Starting my first ranch/farm

[R A]

I think I won. We had bought tickets...my wife has them and is late coming home this morning.....might not ever see her again....

Well, there WAS a winner in Missouri. :shock: I believe you'd still have claim to some money if she is now on the run!

RA, you're such a conservative individual that I don't know what kind of impact those lotto winnings would have on you. Possibly a conflict of lifestyle that you're used to :!: I bet you'd still be able to figure out how to make it all balance. Ha :!:

I'd probably blackout and blow it all on my way to Disenyland and not even be able to get in....then end up living under a bridge outside of some city....

What's funny is I was just reading an article on the curses of winning the lottery yesterday. It does sound like if a person isn't careful, they end up worse off than before they won it.... I would like to win it so I could hay my cows with a team this winter....

 

[JesseCarstairs]

Hopefully Jesse isn't just a hit and run.

I'm wondering if Carstairs is his last name or the town in Alberta that may be his home.

With the details provided and response so far, it sure sounded to me like a kid wanting someone else to do their school homework for them. .

I am doing my homework, i google all day long, I know one thing, successful people always find a mentor in the field they want to be in, i dont know any farmers or ranchers which is why i am on here, to learn as much as i can. thank you.

 

[okfarmer]

Hopefully Jesse isn't just a hit and run.

I'm wondering if Carstairs is his last name or the town in Alberta that may be his home.

With the details provided and response so far, it sure sounded to me like a kid wanting someone else to do their school homework for them. .

I am doing my homework, i google all day long, I know one thing, successful people always find a mentor in the field they want to be in, i dont know any farmers or ranchers which is why i am on here, to learn as much as i can. thank you.

The broad terms used such as agriculture and animals, along with very broad geographic areas and listing no specifics but giving yourself a 2/10 for experience seems like a fishing exposition for easy help with a school related project. Since you say that I am wrong, I will take you at your word and sincerely apologize.


So you can get some assistance:

If you don't know any farmers or ranchers, what gives you the 2 in the experience category?


What do you know about animal husbandry?


What do you know about agronomy?


What work experience or education do you currently have?


Where are you currently located?


What made you interested in ranching?


Are you looking for information on subsistence living?


So are you interested in farming, running livestock or both? and why?


What business experience do you have?


How are you going to support yourself during the start up of your business?


What do you think the average return on investment is on farms and ranches?

 

[JesseCarstairs]

Its ok, no reason to say sorry.

The 2 i get in experience category would have to be, the last two years i have raised a few cows, the first year i did two, got them fat, butchered them, fed me for the year, this year i did 3 cows, got them fat butchered them also. I also have a fairly good size garden, which more then feeds me and my girlfriend, but i give a lot to my neighbors, and i grow corn, tomatoes (3 kinds), spinach, strawberries, onions, garlic, peppers, bell peppers, tyme, cilantro, mint, etc. a lot more also. I have 6 chickens, i eat their eggs every day. I have been on a horse my whole life.

Husbandry, i know nothing about breeding.

i dont know what Agronomy is, but i am going to google it next.

I went to college, economics major.

I am currently located in Reno Nv

I am interested in ranching due to what i see the future of the country will be.

i am interested in farming and running livestock. I like good meat and good agriculture, i would like to provide them for others also.

The business experience would be that at 25 years old i own 3 corporations, i come from a family of mid-large business owners.

I make residue income and can work my businesses from any location, so that will support me in the beginning.

I would assume the average return is small.

 

[4Diamond]

So you are looking for a tax write-off and a hobby?

 

[JesseCarstairs]

I would say yes, it would be a business along with something i want and like to do.

 

[okfarmer]

I would recommend that you start by picking the area you want to live in or by picking what you want to produce. There is so much variation in a state, much less between them. What works in my environment won't work 300 miles north or south of me. Once you have a location figured out, then I would locate an individual that is successful at doing what you want to do in the area you plan to make a go of it (as is your plan). An open question here will yield you a thousand responses.

I don't know how big of an operation you are considering, but I wouldn't dive right in with little experience. If your tight on cash, it sure wouldn't hurt to even trade a little free manual labor with someone local that could use the help but has the experience and knowledge. It would be a good way to build a relationship. Then start slow until you get your first few bumps on the head. It doesn't take many wrecks (loss of multiple head of cattle) or failed crops to create a financial problem. I learned from my dad, he jumped out moderately sized to started farming wheat, they had horrible droughts back to back and took losses. The bottom them fell out of the market after that and he spent 20 years recovering. I don't recommend that. :wink:

If your not tight on cash which my assumption is your not and your looking for a place to invest it to hold on to it- if I were you and you make enough doing what your doing, I would consider hiring someone with some experience for day to day operations likely very affordable vs trying to pay yourself from earnings.

As you can expect, your previous business and economics background will be very useful.

I'm sure you've consider it, but if not, land appreciation would be something I would try to anticipate, along with trying to find an area with value in prices now to give you the best chance of turning a profit.

I may unintentionally offend someone when I say this, but being a good rancher is really being a good grass farmer in a lot of areas. If you don't take care of the land, it won't take care of you. There are extension agencies to help and you should take advantage of them, but don't take their word as gold.

I understand your desire with our current situation to become interested in agriculture.

The last figure I heard a few years back, is that the average farm yields a 3% return. Someone else may have a different figure. But the cost of equipment is very high if you plan on much at all, cattle are high and probably going higher. The scary part is that if something like mad cow disease or foot and mouth or such hits the us herd, it can wipe out a lifetime of savings pretty quick.

 

[andybob]

Adding to Oakfarmers' post, get some training in Holistic management, restoring the water cycle and wildlife diversity turned the denuded land I bought in Africa into a top grazing ranch in three rainy seasons, (summer wet season).

 

[JesseCarstairs]

Right now I am looking at places in Washington & Oregon mostly due to the amount of water there. I'll be taking your advice and doing a lot more research on how well things do in the areas I am looking at. Thank you for all your input.

 

[mrj]

If you need the tax write off for this dream, you sure need to learn all there is to know about how the IRS, and your state, if it has an income tax, treat such deals!

There have been news stories in the past few months about some who did not do that, even though they had the intention of the ranch business becoming a viable business. They simply failed to detail that plan with a formal business plan and other criteria IRS claimed is mandatory, as I recall.

mrj

 

[Faster horses]

Be prepared, Jesse. Lots of water usually means HIGH RENT DISTRICT.

 

[JesseCarstairs]

I don't need the ranch as a business write off, it would be its own entity. I agree that where the water is the prices are higher, interesting how thing work.