money in ranching?

Very expensive.

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Alice
* * *
"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

By "can" I'm assuming you mean some kind of local covenant or government statistic? "Can" and "should" are two very different things, though, in my experience.

Tracy

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Ignorance is the true enemy.

I've seen the village, and I don't want it raising my children.

www.newcenturyhomestead.com

Highland cattle are obvious cold weather cattle. Would not work in the deep south as well as other areas. I think the heat in Texas would be hard on them in the summer. I occassionally lose an angus from the heat, so we mainly do brahman crosses like brangus, etc. Angus and herefords are
english breeds originally adapted for the cooler English temps.

Is there money in ranching? No, you basically exist, but it is a good life. You could offer your help to a local rancher and learn the ropes, maybe buy a couple cows and have him run them for you. Eventually, if you are patient and want it bad enough, you might have a herd.

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Disease is not an entity, but a fluctuating condition of the patients body, a battle between the substance of disease and the natural self healing tendency of the body......Hippocrates

I suspect some people find a "niche" and make "some" money.

There's an old guy by me who's been a cowboy all his life -- the real thing, born to it. He's got six acres and lives very simply -- and makes his living training roping horses. He has good stock to start with, trains them VERY well, and sells them to rodeo cowboys when they're dead broke and competition-ready for a pretty penny. But he's got a skill, a ton of real-world experience with horses, and a niche market for his livestock -- in this case, the horses.

He's also gotten busted up with broken bones at least once that I know of in the last few years. Ranching isn't exactly the safest profession and that's something to consider when you're factoring in likely profits -- if you can even GET health insurance it's very expensive, and even a simple broken arm will cost you tens of thousands of dollars these days. And if, on paper, you own a few hundred thousand dollars worth of assets (your ranch/home) you're NOT going to qualify as a charity case even if your actual cash flow is minescule.

Leva

Beginner farmer I would suggest getting a subsciption to the Stockman Grassfarmer. Great read with a lot of good info. Then I would suggest work for a rancher for a while. I always tell my friends farming is a sickness. Once it is in your blood you can't shake it. You have to want and love the lifestyle more than the income. If you have the "sickness" you will find a way to farm. But I would have a more rock solid business plan layed out before I started spending alot of money. Good Luck!

If you have the market for the sheep & goats great. I have no idea what Alabama has in terms of butchering prices. In the chicagoland area I can get $300-500 for a lamb (depending on size and time of year) for the ethinic markets. That is this area where there is alot of ethinic groupos that would buy it (plus I can market more affluent areas the grassfed, heirloom breeds, blah, blah, etc) and charge more.

You need to understand your market (unless you are going to pursue strictly via internet) and find out what the market will pay. The figure out what livestock (or poultry) you want to pursue. Are you in it for the money? Then find out what pays the most. As with anything, there is always a good side and bad side to everything.

To quote a freind who is a farmers wife.

Her husband hopes to hit a million dollar lottery so he can farm until it is all gone.


IF you have lots of land, and if you have enough money to whether down years (guess what happens to the cattle market if we get mad cow in an animal or what happens when they open up to Candian imports etc etc etc), you might make money in the good years. Its been good here in Texas over the last few years, but this year its DRY, no one made much good hay. Hay is being trucked in from Amarillo to San Antonio. Round bales of Coastal hay are over $75.00 each. IF you have irrigated pasture (and some do) you still make some money in beef. Others sell their calves at a loss because they can't afford to feed them. Now is a time to BUY, not be in a position of having to sell. Some fortunate ones will buy cheap, others will have to sell cheap. I will buy (cheap) another calf or two to raise for next year to ensure that when I sell calves for beef I sell them for enough to pay for my feed and provide me free beef for the following year. How big is my operation - 2 cow/calf pairs.

I raise California Red sheep with the intent on having free lamb in my freezer to eat and sell enough to pay the feed and vet bills for the following year.

Farming requires a lot of risk taking and a lot of sacrificing. With my cattle I cannot leave the farm for an extended duration since the cattle need to be checked upon regularly. I am not able to find anyone to hire that I can trust to complete the task. Even family members fail to complete the tasks they volunteer to do. It is nearly impossible to earn enough money to pay off the land purchase and have enough remaining to live the American lifestyle. That said, if you will work off the farm to get the acreage paid for and learn how to be self sufficient in many ways you can make a decent living from livestock. It has taken me years to become the low cost producer of the product(feeder calves) that I send to market. I do feel that I can sustain the production even through the very lean years. If you are committed to the lifestyle and you are willing to forego vacations and lots of frills you can have a lot of satisfaction from the farm. The climb to get there is very much uphill but once your reach even a plateau you realize it is worthwhile. If you are married be certain your mate is a committed as you are. Yes, you can make money from the farm after you earn money off the farm.

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

Any form of extensive farming or grazing, you have to be BIG to make money at it. You've got overhead to start off with, and it takes a certain amount of acres and stock or crop before you climb back up to zero. If you're doing it extensively - large area, large numbers - you pretty well have to use chemicals extensively as well. Whether that's herbicides and insecticides if you're farming; or insecticides, acaricides and anthelmintics for livestock, the big chemical companies get a firm grip on your goolies and a wide pipeline into your pocket.

The way to live comfortably off a smaller acreage is to adopt a manifold approach.

First, you need to diversify. Do a lot of reading on permaculture. There's a lot said that's overly optimistic, but the fact is that diversified plantings produce more in total than do monocultures. Of course, there's a downside. It takes more work, and you have to cover the same area many times, taking whatever crop is in season at the time.

That brings us to intensive farming rather than extensive. Rather than capital-intensive broad-acreage, do labour-intensive farming of a smaller area.

You noticed I said farming? That's because crops produce more per acre than do livestock. Livestock have a place, but it better be a small place unless you're doing extensive grazing on semi-arid areas that won't support crops.

Don't spend money. Wherever possible, don't spend money. Money saved is worth more than money spent, because you're likely to have to pay tax (hence need even more money at first to get what you had saved (after tax) until you spent it). Live on your land, live off your land. Wherever possible, grow your own, make your own, use your own. Home vegetable garden, home orchard, your own poultry, kill and dress your own meat, milk your own cow or goat, make your own cheese and yoghurt. In one sense, it makes for long days. However, most of this is using "hobby time" - recreation time - so you'd spend the time anyway. This way it's saving you money (twice - once on the produce, once on what you would have spent on a hobby) rather than costing you money.

ADD VALUE! You're not going to make much doing the job of primary production, then selling it in bulk to someone else so they can take a profit.

Wheat is worth a lot less than cakes (or blackcurrant tart, or homemade apple pie). If you sell the wheat you make something, then it goes to someone who resells it in bulk at a low margin to a miller, who grinds it and sells in bulk to a wholesaler, who sells the flour to retailers and in bulk to wholesale bakers. The bakers cook, then sell to the retailers, who sell to the end-customer. If you can cut all those middlemen out of the circuit and take their profits for yourself, you're beginning to make an adequate return. If you don't want to do all that, bulk wheat is still worth a lot less than a clean grain sample, done up in 5 pound bags and sold at the farmer's market or wholesaled direct to health food stores.

A fresh-shorn fleece is worth very little. Clean it up and sell it direct to a home-spinner and weaver and it can be worth a lot more. Take the trouble to put coats on your sheep specifically to keep the fleece clean and you're making even more profit. Spin it yourself and then knit a Fairisle sweater and you've added a heck of a lot of value, particularly if you make to order rather than doing it on spec.

...and yes, it helps to have an off-farm income. Nurse or teacher, school bus driver or mail contractor, lawn-mowing and yard work, dog-grooming, part-time computer work, contract earth-moving, maybe some seasonal work. Maybe bring the off-farm income to you. Board dogs or cats or horses.

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ô¿ô Don Armstrong,Terra Australis

Grandad, tell us a story about the olden days, when you were young and men could walk on the moon.

Thanks guys for all the advise! I been thinking going to my local college to get a trade, so I can have a income if the farm dont pay off! I see it take awhile and lots of money to build up a good farm.

Of course it will take alot of time and effort to build a farm or ranch. The farms you see working today have been in those families for many generations. Some more than 100 years. Some of them don't make it. Don't think of farming as a job. It's a lifestyle. As a lifestyle it's very sucessful. You can make your food, clothing, and shelter. You can raise children. But it's not for making money. It's for making a life. If you go into it with the worries of finding another job when it doesn't work out then I feel you missed the point. How does your life "not work out"? Yes their will be years that you must work off farm to make ends meet. But what does this have to do with anything. To be a sucessful farmer/rancher is more about livin than making money.