I’m young, only 24, and I want to have a few cows in the next 4-6 years. I’ve got the land, but that’s it. I’ve worked and been around cattle all my life but have never owned my own. I want to start small and have a few head in the next 3-4 years, 6 years at the very most. What advice would some of you guys who have cattle give to a youngin wanting to start out on his own with nothing but 80 acres and a dream?

Lots of people have lost lots of money in cows

Start building a good fence, catch pen and a head gate.

Yep solid fence is a must. Just start small. I’m guessing you just want to be a hobby farmer for tax purposes?

It depends on your plan. For example - slaughter house beef, you are dependent on the market price. Breeding stock - depends on the demand. At the end of the day, it is a hobby - you can spend as much as you want and enjoy it.

Before my mom died, we had 75-acres and raised registered purebred limousine. They were typically sold at auction and used for breeding stock. We paid a small fortune for a full-blood bull out of Canada, but he more than paid for himself with the additional percentage points of his calves. We normally kept 35-40 mature cows and sold the calves. We had very good pastures and supplemented their feed. This was back in the late 90s, but a typical weaned calf would sell for around $700+. So, it made some money for my mom and stepdad, but once you total the expenses - it’s not as much as you think. It was mostly a high risk hobby, that paid for the equipment and upkeep of the property.

Yes, I’m not depending on it as my main source of income. I have a good full time job with flexible hours. I enjoy being around and working cattle and I want my little boy to grow up in it, working cows and the responsibilities that come with it are good things for a kid to be around and learn from.

If it is a hobby thing just do it however you want. If you want them for a investment (beef cattle)i think it is like pissing into the wind unless you have 150+ head or already have all equipment paid for and at your disposal. Even then the return is not worth the risk for most folks in my opinion.

We buy every February to April, cow/calf, bred cows, and even a few calves.We sale by the end of October every year. We buy the stuff nobody wants, the walking dead, and nurture them back to health. We will lose one every now and then, but have made a profit every year for the past 15-18 years. You just have to decide what type operation you want to deal with.

Unless you are cutting your own hay and you have at least 20 momma cows that will give you a baby every year, you are going to lose money every year. It will take you a while before you are in teh black even with your own equipment. You are looking at a large investment in hay equipment. Your feed bill is going to be dependent on how many cows you have and the quality of your grass. But, you are going to have to supplement their feed at least in the winter.

Yelper probably has the best idea, buy in the spring and sell in the fall. I use to have a few cows and the last year I had them I figured out how much hay I needed and did a rough price on the cows and the hay was worth more than the cows were. I loaded them up the next week and sold them.

Most Important lesson I learned from having cows was that i was just as much a forage producer as i was a cattle producer. Get your pastures established before you get your first cow. Maintain your patures and dont over graze them.

This. Plant that 80 acres in good hay and sell to the cattle people. Much less headache.

Get alpacas.

Stob, agree but disagree. We once cut a lot of hay for ourselves and also to sell. It can be feast or famine, one pop up rain shower and you can loss 3000 square bales and a season's profit if not careful. We defiantly could make money off hay, but there is a big risk also.

I had a small herd of registered Angus I bought at a sale in Cullman several years ago. I was running between 10 and 15 every year, Bought a cow with a good bull calf and until he reached 2 years I had a longhorn bull that threw great calves. I sold the baby bulls and kept the heifers. When my Angus Bull grew up I ate the longhorn and kept the purebred Angus with a couple of the Longhorn heifers.
Got a good crop of calves every year, sold the bulls and kept the heifers for breeding. With good pasture the feed cost was not too bad, biggest expense was about 900.00 every fall for round bales of hay. For my herd I would but 38 balles and have a couple left over at the end of winter. The sale of the calves covered the cost of feed and a little more each year. when I sold out i mad about twice what I had invested in the cattle. Bull went for enough to cover the initial cost.
The reason I sold out was that I was tired of fixing the old fences around my place and I had three youngsters who would go on a walk around every chance they got.
I sold the herd as purebred, not registered because I did not want the hassle of the paperwork and the ages of my breeding cows.
At some point I want to get back into it, but right now I do not have the time, energy, and would have to re-fence the 40 acres I have in pasture.
Just standing around and watching them eat is a wonderfully relaxing experience. They were all (mostly all anyway) gentle and I could put hands on most of them.
When and if I build a herd again I will start with a good Angus Bull and Hereford cows. They would get the advantage of the cross breed vigor and the price premium of being black.
Mine mostly ate grass and built beef.

This is what one of my uncles did and he always made pretty good money with this approach as well.

Keep your wife away from the newborns. I now have pets, not cows. 1300lds rubbing its head on you while licking is not entertaining to me.

If I could go back in time, I'd have about 10 chicken houses.

I have room for houses too, but my full time job is too good to quit and a small cow/calf operation seems like a lot more of a low risk venture.

I have done exactly what you are trying to do. I bought some land a few years ago already had good fences on it and was broke up in to two pastures. I bought it for my wife and mine future home place. I hated to just have someone to cut the hay to keep me from bush hogging it. Last year I bought a few head of cow. From what I have learned don't plan on making much money but it is satisfying watching them grow and seeing your herd get bigger. What has saved me is having good neighbors to help you with what you don't have and to answer questions. Good luck.