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Cow/calf vs. Stocker Operation?

S

steerguy1

Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2016
Messages
8
Location
Texas
As a newbie we have plans on starting my first small herd, probably 5-10 beef head of angus at most to begin with. My family recently purchased 80 acres in northern TX. I'm trying to decide if I should go with:

1) stocker, buying/replacing steers only

2) cow/calf

3) combination of both

Doing much research, I'm finding pros/cons with both stocker and cow/calf, regarding health risks, etc. I would prefer to just work with steers, because the cow/calf operation sounds so much more involved working with new calves, AI, etc, yet many say the financial profits are better.

This is obviously a huge time and financial investment. Our land and new barbed fencing is paid for, so now I'm ready to purchase a squeeze shoot and crowd alley setup, a few additional implements, and then buy some head at our local auction. I don't currently want to work with mature bulls.

What is the most common or best operation to pursue folks, steers or cow/calf?

thanks

Bill
 
Ol' boy said the worst job he ever had was calving out 5 heifers. Most folks here will know what I mean--you check them a jillion times and nothing happens. Turn your back and somebody'll screw up. I'd start with kinda a stocker operation. If you can pick up two or three middle aged cows, already calved out, and get some that are kinda barnyard cows---half pets===they'd could be neat to have around. Keep 'em calm and give them a little cake or whatever about every time you see them. They'd be great
'baby sitter' influence on your stockers. A decent squeeze chute is a good tool---a 'crowd alley' setup you can build yourself, cheap and simple. Google 'bud box'. Decent fences, leak proof facilities, parasite control, adequate nutrition and mineral program will all pay dividends. Meet these and your medicine bill should be small---or non existent.

If you can, get to know your neighbors. Most folks like to share their knowledge and expertiece. Esp if you offer to help. Might be a far better source of cattle than auction barn. If the guy's an idiot, pretty good odds his cows will behave likewise. Do NOT tolerate any high headed, flighty, aggressive or wild sumbitches. They will hurt somebody.

Don't worry about which makes the most money---find what fits for you the best, you're involved in education.
 
Thank you sir! Your advise is well taken. Great to hear from yall. Yes the bud box is a solid setup, i have been looking at those. Im getting to know our rancher neighbors too.
 
I will add the Bud box is great for someone who knows how to handle cattle and knows how they move. I wouldn't recommend a bud box to a rookie.
 
If I was starting in the cattle business with limited resources (or unlimited, for that matter) I'd become a student of sell-buy marketing, aka Bud Williams marketing. His stockmanship principles are definitely worth learning as well. The biggest pitfall I would warn against is getting too much "stuff". With the numbers you're talking about, overhead costs need to be next to nothing. Rent from or trade labor with a neighbor who already has it. Can't remember who it was, maybe Gordon Hazzard, said all you need to run cattle is a shovel and a wheelbarrow, but that's only if you're crazy about equipment. I know of a 3000-cow outfit in Montana that owned one tractor and one squeeze chute...and they had two locations 20 miles apart. Extreme, maybe. But extremely profitable too. Their capital was invested in things that go up in value.
 
Thanks again everyone for all your input, much appreciated. Regarding sheep, they are an oddity here in north texas were we live. I'm surrounded by nothing but cattle farms as far as you can see. If I were to run sheep here, no one in the county would ever talk to us again lol. My focus and passion is with cattle only. I merely meant about 10 head to start, and then slowly increase the herd over the next couple of years. The wife and I are buying each item and then paying them off in full to avoid debt, as we have done for our land and fence already. I'm shopping around for a good used shoot and some panel fencing. Once our basic equipment is payed off, then I'm buying heads, and our only costs from that point on will be hay, vacinations and an occasional vet bill. My family will run this operation so I won't ever need to hire outside help. From what I'm hearing, I'm probably going to start with a few steers and a couple of calfed out mature cows, so my family can all get into the swing of handling and processing them. We already own and know horses so that is a plus. As much as I'd like to have some stud bulls, I think I'll pass on those due to the higher risk and liaiblity.
 
Hi Mike, so when you say calves owned by others, not sure if I follow, could you explain in a bit more detail please. Do you mean that I would buy these calves, or that I would pasture other owner's calves on my property?
 
steerguy1 said:
Hi Mike, so when you say calves owned by others, not sure if I follow, could you explain in a bit more detail please. Do you mean that I would buy these calves, or that I would pasture other owner's calves on my property?
Click to expand...
you rent them pasture on gain on their calves, kind of hard to charge them rent if you bought the calves....
 
Around here that would be a hobby farm and no significant income could be made on either a cow calf or stocker outfit of that size. I do have a neighbor who has 80 acres buys all of his feed and has a backgounding lot with 700 head at a time. Don't know if he's making money or not he's only been at it about 4 years.
 

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