Hello all,
I've been thinking a lot about ranching recently, and being someone who enjoys lots of work and solitude, I feel it would be an ideal occupation for me in time. However, I don't come from a wealthy family and though I have a couple streams of income than can produce $70,000+ per year, I fear that I'll never have an opportunity to make ranching a full time profession with land prices the way they are. With that being said, I have some questions for you.
I know some ranchers lease land from BLM. It's none of my business so I don't ask them what is costs, but does anyone here know how much it would cost to lease land for a year? Obviously it varies based on many factors, but a ballpark figure would be nice.
Excluding land costs, approximately how much would it cost to start a five head operation? I don't have a truck, trailer, or horse but I already have a cost figured on those and I also own two ATV's. Essentially I'd like to start off small and as my skills and income increase I would progress towards a full-time operation.
Can I spend my weekends working my operation and still work my day job during the week? Right now I live and work in a metropolitan area and it just wouldn't be possible to tend to the cattle more than a couple of days per week. Obviously I'd be sure they have adequate feed and water, what else would I have to do to ensure their well-being when I'm not there?
Are there any good books, magazines, etc. on ranching? I know there is material out there but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the good stuff and the not so good.
What are the most important skills that I'd need to survive my first year? I'm not planning on getting involved yet, but I would like to digest as much information as possible.
If any of these questions are unclear or just too vague please let me know. Thank you for your time and sorry if these questions have been asked before
I've been thinking a lot about ranching recently, and being someone who enjoys lots of work and solitude, I feel it would be an ideal occupation for me in time. However, I don't come from a wealthy family and though I have a couple streams of income than can produce $70,000+ per year, I fear that I'll never have an opportunity to make ranching a full time profession with land prices the way they are. With that being said, I have some questions for you.
I know some ranchers lease land from BLM. It's none of my business so I don't ask them what is costs, but does anyone here know how much it would cost to lease land for a year? Obviously it varies based on many factors, but a ballpark figure would be nice.
Excluding land costs, approximately how much would it cost to start a five head operation? I don't have a truck, trailer, or horse but I already have a cost figured on those and I also own two ATV's. Essentially I'd like to start off small and as my skills and income increase I would progress towards a full-time operation.
Can I spend my weekends working my operation and still work my day job during the week? Right now I live and work in a metropolitan area and it just wouldn't be possible to tend to the cattle more than a couple of days per week. Obviously I'd be sure they have adequate feed and water, what else would I have to do to ensure their well-being when I'm not there?
Are there any good books, magazines, etc. on ranching? I know there is material out there but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the good stuff and the not so good.
What are the most important skills that I'd need to survive my first year? I'm not planning on getting involved yet, but I would like to digest as much information as possible.
If any of these questions are unclear or just too vague please let me know. Thank you for your time and sorry if these questions have been asked before