Getting started small

[DustyBoot]

Me again! I'll start with a recap of our situation: we have just under 14 acres of mixed grass and wooded area in central Texas (Georgetown/Taylor area). We're looking at keeping a few goats and a few cows to make the best use of the land we have.

I talked with the county extension agent yesterday and he said it sounds like we have some good ideas. As far as cattle, he suggested a couple of options.

1) Get two Dexter cows with the intent of selling their calves at 6 to 8 months for show/breeding/whatever, as keeping them for 12 to 14 months would likely be a bit of a strain for our land depending on what kind of year we're having.

2) Buy 3 to 5 stocker calves coming up from south Texas each year, let them graze for 3-4 months, then sell them and let the pastures recover.

Can anyone give me some thoughts on what those two options look like in reality? I'm wondering how hard it would be to market Dexter calves at that age, how hard it would be to pick up good stocker calves, where we're likely to find the best profit, etc. Because we're on a relatively small property and not all of it is going to be great for cows, we're trying to make the most of things without overdoing it.

 

[Baymule]

First, what is the market for "speciality" meat like Dexter? Start talking to people in your area. Grocery store lines , Walmart, Lowes, anywhere you are standing in line---YOU HAVE A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE! What are they going to do? Leave? And lose their place in line? If you mention Dexter and people stare blankly at you, then you might want to rethink them. If you mention Angus or Hereford and they start to drool, you might be onto something. Same thing with goats, most people have no idea.

Identify your market. Private sale? Sale barn? People wanting "Heritage" meat? 4-H?

We tell people we have lamb and sell them for $8 a pound, hanging weight, and we sold our 3 wether lambs before they were weaned. We will take them to slaughter, probably in September or October. We could sell more if we had it, but starting small and building our customer base seems to be working for us.

Getting two Dexter cows, or any breed of cows means that you will have them year around and will feed and hay them in the off season. You will have to either carry them to a bull or AI them to get them bred.

VERSUS

Buying a few stocker calves and keeping them 3-4 months and not having to feed them in the off season, not having to have them bred, might be a good place to get started.

 

[DustyBoot]

The good news is, we're not far from Austin which is the home of all sorts of niche trendy stuff. It's entirely possible there's a market, especially for only a couple of calves per year. But I'm not yet confident about my ability to find that market. A few months ago we were suburbanites, so I don't yet have the connections or knowledge that would come in handy for this sort of thing. When I was growing up we had a few Brangus cattle, and they just went to the sale barn. I'm getting the impression that's not the route we'd want to take with Dexters. (To be honest, my interest in Dexters started with the fact that some friends have a nice bull we could rent or borrow, although I've been favorably impressed with what I've learned about them since.)

Maybe my answer there is that we start with the simpler plan (I do know my way to the sale barn!) and keep stocker calves until we have a better feel for things.

 

[greybeard]

Buying a few stocker calves and keeping them 3-4 months and not having to feed them in the off season, not having to have them bred, might be a good place to get started.

Depends...
DB will haul her 2 stockers down the same road that semi loads of stockers will be travelling in the fall or late summer. Every rancher in Texas is going to be sending stockers and culls to the sale barn after the summer grass has turned dry and brown for the same reason she is sending hers--they don't want or can't afford to feed them thru winter. (Some savvy ranchers can afford to feed thru with supplements and sell late spring early summer when prices are higher)

Keep in mind..2014 and it's historically high prices is gone like the wind, because of a glut of beef on the market and it's likely to stay that way thru 2020.
It doesn't make any difference to the buyers, whether the animals going thru that ring came from a hobby farm or a 10,000 acre ranch--they're going to pay market price..less if they can.
When is market price lowest? It's unpredictable for any given year, but historically, the lowest prices come in July, Aug, Sept Oct and Nov.
For 2016:
Jan.....feb.....mar.....apr.....may...june....july....aug.....sept....oct....nov.....dec.....avg
130.14 130.96 136.75 129.85 127.75 125.09 118.17 115.49 104.83 100.01 106.65 112.93 119.88

Best prices, as you can see, are the 1st 2 qtrs after the fall glut has been consumed and the processors are gearing up for the beef retail consumption months of late spring thru summer. Has it always been that way? No, but we never had the selloff and herd reduction we did in 2011-2012 with the huge increase in herd #s that followed those drought years either.
Now, IF DB can raise some exceptional beef, she may be able to beat the market prices, but it won't be by much.
And, it depends when she buys 'em too. Have to assume she would buy in the Spring when grass is coming on. That, is the most expensive time to buy. Now, some will say "I won't buy from the sale barn, I'll buy private treaty from a local cowman." Most who sell private treaty sell at what ever they would get at the sale barn--if not higher.
The key for a hobbyist, is not to try to make a ton of $$ (because you aren't going to on the market) but rather to try to just get your inputs back.

I know some folks that are making money, buying broke mouth or malnurished cows cheap, taking them home, feeding some good groceries, packing on as much weight as they can in a short period of time and turning around and hauling them right back to the same barn they bought them from. Mash that scale down more than it did when you bought them and you get a few $ in your pocket plus the experience and pleasure of having some cows around.

 

[Simpleterrier]

Well put @greaybeard that was spelled out real nice

 

[DustyBoot]

Thank you for the detailed look at things! (And sorry for the slow answer -- it was a crazy weekend.)

So if I'm interpreting everything correctly, stockers could be a decent way to try out the cow thing, get a feel for it, learn a little about the market, and probably not lose money. As we learn what we're doing we might be able to manage things better and make a little money, or even just gain the knowledge we'd need to do well raising a couple of Dexters each year and finding a market for that.

 

[Baymule]

I think you got it! We bought cross bred ewes instead of pure bred registered sheep. That way if I killed them out of ignorance, it would hurt, but not as bad as losing a thousand bucks. And I can tell you, it hurts and I cried and grieved over my $220 cross bred ewe just as much as I would have cried and grieved over a $500-$1,000 registered highly bred ewe. Either way, it hurts. I had two lambs die in my arms this year and one born with all her internal organs born outside her body that I had to put down. They might be my "learner" sheep, but dammit I hate to lose them!

Our lambs are sold and spoken for before they are even weaned. We have no problem raising them to slaughter size and selling them. One day, we will slowly make the move to registered sheep.