# Looking for Advice on acreage and herd size needed for new farm



## nico326 (Mar 14, 2013)

Hello,

I've been doing my homework and am looking for advice from people who have already been there and done that so to speak. I would be new to "farming" but have raised and been around all kinds of animals the better part of my life. I will also be taking some agriculture courses to get a good handle on what I don't know yet. 

In a nutshell, I'm looking to start up a viable grass fed cattle business in the Washington state area. I plan to start smallish but would like to have some cash flow coming in as soon as possible. 

My basic question boils down to how many cows will I need to actually make enough to pay my mortgage and have some money leftover? I have a few options as far as property. The minimum size I want is 40 acres, with over one hundred being much better of course. I believe I could raise about 30 head on 40-50 acres? I plan to use rotational grazing and perhaps plant some cover crops for extra nutrition. I'm also planning on needing hay during the winter months also, although if there is a way to avoid this I would love to hear it.  

So off of this group size, how many would you harvest each year and roughly how much profit are we looking at? I'm thinking each will cost about $1,000 going in, with a finished total of about $3,000 per finished cow? Am I way off base here? Overestimating? 

For those of you in the business already, how easy or difficult is it to sell the finished product? Do you have problems getting rid of it all? I really want to avoid this problem above most other things. 

Thank you so much for any helpful advice.


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## DonnaBelle (Mar 14, 2013)

Here's my best advice:

Find out if there is a State Extension Center in your area.  Extension centers are usually connected with the State School of Agriculture.  Here in Oklahoma it's Oklahoma State University.  They know everything about every topic related to agriculture and animals.  They even have a vet college and are very knowlegable about GOATS, my passion.

They will be able to advise you on finances, stocking rates, etc.  You will be able to take some classes on cattle raising and the local representative will be able to get you hooked up with everything you need to know.

Good Luck,

I'm excited for you.

DonnaBelle


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## nico326 (Mar 14, 2013)

Thank you for the positive words, any bit helps! Really I am looking into any and all aspects from vegetables to fruits to assorted livestock. I'm leaning towards cattle because I think it's something I could do pretty successfully with a good profit margin (hopefully). Realistically I will probably do as much as I can to diversify without going overboard. I know that sheep and pigs have a quicker turn around time so we'll see. Might end up with a hundred acres of ostriches running around, who knows.


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## ourflockof4 (Mar 14, 2013)

There are a lot of varibles in your questions. Do you currently have a market for grass fed beef for $4/lb? In order the get the $3k/head your talking about that is the price range you would be in. DonnaBelle is right though, you should talk to someone locally.

Marketing that many head will be your biggest issue in my opinion. Finding a couple buyers for grass fed freezer beef is a little differnet then finding enough buyers for 40 head. 

Are you talking about buying feeder cattle & growing them out? Or running a cow/calf herd? Either way you will need to look at buying livestock with grass fed genetics.

In my opinion marketing is the #1 thing for any small operation. If you can market your product & find the buyers that allow you to charge a premium then you can make money. If you can't do that, or don't have that market in your area then you are left getting the commercial rate. Commercial producers probably only average $100/ head profit, if that. 

Do some research locally & see what beef is actually selling for in your area. Not what some yeahwho is asking for on craiglsit, what it is actually selling for. Work the number backwards from there and see how much profit you can actually pencil out. Don't forget about cost for winter feed, fencing, water, vet bills, insurance, land cost, taxes, ect.


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## Bossroo (Mar 14, 2013)

All of the above, then servay locally how many people in your area are willing to pay 2-3 times the  going market price for  perceived " grass fed"  vs. nomal grocery beef ( all cattle are "grass fed " with the added benefit of  grain added for 3 months prior to slaughter)  in your area.         This Washington resident household   will not for sure !


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## nico326 (Mar 14, 2013)

ourflockof4 said:
			
		

> There are a lot of varibles in your questions. Do you currently have a market for grass fed beef for $4/lb? In order the get the $3k/head your talking about that is the price range you would be in. DonnaBelle is right though, you should talk to someone locally.
> 
> Marketing that many head will be your biggest issue in my opinion. Finding a couple buyers for grass fed freezer beef is a little differnet then finding enough buyers for 40 head.
> 
> ...


This is exactly what I was thinking. A little background on myself, I'm actually in Japan and have lived here for the past 10 years or so. For various reasons I'm looking to come back to the states but want to do something I really enjoy when I get back. I'm planning on continuing work on the IT field and working my way into seeing if this idea is actually doable. I'm not interested in getting rich doing it, but I very much want to provide clean healthy food for my family and whoever I would ultimately sell to. Finding buyers is my #1 concern after producing the best quality product I can honestly. Only making $100 profit off of each head is in no way close to what I want to do and really wouldn't be feasible unless I had hundreds and hundreds of acres.

I am thinking at first buying some to grow out and seeing how they end up and approximately what I can expect in the future as far as money goes. I'd also like to get some cows to produce calves, thereby starting some new stock to grow out. My plan is to build slowly as I learn what I'm doing and try to get it as self sustaining as possible eventually. So the first year or so I'm thinking I'll be an idiot running around making every mistake in the book, but hopefully coming out of it with some semblance of knowledge. So this is exciting and a definite learning experience. Thank you everybody!


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