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Traveling

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MBINGSLEY7

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Joined
Mar 1, 2017
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5
Hey all, New to the forum. Thought i would finally sign up and ask a question that's come up recently.

I am currently working on getting my property set up to start running cattle. I have about 60 acres and i plan to start fencing it in and have a pond dug out, get a good solid operation set up. This is my dream, my goal in life. This is what i want to be my main event.

My question.....A job opportunity has come up, that would be a nice raise and would get me to my goal/dream MUCH faster. Like within the next 2-3 years I could be fully operational. But the job will require travel. Not much, just 1 to maybe 2 nights a week or every other week.

My concern is with traveling, and having a cattle operation at home, would i be stupid to be across the country and expect the farm to stay safe. I wouldn't run much more than 10 head starting out. Would be plenty of pasture/water.

And i dont plan on retiring from my 8-5 job until my house is paid off.

Any thoughts or experiences yall have had with your ranch and primary job....?
 
You will be fine.......if you set your operation up right. Not a big deal to be gone for that amount of time. I routinely leave for a week or better at a time.......with no help......and do well.
 
Faster horses said:
First question, where are you located and how far from town?

Good luck, BTW and welcome to the forum.
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I am located in Northern Kentucky. Just south of the Cincinnati area. And town isn't to far, 15 to 20 minutes to the city, 30 minutes to Cincinnati.


I was thinking along the lines, that as long as i put a little extra into my fence, and make sure the pastures are well taken care of, the cattle wouldn't have any reason to wanna leave.
 
I was wondering due to the fact that if you were close to town, that could be an issue if you were gone for a few days; so that isn't the case; and if you were where it was cold you might have water freezing issues; again not the case.

Good fences make good neighbors and good cattle. :D

If you buy cattle from someone that has let them get out of fences, they will try it at your place, so again, good fences make
good cattle. We bought some cows once from a guy that didn't have good fences. Those cows would really test a fence. If they
did get out you can bet the 'lead' cow was always in the bunch that were not where they were supposed to be.

IMO, you will be able to leave for a few days, long as your cows have good feed and good water along with good fences.

Good luck.
 
Faster horses said:
I was wondering due to the fact that if you were close to town, that could be an issue if you were gone for a few days; so that isn't the case; and if you were where it was cold you might have water freezing issues; again not the case.

Good fences make good neighbors and good cattle. :D

If you buy cattle from someone that has let them get out of fences, they will try it at your place, so again, good fences make
good cattle. We bought some cows once from a guy that didn't have good fences. Those cows would really test a fence. If they
did get out you can bet the 'lead' cow was always in the bunch that were not where they were supposed to be.

IMO, you will be able to leave for a few days, long as your cows have good feed and good water along with good fences.

Good luck.
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Great advise! Ill be sure to make the fence the highlight of the ranch!

What i was thinking about doing, was 5 feet tall fence. Woven wire on the outside of the post, and doing 3-4 strands of barb wire on the inside...
 
The woven wire is going to be expensive and overkill unless you plan to run sheep or goats. My thoughts are to put use 5-wire barbed with the wires perfectly spaced, a bit closer together on the bottom two and a bit wider on up from there. I'm sure there are specifics from some fencing experts somewhere on the net.

If water and feed are properly considered and the fences are good, there's no reason not to pursue a job that will help reach your goals faster with some overnight travel. A high school kid would also make a cheap cattle-checker at times of extra concern due to weather.

Good luck.
 
High Plains said:
If water and feed are properly considered and the fences are good, there's no reason not to pursue a job that will help reach your goals faster with some overnight travel. A high school kid would also make a cheap cattle-checker at times of extra concern due to weather.

Good luck.
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Thats great advise!

Thanks guys
 
Hello MBINGSLEY7,

I am not sure if all would agree with my advice but I would think 5 strand barbed wire fence evenly spaced would be more than sufficient. However, I assume you aren't cost-sharing your fence with any neighbors and are taking the full financial load yourself. In which case I would put all of your wires on the inside of your posts because you are trying to keep cattle in and are not trying to keep critters outside of your boarder fence from coming in. By stapling your wires on the inside of your posts the cattle have to push the wires against the posts secured by the staples, whereas wire on the outside of your posts are only secured by the staples.
 
I like the woven wire idea 42" with 2 barbs you can rest easy knowing that they are staying in. All though a bit more expensive worth it in my opinion along highways nothing sucks worse than an animal getting hit the ramifications could get very costly.
 
It would be good to cooperate with a neighbor to share labor and equipment. If you're younger, perhaps an older neighbor could serve as a mentor while you offer more physical help. Personally, I'd put wheels under anything that needed a 5' tall fence. That's very productive country. You'll likely want to use electric cross fences to better utilize your grazing potential.
 
As a guy who travels, let me tell you two things.

Set things up easy. By that, I mean calve on grass, have the vet palpate replacement heifers for Pelvic Size, and don't keep any problem cows. They need to drop a calf and raise it. No excuses. They need to be independent. Do you see a theme here? ;-}

Second, have great fences but even better relationships with neighbors. Someone that can handle things while you are gone is worth so much. Make sure they are appreciated and compensated.

One other thing, I run my yearlings with another guy who stays home. Some form of that may be advisable. Partnering on pasture isn't always great if you have different ideas though.
 
Also, I started paying someone to winter a portion of my herd. It seemed like it was spendy up front. However we likely will have them winter all of our mother cows this coming year. After we looked at it, the ones we kept at home likely will cost us more.

One thing I have done is source feed and sold it to them to reduce costs to him. However, our costs before taking the feed out were better with him feeding. It just makes it even better when we do this.
 
Interesting points, and maybe #1 re your fence should be to check the fence laws in your state and/or county.
If you mentioned what sort of cattle (cows, weaned calves, yearlings?) I missed it. Someone else mentioned the possibility of good neighbors who might be willing to at least keep a watchful eye on them and contact you quickly if there is a problem. Good neighbors are a wonderful asset for anyone ranching or farming!!! We are blessed with some great ones, and hope you are, too. NEVER take unfair advantage of them, tho, not even if they somehow invite it! The Golden Rule is especially important if one is keeping or raising animals on their land.

It seems to me it is pretty important that you spend plenty of time planning and preparing for this adventure before even putting up your fence. Have in mind how you are going to do everything from starting the fence, to caring for and handling the animals. This is assuming you don't have much, if any, experience. There can be enough problems for people WITH worlds of experience and lack thereof can cause nightmares!!!! A calm personality is a real asset whether working with your animals, or your neighbors.

Well, you sure do know where to go for 'free advice', so you already have a good start toward success.

mrj
 
Hey everybody!

This is some of the best advise, some i haven't even thought of.

As far as a friendly neighbor..... The neighboring properly, me and him don't get along very well. He has cattle and a horrible fence.... cows kept destroying my wife's newly planted trees.... You can see where that situation went.

I love the idea of hiring a high school kid to check in on things while i would be out. That is probably going to be the route i would take.

I do plan on taking a lot of time setting up my operation, being very green, I want to make sure its right from start to finish.

As far as what kind of cattle i want, two types, One being texas longhorn. I love the beast of an animal and think they would be great. And i will also go into a more popular beef cattle, though which breed i haven't decided.
Also, i have my interview today for the job i mentioned earlier that would really jump start this goal/dream of mine.
 
Kosmo, your idea re. stapling on the side of fence your cows are to stay on, but around here, there are cows on both sides of most fences, so....would it work to alternate on each post which side the staples are on? May be a dumb q. but everyone else here is sleeping, so have no quick reference. It would look interesting, tho.

MBingsley7, what is the terrain like on your land? Mostly flat, or rolling, or rough with distinct hills and valleys, creeks, trees of grass only, old fields of crops, or current ones, for that matter? What types of grasses, weeds, other plants? Have you talked to a 'county Ag agent type person, or the federal Ag office (I'm assuming there is one in each county) and suppose some could be of vast assistance on everything from fencing laws to tips on how to deal with the 'non' fencing neighbor. Rule here in SD is each adjoining land owner stands on the center of the line to be fenced and fences to his/her right. Get to the corner and repeat the process. You may have multiple neighbors to complicate matters.,
Re. breed of cattle. Do you need to do some research on that? It would be easier and make sense to do that 'on paper' and in person by visiting with owners of various breeds to see what their practical experiences have been. If you like the Longhorn breed, are you aware that there are distinct variations within the breed? Some are 'lawn ornament' types, imo those would be the thin appearing ones with pretty colors and great horns. Others are more 'beefy' looking and have more meat on their carcass when it comes to 'pay day'. That wouldn't make so much difference if you are planning to sell them as breeding stock, but that takes more time to build a reputation which is a necessity for success in the breeding stock end of the cattle business. If you are in it for the 'lawn ornament sales' that is another angle. Actually, we had a person ask to buy two of our personal beef 'herd' of Longhorns as his personal 'lawn ornaments on an acreage in the Black Hills. Personalities and disposition should be extremely important to you, as a novice. They may or might not 'fatten up' a bit to make great tasting beef, if that is your ultimate goal. We have raised them and eaten them ourselves, but we had them due to the easy calving and used them on our heifers. In this area, at least, they don't sell nearly as well as the more popular 'beefy' breeds, from Angus to Limousin, and we have tried several breeds before settling on mostly black Angus.

I speak from almost 60 years personal experience raising cattle for a living, and we are third generation from Calhoon and Jones ranches near Midland, SD. We also have Generations 4,5,& 6 working or living on this ranch. If I were in your position and favored Longhorn for their colorful hides and the horns, I might look into Scottish Highlanders. They have some variety of coloration, beautiful long hair, gentle down very nicely (in our somewhat limited experience with them) and have wonderful meat. We even kept some till they were about ten years old before processing them and the beef was tender. We were going for the horn growth and have several heads mounted in various places, plus some had beautiful rugs from the hides. If you are in it to sell them, either as freezer beef, or live cattle, do you have an idea of where or how you will market them?

My major point: raising cattle is a costly 'entertainment', and difficult business, and the potential for disaster in so many ways, from financial to physical, is high for a total novice! The more one knows about it, the more likely to succeed at whatever of the many reasons for doing it. Maybe I've misunderstood your posts and you have more experience than I thought, and if so, my apologies for excessive caution to you. Don't mean to be discouraging you, but to give you a better chance of success, or at least survival.

mrj
 
on 60 acres I'd throw a hot wire in on the deal that will slow them up on both sides of the fence. I have a friend who has roping cattle longhorns/ Corrientes they are hard on fence from what I've seen my temper couldn't tolerate those cattle.
 
I used to be of the opinion that barbed wire would hold cattle in (or out) but recently that has proven not to be the case. Had a neighbors bull continually show up in my pasture. Each and every time I would find a section of fence torn up. One day I ran him out, fixed the fence, turned around to get in the mule and the SOB bull stuck his head under the fence, lifted up and tore a 20' hole of the fence. I am now using net fence on the perimeter of my property for a couple of reasons. One, keeps the animals happy and keeps critters (hogs) out.

JMHO
 

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