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Dougherty, IA | What would you suggest to a guy who is renting some ground, working in town, and wanting to get into cattle as a way to farm full time?
I don't have any access to pasture. My time is fairly tight because I work full time in town, rent some land on the side, and help my family farm. I do have access to an acreage where I could have a decent feeding set-up.
I am leaning towards buying light Holstein calves and finishing them out using self feeders. This way I don't have to invest a lot of money into feeding or hay equipment, and I don't have to take much (if any) land out of row-crop production to put in forage. I also wouldn't have to fire up a tractor to feed them every day. I could feed them small squares of waterway grass hay and bed them with small bales of oat straw (both of which I have pretty easy access to). I could borrow my family's skid loader and tractor on weekends to do any machinery work that would need to be done.
My family has a cow-calf operation so I have been around cattle, but not Holsteins.
I am not afraid of work, I am looking for the best way to get into the business with limited time and a limited investment in equipment. I am open to any and all suggestions.
Located in Central IA btw, thank you! | |
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Cattle and Working in town
