What would you do with 80 acres of pasture?

First of all smaller calves bring more/lb because there is more leeway for the buyer to put weight on them at a profit. The closer the calf is to slaughter weight the closer the price is to slaughter price.

If you are going to look at this economically , you first need to know the basis of your inputs. What could you rent the pasture for in your area or how much hay will it produce and cost of putting up the hay. That would be the cost of grazing those cattle whether you have to pay; it or not. If you want to do this as a hobby then it doesn't matter. If you totally discount the cost of your grass or hay you can probably graze some calves and come out ahead if you buy good calves at a reasonable price and have no health disasters. Please don't take this as a put down but judging by your questions I would suggest you get some help from some one with experience to help in the purchase of these calves or even use a reputable order buyer.

One of the givens about farming and ranching is the risk of uncertainty. Will it rain enough, will the hay get put up right, will the market fall,will a calf die or even large vet bills. There is no way anyone can tell you how much money or if any you will make. Some years grazing stocker cattle is profitable some years you are lucky to get back what you paid for the calf.

You can get an idea what the socalled expert think the price of feeder cattle will be in the future, by googleing cattle futures. The quoted future price will be for an 800bl steer/hundred weight. you can buy price protection insurance. It will protect you from a shipwreck but my experience is it usually costs you the premium. Like most insurance it should be used as protection not a money tool. people are not upset they didn't get their house ins. premium back because the house didn't burn down.

Send it to me I have some cattle that will take care of that hay for you.
Steve

When a pig is born it is already nearly four months old. When you buy it as a weaner it is five to six months old from conception and that is the date that matters. The breeder had to care for it through gestation and that costs money. The breeder also has to support the sow and boar. With a cow the gestation is even longer so it is even more of an issue.

Think of it as cost per month of growth rather than a cost per pound. Thus weaner pigs are about $5/lb while finisher pigs are $2.52/lb. (This is all in live weights. Hanging weights are about 72%.) That weaner pig is five months from conception. The finisher is just another five months older at ten months from conception. The breeder has raised the weaner pig half way before you even saw it. Thus the weaner pig is only $40/month and the finisher pig comes to $63/month - the weaner pig is actually cheaper than the older finisher pig per month. Similarly with sheep, cows, etc.

Get a few spring young stock and raise them up over the summer to sell in the fall. Rinse and repeat for a few years so you get the hang of things. There are many questions you don't yet know to ask but you'll learn by doing and it's fun.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

If you want to make money, just rent the ground. If you feel lucky buy cattle and see what that gets you. If you don't need much money let someone make hay for you.
Put an ad in the paper to cash rent and you will have about $8000 in your hand in 30 days, and another $8000 around the first of November. If you can do better than that let me in on it.

Will they are paying $200/acre rent for pasture in Indiana? Wow. What kind of stocking rate would that support?

I dont think I could get anywhere near that much here. Right now, leasing for hay I think they are making just a bit more than the property taxes. If someone is willing to pay 8k, that means he can make much more than that...I want that. I want the maximum I can get out of the land, I'm willing to take the risk and do the work so why not? I can always rent it out if it dont work out.

Darntootin

You are a quick learner. Go back through post 1 through 18 and see how much you have gained in awareness.
I am the odd man out here as I do not do conventional methods nor do I have the input expenses they incur. In farming IMO the way to profit is to determine how to not participate in having the same operating costs as others. If you minimize these expenses by circumventing the out of pocket outlay then that is money you can take to the bottom line. You would need to determine where you can get a competitive edge. This area is where you can influence and grow your profit. I still have not read where you are located. In the right area and with control over your input expenses it would be possible to net from a cow/calf operation an amount exceeding $16000/year of 80 acres of pasture provided the market holds. I always anticipate volatility however.

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

Think about hair sheep. If you lose one, it's not like losing a cow. If your pasture is good you can run three or four to the acre. If you you go with cows you can still put a sheep for every cow. I've never been able to get sheep to eat much hay, course I'm in the south and have green winter grass most of the time. I've sheep bring as much as 120 to 130 by the time they weighed 30 to 40 lbs. Good yoes can average 6 lambs every 2 years. Most cows it's one a year, if you lose a calf take a while to get another calf.

+1 here.

I wish I had that much pasture.

A group of 50, 48lb (avg) lambs, sold for over $5,000, at the sale barn this week.

I only had two lambs that were old enough to sell.

I do currently have sheep. I raise Icelandics and find them to be very economical as they eat only hay and grass, produce a fleece, and a decent carcass. The only issue I would have with putting them out on this 80 acre parcel is that it is a 20 minute drive from home and I fear for coyote and other predators.

If I had the 80 acres right here on my homestead I would not hesitate to go with sheep, as others have said one dead sheep is less of a financial loss, twin lambing, easy to handle etc.. As it is here I have about 20 acres grass and the rest in woods, every night I put the sheep away in the barn because of coyotes. I have considerd an LGD but haven't pulled the trigger on one

get it fit, plant it to corn and make sure your crop insurance is paid up...

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

No, just because someone is willing to pay 8k doesnt mean he can make more than that.... it means "he thinks he can make more than that". He is planning to make more than it costs him, but that simply isnt always the case. I remember all too well the years when my daddy took over my grandpa's farm.... and lost money every year! Seems like the years when we had a good crop the markets would be down, and vice versa. We had 120 acres in alfalfa, raising it for seed. I remember years when the farm produced 1000 lbs to the acre at harvest time, and the price being 12 cents a pound. That sounds good, until you figure in the expenses to produce the crop, well over 40 cents a pound. I remember the last year the price was up.... over 2 bucks a pound, but our seed crop had failed... it was costing more in fuel to run the combine than the seed coming into the bin was worth. Daddy had run himself further into debt for 4 years in a row and wound up having to take a job in town and it took him over 10 years to pay off the bank. Grampa sold the farm that year. We still own 80 acres, 76 acres irrigated, and its been leased out for as long as I can remember. Last year daddy had to come out of pocket to pay the water bill and taxes on the place... the rent didnt cover the basic expenses. Yep, theres money in farming... sometimes.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Well, look there is no such a thing as a sure business, I know that. Every business I've looked into someone told me you can't make money doing it. You can't make money in the restaurant business, you can't make money with cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, rabbits or crops of any kind, you can't make money in the stock market, can't make money with real estate, can't make money with horses, can't keep your money in a bank because you'll lose money to inflation, can't make money with a distribution route ( had one ), can't make money owning a bar, can't make money with firewood, can't make money with computers anymore etc, etc, etc

Nobody ever makes money doing anything, apparently. Maybe I should just give up and go to work at the Walmart.

I would make sure it had good fence on it, then I would put about 20 head of bred heifers on it.....

Jim

The people that make money in their business have a knowledge of the business and work hard.You can not make money by depending on luck alone.You have enough acreage to make a profit and you have enough acreage to lose your shirt if you make a large investment and realize you don't have the knowledge and experience to make things work.Make sure you know what you are doing before making a big investment.You don't have to go to college to pay tuition.

With all this info on beef im surprised you can even buy beef. I would think there is profit to be made.

Depends on how much time you have. I've seen some good suggestions in the thread, but putting all your eggs in one basket is a big gamble. Diversifying what you do with your land gives you more chances to come out ahead since some years and markets are boom, some are bust. Do a little of what several people were suggesting - rent out some land, plant other acres, keep some in hay, raise livestock.

I'd get it certified organic then start preparing a ten year plan for a hops yard (making sure that there was enough local equipment for rent and a good drying shed. A recent change in organic beer has made it so that og beer must have og hops (used to be able to use conventional hops). So, there's a big demand for it, right now. Historically sheep have been used to keep weeds back from the vines. If yours didn't eat the whole durn thing down, you could pasture them in with electric netting and rotate them through the hops. Husband and I were looking into doing this---start out with one acre, then next year plant two (as your rhizomes multiply...so you're not buying massive quantity of og rhizomes.

Some links:
http://www.usorganichops.com/AOHGA/i...g_Company.html


http://mysare.sare.org/mySARE/Projec...826&y=2012&t=1

Kind of old, But a trove of info:

http://www.crannogales.com/HopsManual.pdf

Buy a few livestock guardian animals (dog, mule, llama), run a hot line on your fence, put up a run-in shed and a watering station, and stock it with sheep (or goats). Then you'd only have to make the trip every couple of days. You could easily put 100 on 20 acres in rotation and hay the other 60 acres for cash and winter feed.

There is profit to be made with beef... sometimes... but it all depends upon how one goes about raising and marketing it, management is the key. Me? I like a cow/calf operation.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain