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Northeast Nebraska | I was wondering if anyone on here has experience with buying cheaper solid to broken mouth cows that are bred, calving them out and then after weaning the calf off putting some weight on the cow and sell her for slaughter? Was something I had thought about doing but not sure if its worth it or not. Thanks. |
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| What age and experience does your labor force consist of? If you're young, athletic, and experienced in the handling of cattle there is definitely money to be had. Just make sure to pencil in some death loss, both cows and calves. Started a large majority of my herd the fall of '13 this way and worked out perfect. Just be patient when buying, don't get caught up bidding on a set of one and done cattle. Also know your feed costs down to the penny, those girls take more groceries than a running age cow. Best of luck in your new endeavor. |
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SE SD | Only way you'll know, is if you try it :)
Look around, if it was a sure thing, every body would be doing it.
UNLESS YOU LIVE IN FLORIDA :) lol
How many geriatric cattle operations in your area?
Keep in mind, most of them grannies are for sale for a reason.
Bad bags, crap house owl crazy, johnes , pi positive, wean a pizz poor calf, and a whole list of
other issues.
When you talk about weaning, then adding weight.
Some times that's easier said then done. Some of them old girls are just plain worn out.
I can honestly say, been there, done that.
Mighty steep learning curve :) BTW, at the end,you might have the rendering trucks
number memorized. Hope not.
Good Luck |
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western colorado | Nah it aint that bad of a deal to get into. The groceries are what kill you though. Depends on the price of your feed program. If you are just gonna kill them don't even bother with the solids buy the broken and gummers pay attention to bags closely when buying but experience is key it doesn't take a very good bag to get a calf going. Most guys are too hands on give that calf 24hrs before you make a decision to "help" of course depends on weather and the calf. If its a go getter calf and decent weather coke bottle tits are not a problem. Hard birth, crappy calf or unseasonably cold better get "hands on" after a bit of "eyes on". And remember once you start helping its more difficult to stop helping FYI. Around here the older cows are killer price (sometimes less if your mental calculator is fast enough) especially if a little thinner and will 99 times out of 100 calve without assistance. I will check them every 8 hrs just to take care of the WTF deals. From my experience if your gonna feed cows the old ones know how to put weight on way faster than the young ones. Something like basking in glow of someone actually giving them enough feed to eat. Pretty good deal to master not a money maker every year and normally not huge on margin. Keep death loss low and feed cheap it works well. |
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| I think everybody summed it up right in this thread. There is money to be made, sometimes it's a cheap way into a cowherd as well. I now one kid that put together a nice herd of cows by buying culls, calving them out then canning the gummers. Keeping all heifer calves to start a herd. Get the feed stock piled, then go to picking cows, take your time. |
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NE Oklahoma | Have a good eye on what your buying. The cull cows I sell I wouldn't recommend them to anybody |
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N FLA | Lots of experience with that. I highly recommend it for myself. Not sure about everyone though. Maybe share more details of your situation.
It would sure help to run up into a drought area, where you know cows are being sold on a large scale due to feed shortage. Probably 95% getting culled due to lack of feed as opposed to wondering what is wrong with them.
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Missouri | I have considered this myself. In an ideal scenario you buy big framed, thin old bred cows. Calve them out, put weight on the cow, make a little money on her, and get a "free" calf crop. The problem is there is no slam dunk scenario in this business. You might hit a home run, you might make just a little, or you may break even. The major plus that I see to doing this, is that I don't see where you could lose any money, baring some complete unforeseen train wreck. |
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Saronville NE | Did 100 head a yr like this when I started out and it worked good. And now since having to start over again from 15-16 feeding losses, were going back to it again this fall. Less risk then feeding cattle. Takes more feed but cheaper feed imo. Planting pivot to triticale so have cheaper feed for next summer. Some triticale, lagoon grass and wdg go long ways with cows. |
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Northeast Nebraska | Thanks for all the good comments and opinions. Basically my situation is I'm a younger guy just getting started but do work with my dad and uncle, we farm and have a cow/ calf operation where we utilize an ACCU Steel hoop building for our cows. We run a fall herd and a spring herd. We would like to utilize the hoop building more to help pay for it along with other cost we invested in. We do have access to good reasonable feed and resources to calve old canners out.
Considering I'm a young guy, the thing I like about doing something like this is faster turn around. Instead of borrowing money from the FSA on a group of young cows and barely making money (if any) for the 7 years it takes to pay them off, why not go this route. If any questions feel free to ask. |
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Northeast Nebraska | Thanks for all the good comments and opinions. Basically my situation is I'm a younger guy just getting started but do work with my dad and uncle, we farm and have a cow/ calf operation where we utilize an ACCU Steel hoop building for our cows. We run a fall herd and a spring herd. We would like to utilize the hoop building more to help pay for it along with other cost we invested in. We do have access to good reasonable feed and resources to calve old canners out.
Considering I'm a young guy, the thing I like about doing something like this is faster turn around. Instead of borrowing money from the FSA on a group of young cows and barely making money (if any) for the 7 years it takes to pay them off, why not go this route. If any questions feel free to ask. |
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Southern kansas | My father in laws favorite cow was a smooth mouthed one eyed Hereford bred back and nursing a calf. Full time hired man filled the silage pit, put in the wheat ground and took care of them old cows until they wouldn't bred back.
His only cow selection criteria was how fast she paid for herself and how much could he make off her. |
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God's Country (N.C. Ia) | There's a couple fellers doing this a few miles west of me. Talked to one of them last spring and he said biggest thing he's learned is if the cow doesn't claim the calf in the first day, he just bottle feeds it in a hut by itself. Obviously when you're buying old cows, you're usually just buying someone else's problems to a point, so you can end up with some poor mothers (ask me how I know!). I'm not quite sure you can figure on getting the calf for free in this type of deal, but there may be a few dollars saved vs. buying feeders. His basic cow ration consisted of sweetcorn silage (which you can usually get for the trucking around here), and wet distillers. The way he made it sound, he probably does this with a couple hundred head a year, but his neighbors do I think around 500 a year. I agree with it being a nice way to turn your money over faster, but I think you need to be prepared to deal with a lot of different, quirky old mommas. Good luck with whatever you decide! |
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Southern kansas | Or could be old salvage cows from a well managed herd where they lived their whole lives.
If this is the case then their heifers are saved for replacements. |
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Southern kansas | Well stated. |
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Toronto, South Dakota | Some cows no matter how much you feed them will never gain a pound. Losses on those make the rest of the group break even at best. If you are going to put them in the same hoop as your home herd you are going to introduce a whole bunch of new bugs to your cows so be prepared for that. |
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N FLA | How is your herd (stein cowboy)? |
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God's Country (N.C. Ia) | Hey there Puff! Glad to see you're still above water! The girls are doing fine. Just worked the calves a couple weeks ago and I think the implants have really hit them the last week or so as they seem to be gaining a little better by the looks of it. I had bought an angus bull from my next door neighbor in june and used him for about 75 days before I sold him as I don't have room to keep a bull yet by himself. Problem is I caught a cow in a standing heat about 5 days ago, so I'm thinking i'll probably sell the opens and replace them with some more short breds when I preg them after fieldwork, which will probably be mid to late November. I would really like to buy some more, but I'm limited on space at this time. looking at possibly building a cheap structure at my dad's in the next couple years. Rome wasn't built in a day, right Mace? hope all is well with you and yours!
I will say I certainly am liking the beefs much more than the steins so far! It's been a lot of fun for me, and I've learned a lot of new things too!
Edited by steincowboy 9/22/2017 22:20
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N FLA | It takes a lot of learning that's for sure. I also like to say you have to get the ball rolling and it becomes easier. Keep up the good work and keep looking for some rough old pasture. |
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Buying bred solid to broken mouth cows??
