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near dyersville iowa | One of the reasons i got out of the beef business was that the local sale barns are slowly shutting down one by one. What was once a 15 mile trip to the local sale barn has now become a 40 mile trip. Unless you have local guys who want to buy 20 or less steers at a time, you need a decent truck and trailer. Price trucks and trailers lately? Cant find a used one less than 20 ft, and most of those are junk. Then you either have to make hay or buy hay. Hay equipment is not cheap, and in my area, people who custom bale are getting fewer and fewer. Needed fence, its all shot. how much does fence cost these days? My cows would not stay behind a single hot wire. Add in having a job where it can be difficult to get the days off you need, because of a shortage of workers, and it all just became too much hassle for too little profit. Turned about 3 acres of pasture to crop land, makes just as much money letting the other 8 acres sit idle as it did with 20 cows on it. And yes, 20 cows were too much for 11 or 12 acres of pasture, but what do you do?
synopsis. after all expenses, i cant remember the numbers, but i think it would have been 10+ years before i could have even dreamed of making a profit at the prices 4 years ago. I havent run the numbers for years like this, but im also not interested in getting back in. | |
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cow/calf thoughts
