It’s the first question anyone contemplating raising cattle should ask: Can cattle farming be a source of money and if so, how do you do it! Most cattle farmers might politely joke that there’s no money to be made. And to be sure, cattle farming is a tough business.
But some farmers are making money. We’ll take a look at exactly how in an upcoming article. In the meantime, please feel free to post your thoughts in the comments. How do you get started making money in the cattle ranching business?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
well you can buy and sell cattle at autions. Prices very from cattle being to big, too small, meat or dairy cattle, and overall look.
If you SERIOUSLY want to start a cattle farm, you’re going to invest a lot of money and have to determine what type you want to run. There are 3 main types (feedlot, farrow to finish, and some other one i forget). I really don’t think you should be getting into it if you’re going to ask a question like this on Yahoo. It’s a whole lot more complicated than you’d think.
You’ll want to make sure you have plenty of pasture. You’ll also want to have hay fields. These last couple of years have been dry all over and hay prices have gone up high enough that there have been a lot of hay thefts.
Buy you a small herd and get a bull. He’ll do his thing and before long you’ll have calves. You usually want to let them get pretty big before you sell them, and you’ll keep a few. Then you’ll get rid of that bull and get another (to avoid inbreeding) and go it all again.
The price of cattle varies day to day week to week. Same thing is true for the offspring. It’ll take about 2 acres of land to support a cow-calf “unit” in reasonable good pasture country.
Out here in cattle country they say you can make a small fortune raising cattle–if you start with a large one! It’s a tough, tough business. Start by inheriting a ranch, a fortune, or going to work on a ranch.
I hate to sound negative but if you haven’t been raised in the business or have someone to run your operation you have no idea how hard it is to make any money. It takes a lot of expense and a lot of time to ever see a profit, but on the other hand if you are looking for a “loss” tax write off you might want to try it. Start out small and get ready for a hard work, head ache, and loss. It just about has to be in your blood before you can enjoy it.
The first thing you better look for is where you are going to raise these cattle. Are you going to buy the land or lease it? Around here, it is hard to find any kind of ranch that is not already leased out or is for sale. Next, how many head of cattle can your land support? It varies in different parts of the country; some as little as 2 acres per cow/calf pair up to 30 or 40. Next, you have to decide what kind of cattle you want to raise. Registered or not? Registered cows are generally more expensive. Next you need to buy a lot of equipment. Pickups, cattle working chutes, branding irons, fence building materials, trailers, farm equipment (if you want to raise your own hay), overhead cake bins, cakers, a horse or four-wheeler to get your cattle in, the list is endless. Starting a cattle raising operation from scratch is going to take several years before you get to worry about where to sell your cattle and it will be years before you make money on them unless you are already rich. Start by befriending someone that raises cattle and have them advise you. It is way too complicated to have any one person be able to explain it to you in this forum.
I am reading all of these post and am really curious where all the hard work is. My dad died about three years ago and left me with about 100 head of cows. We also have a hay business. I do all this and have a full time job and i make money off the cows. Not so much money off the hay though matter of fact i want to get rid of my square bale business and just roll enough hay for my cows. and bumb them to about 200 head.
My wife and I have put 5 bred angus cows on 12 acres of well grassed pasture. We have done a bit of fence mending. Have a stream but also water daily from home water. When growing up my dad had a herd of about 15 cows. Biggest problem with them was getting out of the pasture occasionally. Compared to working a stressful management job from 7 am to 6:30 pm daily, this is pretty relaxing so far. Not yet seen the “tough” part.
So me and my wife want to start raising beef cattel how would we go about buying cattel and not getting ripped off and what brand of cattel is worth the most????
Nathan …