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N FLA | FWIW, I appreciate the comments from Garvo and rodrod5, and know like most things, on this forum, take it with a grain of salt. I am glad the dialogue occurred, and there were a few takeways from it. I hope you dont bash rodrod, for not being a cattlemen, obviously he has been around the industry and was a big help to me with his post. I have 13 cows, but he is much more a cattleman than me anyday. Maybe he can take some pieces of what I or others do, and get into it himself. For his information, i have $3600 invested in 13 cows, that would otherwise have been put in the bank for my daughters college. It takes relationships to make it work, just like RR suggested.
So while everyone poopoo'd RR post, I gained a few things, Uniformity is #1, Didnt know, but when I look at Garvo's pics of the calves lined up, they are all identical size. Garvo has never said uniformity is key, ive never read that here before, but there it is in the pics. Wilbur posted what he does, and low and behold, I could probably gross 150 per head on calves from 300 to 500 lbs here doing what he does, and a few guys have posted the time of year they have been most successful.
Rodrod is right, nobody likes to lose money on anything, and I do have a full time job and several other enterprises. Lots of people think the ideas were dumb and wouldnt work. Pieces of them were very good. I do have a network like rodrod suggested, college friends in different areas (I went to Missouri State and Mizzou). Most are in farming. Also friends downstate in FL that buy at other salebarns. In fact, I was talking with my dad about my cow project and didnt know he owned cows in 1982 (I was 6, they weren't at home). He lives in MO and could easily do what RR suggested. I have super confidence a truckload of FL-GA calves would be fine if they were shipped to MO in April. He could sort them into uniform groups, take 20 a week for a month. Have another friend in SW Mo, could do the same thing, as long as he can drop off cows on the weekend or after work. I promise you if he could pick up an extra $5k a year, and be a cowman, he would love it. Maybe nobody else thinks that would work, but it is something to study, and I never even considered it.
Also, there is alot of belief as suggested that "hay is cows and cows is hay" as RR wrote, but a small timer might have the flexibility to use some alternative feeds. Cows here are on forages year round, so the majority of needs are met. I picked up bagged DDG with bugs for $2 a bag, I get all the earcorn I can pick from a friend that still hasnt harvested a field. Have some other avenues for bagged grain corn and wheat, at prices you wouldnt believe so I wont post them. Everywhere I read feed is the highest cost, of a beef enterprise. Just having the perspective, as random as it is, that there are other ways it might work is valuable. Don't get so worked up that someones advice may be disastrous. I am quite certain that many of the posts on here are "just talking", not things that people are really going to act on. We are all bigshots when we sit down at the end of the day, but in reality, most already have our plate full, and arent just going to take out an equity loan to buy 90 calves and pay a semi to haul them to Ogallalla to drop them at the sale barn in January without thinking it through.
FWIW, I thought I would post this pic, I bought this cow for $300 in November. If I make $100 per head, it will be very succesful. I think this will be a $650 cow (here) in March. Thanks for all the help and keep posting.
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FWIW, rodrod and Garvo
