New Ranchers? Starting advice?
- Thread starter Fenyx
- Start date
If it is in fact a hobby place. People spend lots of time and money on their hobbies. So what would a person need to start a small ranchette? A lot of money with no expectation of being able to have a return on it. And if a person has no experience, well education is never cheap and this is very true in the cattle business.
A ranch to make a living. Probably around 300 mother cows. At today's prices that is $4,000 per cow for good young cows. About $1,200,000 +/- for the cows. You need a dozen bulls to breed the cows. So 12 bulls at $7,000 each is $84,000. A ranch to run 300 cows at $12,000 per cow carrying capacity is $3,600,000. The equipment to run this place if you buy decent used will cost $300,000 (my guess). So around $5,184,000. You don't need all that in cash. But the more you do in credit the more interest you will pay. Finding lease pasture will cut down on the amount of pasture you need to buy. But that isn't easy to find and comes with its own set of issues.
So if you don't have a burning desire to get in and work 24/7 for years to come. Keep your day job. Do I know people who got in with nothing to start and made it. Most certainly. But it didn't come without sacrifices.
A ranch to make a living. Probably around 300 mother cows. At today's prices that is $4,000 per cow for good young cows. About $1,200,000 +/- for the cows. You need a dozen bulls to breed the cows. So 12 bulls at $7,000 each is $84,000. A ranch to run 300 cows at $12,000 per cow carrying capacity is $3,600,000. The equipment to run this place if you buy decent used will cost $300,000 (my guess). So around $5,184,000. You don't need all that in cash. But the more you do in credit the more interest you will pay. Finding lease pasture will cut down on the amount of pasture you need to buy. But that isn't easy to find and comes with its own set of issues.
So if you don't have a burning desire to get in and work 24/7 for years to come. Keep your day job. Do I know people who got in with nothing to start and made it. Most certainly. But it didn't come without sacrifices.
My parents only had 5 acres. They would buy a steer in the spring and butcher it in the fall. When I was in second grade Dad bought me a Holstein bottle calf. By the time I was a senior in HS I had enough steers which I sold for locker beef to pay for 2 years of college (fall of 1969). I always had some cattle but life got in the way. I was 68 when we bought this place. It is a nice ranch but not big enough to make a living. The retirement checks do that. I have enough to keep me busy. But my full time neighbors have 5 times as many cows as I do.
Thinking of 2 guys I know who started with nothing and built good sized ranches. One worked graveyard shift at a sawmill. His wife and kids did a lot of the work that they could do. He worked and slept a little during the day. They lived on his wages from the mill and put any and all of the ranch income back into the business. The other one his wife taught school and he drove fuel truck and ranched on the side until they got enough that he quit the fuel truck. Lived on the wife's teaching salary. Neither had new equipment or drove new vehicles.
Faster horses
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- NE WY at the foot of the Big Horn mountains
We started with nothing. Just 2 dumb kids with a baby. We went to work for a rancher that helped us get started. Not with money, but with opportunity. That was 1965, Wyoming.
We were able to lease part of a ranch and run his cows on shares. We went in debt to buy cows and machinery. The FmHA was a good lender, until they started lending big money to people and the little people went by the wayside. Anyway, we got a FmHA loan and along with a wonderful local bank that really helped us. Soon we were able to lease the whole ranch. That place had a real good water right and we were able to put up lots of hay and sell hay. We were there for 8 years until the ranch sold and we had to leave. We took our cows to a ranch on the Powder River in Wyoming. It was a grass/cake outfit. That was the fall of 1973 and the bottom fell out of the cattle market the next year. In 1974, our steer calves didn't bring $100/head. Luckily, we ran that place for the owner. If we had paid a lease, we would have gone broke. The owner passed away in 1975 and we had to leave. We found a small place in SW Mt that we could buy. We were there 18 years. We sold that place and bought a bigger place in SE Montana. While we were in SW Montana we experienced a 100-year flood and a tornado. Leaving was still the hardest thing I ever did. But the move allowed us to expand. We were 50 years old and only knew 1 person in SE Montana. The folks there were good, as were the ones in SW Mt. I worked selling print advertising and then in 1994 I got to be a Vigortone dealer. We left SW Montana because our calves got sick every year, after buying some registered cows out of the Gallatin Valley. No one knew what caused it--we found out when we moved to SE Montana in 1993 and the calves got sick, as usual, that spring. We called in the Vigortone area manager and he knew what the problem was. Supplementing mineral was fairly new at that time and our problems stemmed from copper deficiency. If we had not found that out, we would have stopped ranching. We just couldn't keep doctoring all the calves every spring. They got everything, because they had no immune system (stemming from sulphates in the water) that ties up copper and zinc. Anyway, supplementing mineral was a real education for us and it was so rewarding to help others. But now I am off the subject. We were in SE Montana 22 years. And now here we are, back in Wyoming. We made a full circle. We are in our 80's. I say "we came home to die", but the friends we made and the things we experienced in Montana was invaluable. We had to leave home to keep ranching, but it all worked out. It was so tough to do at the time. I am not sure that you can start with nothing these days and make it work. Maybe if your wife has a job at the courthouse
.
(That is an old joke.)
Anyway, best of luck to you!!
We were able to lease part of a ranch and run his cows on shares. We went in debt to buy cows and machinery. The FmHA was a good lender, until they started lending big money to people and the little people went by the wayside. Anyway, we got a FmHA loan and along with a wonderful local bank that really helped us. Soon we were able to lease the whole ranch. That place had a real good water right and we were able to put up lots of hay and sell hay. We were there for 8 years until the ranch sold and we had to leave. We took our cows to a ranch on the Powder River in Wyoming. It was a grass/cake outfit. That was the fall of 1973 and the bottom fell out of the cattle market the next year. In 1974, our steer calves didn't bring $100/head. Luckily, we ran that place for the owner. If we had paid a lease, we would have gone broke. The owner passed away in 1975 and we had to leave. We found a small place in SW Mt that we could buy. We were there 18 years. We sold that place and bought a bigger place in SE Montana. While we were in SW Montana we experienced a 100-year flood and a tornado. Leaving was still the hardest thing I ever did. But the move allowed us to expand. We were 50 years old and only knew 1 person in SE Montana. The folks there were good, as were the ones in SW Mt. I worked selling print advertising and then in 1994 I got to be a Vigortone dealer. We left SW Montana because our calves got sick every year, after buying some registered cows out of the Gallatin Valley. No one knew what caused it--we found out when we moved to SE Montana in 1993 and the calves got sick, as usual, that spring. We called in the Vigortone area manager and he knew what the problem was. Supplementing mineral was fairly new at that time and our problems stemmed from copper deficiency. If we had not found that out, we would have stopped ranching. We just couldn't keep doctoring all the calves every spring. They got everything, because they had no immune system (stemming from sulphates in the water) that ties up copper and zinc. Anyway, supplementing mineral was a real education for us and it was so rewarding to help others. But now I am off the subject. We were in SE Montana 22 years. And now here we are, back in Wyoming. We made a full circle. We are in our 80's. I say "we came home to die", but the friends we made and the things we experienced in Montana was invaluable. We had to leave home to keep ranching, but it all worked out. It was so tough to do at the time. I am not sure that you can start with nothing these days and make it work. Maybe if your wife has a job at the courthouse
.(That is an old joke.)
Anyway, best of luck to you!!
Older Whiskey
Well-known member
What it would take to start a small cattle ranchette
Starting a small cattle ranchette requires learning famous quotes.
First learn to quote Clint Eastwood while looking in the mirror. "Do you feel lucky today punk, well do you?"
Next visit the bank wielding a machine gun and quote Baby Face Nelson. "Jesus saves, I withdraw."
Next quote former President Kennedy. "Ask not what your ranchette can do for you, but what you can do for your ranchette."
Next quote Forrest Gump. "My mama always said, a cattle ranchette is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get."
Final quote before making purchase. "Run, Forrest! Run!" Jenny Curran
Starting a small cattle ranchette requires learning famous quotes.
First learn to quote Clint Eastwood while looking in the mirror. "Do you feel lucky today punk, well do you?"
Next visit the bank wielding a machine gun and quote Baby Face Nelson. "Jesus saves, I withdraw."
Next quote former President Kennedy. "Ask not what your ranchette can do for you, but what you can do for your ranchette."
Next quote Forrest Gump. "My mama always said, a cattle ranchette is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get."
Final quote before making purchase. "Run, Forrest! Run!" Jenny Curran
Last edited:
Puzzled
Well-known member
I remember the early mid 70's. Bought some steers, held them a year, during that time one died. Sold them, and barely got back what I had invested, and I wasn't paying any pasture. It was quite educational.We started with nothing. Just 2 dumb kids with a baby. We went to work for a rancher that helped us get started. Not with money, but with opportunity. That was 1965, Wyoming.
We were able to lease part of a ranch and run his cows on shares. We went in debt to buy cows and machinery. The FmHA was a good lender, until they started lending big money to people and the little people went by the wayside. Anyway, we got a FmHA loan and along with a wonderful local bank that really helped us. Soon we were able to lease the whole ranch. That place had a real good water right and we were able to put up lots of hay and sell hay. We were there for 8 years until the ranch sold and we had to leave. We took our cows to a ranch on the Powder River in Wyoming. It was a grass/cake outfit. That was the fall of 1973 and the bottom fell out of the cattle market the next year. In 1974, our steer calves didn't bring $100/head. Luckily, we ran that place for the owner. If we had paid a lease, we would have gone broke. The owner passed away in 1975 and we had to leave. We found a small place in SW Mt that we could buy. We were there 18 years. We sold that place and bought a bigger place in SE Montana. While we were in SW Montana we experienced a 100-year flood and a tornado. Leaving was still the hardest thing I ever did. But the move allowed us to expand. We were 50 years old and only knew 1 person in SE Montana. The folks there were good, as were the ones in SW Mt. I worked selling print advertising and then in 1994 I got to be a Vigortone dealer. We left SW Montana because our calves got sick every year, after buying some registered cows out of the Gallatin Valley. No one knew what caused it--we found out when we moved to SE Montana in 1993 and the calves got sick, as usual, that spring. We called in the Vigortone area manager and he knew what the problem was. Supplementing mineral was fairly new at that time and our problems stemmed from copper deficiency. If we had not found that out, we would have stopped ranching. We just couldn't keep doctoring all the calves every spring. They got everything, because they had no immune system (stemming from sulphates in the water) that ties up copper and zinc. Anyway, supplementing mineral was a real education for us and it was so rewarding to help others. But now I am off the subject. We were in SE Montana 22 years. And now here we are, back in Wyoming. We made a full circle. We are in our 80's. I say "we came home to die", but the friends we made and the things we experienced in Montana was invaluable. We had to leave home to keep ranching, but it all worked out. It was so tough to do at the time. I am not sure that you can start with nothing these days and make it work. Maybe if your wife has a job at the courthouse
(That is an old joke.)
Anyway, best of luck to you!!
Again back to the deviation of a ranchette. 10-20 acres with house to live in while working a day job. A place which grows enough grass to have a steer to eat. Go for it. A full blown ranch is a bit more involved in both time and money. Now would not be a good time to do it. Cattle are at a all time high. Wait a few years this market will turn around. Cattle will be cheaper and people will be either quitting or going broke which will open up more pasture.
jodywy
Well-known member
Where we ranch now it takes 20 acres/cow-calf, west of me it 40 acres. Lot of Wyoming it higher unless you got some irrigated ground. Few years ago, Sue got a Frist time farmer loan to buy 45 head of bred Heifers to running age cows for $1500/head. The next fall calves boomed to $1500/head, she paid down loan of that loan, was a good thing as prices crashed the next year.
