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Posted 8/30/2014 13:34 (#4047177 - in reply to #4046961)
Subject: RE:I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction.



Death comes to us all. Life's but a walking shadow
I have no hard evidence and no experience with Plains States farming but I think you will see a resurgence of cattle farming. That said, a month ago when I looked at the July cattle inventory there wasn't much evidence of heifer retention. But, somewhere I read a report (Drover's maybe) that indicated that the price of heifer calves now exceeds or very nearly equals steer calves. To my mind that's the signal as to intentions.
I know that you took all you fences down and it takes two years to get a live calf but with feeder calves at $2.20/lb, fat cattle at $1.40-1.50/lb what other crop has the potential today? Granted it would be cheaper to graze cattle but if you are willing to harvest forage you can easily build enough fence to get a herd started without too much work and you have the advantage of controlling the feed quality and feeding efficiency. And you can use some cheap corn to extend limited amounts of hay until you get more hay ground & pasture ready.
I appreciate the substantial capital investment necessary and the long lag until the first returns but I can't see where you can diversify that can eventually get comparable rate of return.
If I was thirty years younger that's what I would be thinking about. And the other good thing about cattle is that by grow the calves into cows you have young cows to sell or just weight to sell. The value of a cull cow at $1.20 per lb isn't that much less than fat cattle (not like years ago).
Just a thought.
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