Bred Heifers

[cowboydoc]

You're absolutely right Bird they have to be registered. I think I mentioned that. My neighbor does just this exact thing and it's a job. This guy has been farming and raising cattle his whole life and even he has a heck of a time keeping them alive. He says he loses about 10% of them.

 

[MikePA]

What's he do with the carcasses? If he has to pay for disposal, that'd be another cost of doing business.

 

[cowboydoc]

Mike,
He's got every kind of machine that there is. He just digs a hole out back and buries them. That's why I don't like dealing with holsteins they are not a very hardy cow at all. They can be jumping and kicking around one day and the next day be on their death bed with pneumonia. I've literally gone out and fed them the night before and they were as healthy as could be and the next morning had them near death from pneumonia or something. Even when they're older they are tempermental. You really have to watch them and treat them right.

Your beef cattle on the other hand will stand up to about anything. They rarely will die even without the best of care.

 

[MikePA]

And I thought horses were temperamental! With all the comments and caveats, the profit margin on this endeavor is sure shrinking fast.

 

[cowboydoc]

Mike,
To pun a phrase it's no golden cow for sure. Yes you can make a living at it but not much on a small scale. You've got to have the facilities and such and like most farming or ranching endeavors it's a slim profit margin 90% of the time. You'll hit it good for awhile and then it's back down to not even making your expenses. I am so glad that I sold my calves on contract when I did. I sold them at $1.02 on contract and now they are down to .79. I almost didn't do it as I thought they would go higher. So it's just a big gamble no matter what.

 

[RichZ]

Great info!! Thanks, JD!!

Rich

 

[RichZ]

Thanks for talking to the rancher, Bird! If he wouldn't do it again, with his experience, then it makes me think that, I don't have much of a chance! It looks like you're saving me, again!

Thanks!!

Rich

 

[RichZ]

Thanks, Richard!! I only started this thread because my friend told me that this was such an easy thing to do. I had no idea that Holsteins were so fragile. And since I have no experience with this sort of thing, I don't think it's a good idea for me to try this now. Perhaps in the future. I'll still continue to research it, though you guys are doing most of my research! I'm still going to check out prices at auctions and speak to some other local dairy farmers.
I firmly believe everything you guys have told me. I just can't figure out why my friend said it was so easy, when it's clearly a very difficult thing to do, much less to make a profit with! I guess since he's been doing it his whole life, he takes it for granted that anyone can do it. That's why TBN is so important, if I would have just taken one person's advice, I probably would have given this a try, and had a terrible and costly experience.

Thanks!!

Rich

 

[Bird]

Rich, one thing I've seen done pretty frequently in my part of the country by folks with small places is to buy the Holstein bull calves, castrate them, and raise them to good sized steers, then sell them at auction. Those bull calves can usually be bought pretty cheap. The only problem is that I haven't personally talked to any of the folks I've seen do that. And I don't recall seeing a single one of them having a second crop/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif, so I'm not sure they've done very well with that either but just don't know. I've suspected some of them may do it for tax purposes. I found that, at least in my county, you can get an "agricultural" appraisal for your property taxes if you have one cow on the place. But even if they're doing it for that reason, I don't know why I've never seen a second crop of calves on the same place.

 

[jdkid]

Hi ya Bird
yep alot of that here but left as bulls ,they are slower than beef breeds to grow ,,most are sold at 2-3 years with most ending up as hamburgers ...good money same kinda pitfalls as any calf rearing till they can look after them self's ,
catch ya
JD Kid