Car or Calf? Which to get

pcdreams · #21 05/30/07, 07:54 AM

well most won't agree with my opinions but... IMHO if she is already working with cattle, selling them and such. then the money she earns is hers to do with as she chooses. Different story if you are paying all the inputs. In that case she should be kicking in the expenses.

either way cattle are a better investment than a car. Look at it this way. Cattle are always around, and can be eaten if times get tough. A car can't. and if gas runs out and car payment still exist.. SOL..

Let her go with the cattle. Theres very few people interested in it today and those people are going to be the saviors when the shtf in a few years

LittleRedHen · #22 05/30/07, 07:55 AM

When my oldest gets to that age and she is trying to decide between a cow and car, i'd definately go for the cow. As a mom, I'd rather see her outside with her cow than wondering where she is with her car. More teenagers die because of car accidents than cows

Plus she will have her whole life to have a car but you have a chance to let her grow in her responsibility and skills when it comes to cows. Anyone can drive a car but growing meat is more rare and it can be highly important!

Imagine.. when city folks are starving , but have their nice cars, those who can raise cows will be well fed and full of good strong leg muscles

milkstoolcowboy · #23 05/30/07, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jan in CO

Ashley is pretty experienced at the 'Vet' things, as she has been in market beef projects for two years already. I think the car 'want' is just because some of the other kids her age have gotten pickups or cars lately. She is homeschooled, so doesn't really need to drive anywhere on a daily basis, and COULD drive my vehicle to 4H meetings, the store in town, etc.

We've been tossing around the idea of going into 'partnership' with her, with a written contract, and buying a cow/calf pair, with the cow being bred back, then letting her have the calf to raise, we keep the cow, and the prospective calf would be co-owned. She could buy our share if it's a heifer and keep it to raise, or pay us half the market price when she shows and sells it, keeping the rest of the profit for herself for another cow/calf or whatever.

My aunt and uncle gave each of their children a cow from their herd when they were born, and all the progeny from that cow were the make up of a herd for them when they grew up. The steers were sold, the heifers kept as breeders, etc. Made it nice for them. Of course, they have hundreds of acres of land, and can do that. We only have 10, so are limited on what we can produce.

I think we're leaning more and more towards the animal purchase, and let the car wait until she is older! Thanks for the insights! Jan in Co

I gave each of my kids the opportunity to buy a bred beef cow when they were old enough to start in 4-H. At that time, I was running about 80 beef cows. All of them did except my youngest daughter, and she frequently wished she had. (She had rabbits and a dairy heifer as her 4-H.) I worked with them to figure the expenses of caring for their cow-calf pair and gave them what netted out. All I asked was that when they left home, they give me a cow-calf pair from their seed cows. I think it's a good idea to get the kids involved so that they learn the costs of raising livestock.

I didn't let my kids buy a vehicle when they were in high school because I didn't figure they needed their own vehicles and it would end up costing them money. We let the four of them use an old family car; we paid the insurance and they maintained the car and bought the gas.

I vote for the cow, but I'm an old cow man, so definitely biased.