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Starting a ranch

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Rifmurphy

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Hello there! New to this forum. Not sure if this is even the right place to talk about it. But here goes nothing.

Planning to start a cattle ranch in the next year or so. Land is available. Willing to start with say 6 cattle (1 male, 5 cows).

My goal is to supply beef to the local market (independent burger stalls etc). This is by slowly growing the numbers of my herd.

I feel to start, I might need minimal or no equpiments at all and minimum labor. To reduce the cost down.

What are your thoughts?

Thank you!
 
Welcome to Ranchers.net. My first thought is that if you're wanting to sell beef, you'd be a lot better off buying calves or yearlings to feed instead of trying to maintain a cow herd. And you certainly don't want to have to put up with a bull for only five cows. (Your neighbors with cattle aren't going to like your one bull for five cow ratio, either.)

Buying calves will put you several months ahead in having beef ready, and will let you focus your resources on coming up with your desired end product instead of feeding cows all year waiting on a calf that is still a year and a half away from harvest from the day he is born. You could buy different sizes/ages to be sure you have a consistent supply available.

As with everything, though, location matters. It would be helpful if you could provide at least a general location. Good luck.
 
Welcome to Ranchers.net. My first thought is that if you're wanting to sell beef, you'd be a lot better off buying calves or yearlings to feed instead of trying to maintain a cow herd. And you certainly don't want to have to put up with a bull for only five cows. (Your neighbors with cattle aren't going to like your one bull for five cow ratio, either.)

Buying calves will put you several months ahead in having beef ready, and will let you focus your resources on coming up with your desired end product instead of feeding cows all year waiting on a calf that is still a year and a half away from harvest from the day he is born. You could buy different sizes/ages to be sure you have a consistent supply available.

As with everything, though, location matters. It would be helpful if you could provide at least a general location. Good luck.
Thank you!

Now since you mentioned that, I have never thought about it. I guess I'll have to read up and experience raising calves for meat. Hopefully make some enough returns to breed my own.

Well I apologise for not stating where I am from. Well I am actually not from USA, I am on the island of Borneo (I apologise in advance if this forum is only for USA)
 
Welcome to Ranchers.net. My first thought is that if you're wanting to sell beef, you'd be a lot better off buying calves or yearlings to feed instead of trying to maintain a cow herd. And you certainly don't want to have to put up with a bull for only five cows. (Your neighbors with cattle aren't going to like your one bull for five cow ratio, either.)

Buying calves will put you several months ahead in having beef ready, and will let you focus your resources on coming up with your desired end product instead of feeding cows all year waiting on a calf that is still a year and a half away from harvest from the day he is born. You could buy different sizes/ages to be sure you have a consistent supply available.

As with everything, though, location matters. It would be helpful if you could provide at least a general location. Good luck.
What Texan said. ^^^
Great advice! Good luck to you.
Welcome to ranchers.
 
Thank you!

Now since you mentioned that, I have never thought about it. I guess I'll have to read up and experience raising calves for meat. Hopefully make some enough returns to breed my own.

Well I apologise for not stating where I am from. Well I am actually not from USA, I am on the island of Borneo (I apologise in advance if this forum is only for USA)
No apologies necessary, and this site certainly isn't for U.S. producers only. A general location is important so people are giving you advice that is actually useful for you and your situation. I know nothing about Borneo, or the cattle business in Borneo, or the beef business in Borneo - essentially making my advice worthless. If you can tell us a little more about Borneo and your cattle/beef business there, maybe somebody can give you more help. Good luck.
 
No apologies necessary, and this site certainly isn't for U.S. producers only. A general location is important so people are giving you advice that is actually useful for you and your situation. I know nothing about Borneo, or the cattle business in Borneo, or the beef business in Borneo - essentially making my advice worthless. If you can tell us a little more about Borneo and your cattle/beef business there, maybe somebody can give you more help. Good luck.
Borneo is located in South East Asia. Quite close to the equatorial line. So no winters, just sun and rain all day long. The country close to mine probably be Brazil?

Loads of rainforests.

The cattle/beef business here is mainly, importing the cows from Aussie and fatten them up to be processed.

Our cattle self sufficiency is around about 53% for a population of 1/2 million. Most of our beef comes in from aussie. I have little knowledge on why we do not raise our cattle locally (something I will look into).

My long term plan is to supply beef locally
 
Borneo is located in South East Asia. Quite close to the equatorial line. So no winters, just sun and rain all day long. The country close to mine probably be Brazil?

Loads of rainforests.

The cattle/beef business here is mainly, importing the cows from Aussie and fatten them up to be processed.

Our cattle self sufficiency is around about 53% for a population of 1/2 million. Most of our beef comes in from aussie. I have little knowledge on why we do not raise our cattle locally (something I will look into).

My long term plan is to supply beef locally
Raising cattle in a rainforest presents several problems. The lack of pasture is a big problem. The biggest problem you will face is an attempt to cut down rainforest to make pasture. If you already have pasture, then you may encounter other problems with traditional beef breeds and might consider a breed suited to the climate.
 
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Borneo is located in South East Asia. Quite close to the equatorial line. So no winters, just sun and rain all day long. The country close to mine probably be Brazil?

Loads of rainforests.

The cattle/beef business here is mainly, importing the cows from Aussie and fatten them up to be processed.

Our cattle self sufficiency is around about 53% for a population of 1/2 million. Most of our beef comes in from aussie. I have little knowledge on why we do not raise our cattle locally (something I will look into).

My long term plan is to supply beef locally
That's interesting, thanks for the information. Do you have markets locally where farmers or ranchers can sell live animals? Something similar to our cattle auctions or sale barns?

Our auctions typically will sell all classes of cattle - calves, yearlings, breeding cows, and slaughter cows and bulls. Some sales will even sell sheep, goats, horses, hogs, etc.
 

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