding with a biological daughter or a mother breeding with a biological son, the same reasons apply to cattle.
Very good topic, maybe it is something to cover in a video.
Hope this helped. ~ Rich
Never thought of it like that, I knew the whole genetic thing but I never made the comparison to humans.
what breed to you prefer to raise?
Brangus. The do very well in this area.
What might be a realistic profit rate for a small herd, well managed?
That really depends on [Current Market Vs Costs]. If your tight on margins, you might be better off with Farm to Farm sales. In really tough markets you can sell direct to the consumer, where you ship the beef to a processor and the customer pick up a finished product. ~ Rich
hey. thanks for the really good advise. but if i don't have land, would raising the cows on barley grass be economical?
Here you would have to look real hard at your lease cost, what improvements you will have to put on that leased land. That cost has to be spread over the term of the lease because things like fencing will be remaining on the land after your lease has expired. So looking at your cost per calf vs. market price will determine if the lease will be a wise move.
:)
What about the bottle babies? In Illinois i have seen them all over here for 100 to 150 dollars. Then I contacted a guy about buying a whole cow ( butchered) he charged 3 dollars per pound hanging weight. And said average cow weighed 750 to 850 hanging weight. So is it cheaper to buy a bottle calf raise it your self and then send to butcher? Oh these are grass fed no antibiotic angus cattle( that the farmer has) good deal or not so good?? We have a large family with 5 teens and I run a daycare, so we go through a lot of meat.
A lot in that comment.:-) Most bottle calves are for the most part are dairy breeds. Now with that being said, many think that the meat from a dairy breeds have better flavor than beef cows, there is just less meat from the hanging hanging weight. There is also a high mortality rate with bottle calves. I had a friend buy 3 bottle calves and two died, so they turned out not being a good deal. So if you have pasture for it you would be better off buying a weaned beef steer they down here will run $450.00 to $500.00. So your cost for that meat ( 1 winter hay + 500.00 + Processing) would run you around $2.00 to $ 3.00 per lb.
Now, the farmer selling the whole cow is a good deal, understand that depending on the cuts you request a 750 # hanging weight Angus should give you around 500 to 550 lbs of meat. That would mean the meat to your freezer would cost $4.10 to $4.50 per lb.
Hope that helps. God bless. ~ Rich
I am completely new at this, but is purchasing bull sperm and do artificial insemination more cost and time effective? Is grazing absolutely necessary or can I just feed them with hay, corn, grass with a feeding trough?
CH7 We have found that it is not cost effective to AI anything. AI is so easy to screw up, and the bulls have a much better chance of impregnating the cows anyway, so we've found the extra cost of the bulls actually saves us money in the form of the time it would take to AI a herd.
I'm
A $1200 cow gives average 10 calves, that's a cost of $120 per...but you said $420 per....you never explained how you got the other $300 in your calculation???
If you take the total cost ( something to track closely ) you need to include your total input costs each year into that cow. Not just her cost, but every dollar she costs. Feed, medications, infrastructure, bulls if you maintain onsite, cost of all those expenses. Plus even transport needs to be included. Remember every dollar you spend on your operation goes into your cost of goods sold. In this business, it's calves. You need to know all your long term, and short term expenses.
So you should always be looking for ways for you to reduce your costs, while maintaining quality of your herd.
I hope that helps with the topic I was covering. We can't always control or costs like feed, hay costs, or even transport costs. So you want to really hold the line on the overall operation to keep your cost per calf low as you can. ~ Rich
Eat more hamburgers.
Would it be better economically and labor wise to just Artificially Inseminate your cows and not deal with a bull?
James Brinkley Mostly the people that AI are the ones with large cow herds. The bulls are more efficient at getting cows pregnant (less cows open after breeding season), but one bull can only hit so many cows over a given time period. We have found that throwing actual bulls on them saves us time (which is money) because the breeding is being done for you.
While I'm glad to see this post, and I agree with culling the pull birth cows, (& that the USDA is FOS) there is a lot I don't agree with in this post. The most obvious is when you said you can sell a slaughter cow for $1 per pound and pay $1,200 for a bred cow or open heifer. Most slaughter cows weigh 1,100 to 1,600 pounds. Paying more for a slaughter cow than an open heifer or bred cow doesn't make sense. Did you mean that or just get the numbers mixed up when you said them?
I guess my biggest problem is that you don't seem to count the "opportunity" cost in your figures. If someone pays $600 for a 3 month old heifer calf and raises it to 20 months before they bred her and then another 11 months until her calf is ready to wean you have kept her on you place for 28 months. If you had purchased a steer calf and he had put on one pound a day on that same pasture he would have gained 840 pounds and weight 1,240 pounds. The current price of fat cattle is 132/cwt but even at the low of around $1.00 per pound that would mean you were giving up $840 to have that cow on your property 28 months to have the calf. So you "paid" $600 + $840 or $1,440 for the heifer pair. That is a better deal than paying $1,530, (i.e. $1,200 for an open heifer plus 11 months at $30/month to keep her on your property to get a calf) but over the same 28 months you would get two calves and she would be 4 months pregnant with her third.
Now I'll grant you, if you own your land this is not a CASH expense. Just like your labor is not a CASH expense. But if you want to find out if you're making money you need to include ALL the costs.
By your sign in name , I'll assume you name is Steve.
So Steve, Some of what I think you may have been looking at, is two different cattle operation types. When your talking about buying steers, now your talking about a stocker / grower operation vs a cow / calf operation. In a cow calf operation you have to spread your costs out further then the first calf. In reading auction reports you will see a listing for steers, by weight class and price then bulls, open heifers, bred cows, (depending on auction) cow calf pairs, with the last listing being slaughter cows (old cattle). Slaughter cow prices range. When I said to figure in you'll be selling the cow at the end of it's breeding life, that needs to be deducted from her total cost.
I always tell folks to take total expense and divide that up by number of calves that cow will produce into the calves cost. With just raising steers you must do the sane, they just turn all the expense on the sale of the steers..
Yes, the prices used were average prices, but there is a wide variance in prices region to region, in my area alone you see large variances in pricing in the three USDA auctions in this area alone. The major thing with USDA Auction reports is that price is controlled solely by what buyers show up that day. That is the main reason prices are never fixed that you can say I will get X number of dollars at auction all you can do is look at what happened the week before. That is why most breeders don't use auctions to sell their livestock, most do direct farm to farm sales. Good comment. ~ Rich
1.00 a lb for a old cow your kidding yourself
Jim, when I made this video Slaughter Cows were going at auction $ 0.76 to $ 1.00 per pound with good body condition, Med to Lg. Currently as of 01/03/20 the USDA auction reports that same cow would bring $ 0.25 to $ 0.37 less per pound. Late fall through winter you will always see a depressed market. So no Jim, if you keep a Slaughter Cow on stockpile pasture and not take it to market until late spring, early summer depending on how the market is you often get $ 1.00 per pound. No kidding!