- Joined
- Aug 16, 2016
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- Location
- Shenandoah Valley Virginia
Maybe I can put in my 2 cts on this. I am of the homesteader mindset, yet my son and I have a fairly large beef cattle operation. We could not make it if we both didn't have off farm jobs, but we are trying to pay mortgages, so that money is a bit of a wash since we would be paying a motgage or rents with or without the cows. I have put a pencil to the garden as opposed to buying vegetables, and definitely do come out at least even if not ahead. Counting the time and equipment that is involved in canning and freezing. That does not take into account that I am getting exercise that I wouldn't get, or that I get some very VALUABLE stress relief from getting in the dirt. I do a major job of mulching so that it is not a time consuming problem to pull weeds in the summer. And I do not use chemicals so I KNOW that my produce is not "tainted.
I did pastured free range layers for several years. Paid for my two used and retrofited camper trailers and all their feed plus misc equipment on wholesale egg prices in less than 2 years. Plus buying my pullets as ready to lay @ 20 weeks, off set by the value of the 2 yr olds as bigger cull hens that are very in demand here by different ethnic groups. But I could not justify the costs of the d*****bald eagle that carried off 122 hens in one year so I quit. I have some purebred hens that I show so they are a hobby but the sale of hatching eggs and the value of FRESH eating eggs make them about a wash money wise. All hobbies don't have to be justified. My sister and her ex used to have a boat....they enjoyed it but it never gave them back anything financially...At least my chickens do. And they eat bugs and I enjoy them.
My steers that go in the freezer come out to average about $4.00 lb for everything; steaks, roasts ground beef etc. That's the cost of ground beef at the market and I KNOW WHAT MY ANIMALS HAVE EATEN. So I am coming out even with input, but at the value of the meat ( steaks and such) at the store, I am ahead.
Have any of you ever seen what they figure the cost of venison is ???? If you had to go out and buy everything to be able to shoot a couple of deer a year?? What I am trying to convey is that the initial costs are high but over time they can be averaged out. And yes I like venison...
We have White Texas Dall sheep. a hair breed that is semi-wild. We raise them for the rams trophy heads. Takes 4-6 years for a ram to make the grade, often a horn on one side will get broken and take them from a $5-800 ram down to a $150. ram, so we lose on them. My son likes them. We sell all the lambs that we aren't retaining for breeding or don't make the cut for keeping for horns, as feeders and the prices vary wildly year to year. No they aren't money makers, but he enjoys them. He also has purebred poultry. bloodlines that his father and grandfather have developed and they don't make any money but has eggs. A hobby that he does sell some breeding stock and culls from so they aren't a "money pit" but not profitable.
Our cattle operation is a different story. It is a business. He has an accountant that is very good, we have alot of land rented, alot of equipment, and work alot of hours at it. We run a cow/calf operation; average of 200 head of momma cows, so have an average 350 head counting heifers and calves, at any one time. We calve a group in the spring and another group in the fall. We also sell hay, and do custom bush-hogging. We make money some years, some don't, but also have tons of write offs. He figures that he will have his farm paid off in 20 years so all the cattle income after that will more than pay the costs plus give him a small income. This is a business, and we are constantly looking at ways to be more efficient. Prices have been on a HUGE roller coaster ride the past 5 years. We also have a big debt load from buying most of the equipment from a friend who had cancer, before he passed away, at a VERY low interest rate which gives his widow an income; to be paid off in less than 20 years; plus we rent the farm, for a too high cost, but it is central (literally and figuratively) to all that we do so we justify it that way. We don't pay rent on several places as people want the land use tax advantages and aren't going to farm it or are elderly and no longer can farm it. So we can offset rents that are high by places there is no rent. There are places we have lost due to sales, some we have given up when the rent cannot be justified. We have people calling him to make hay or run cattle on their place because we try to do right by the landowner, if they are fair to us.
We are in this for the long run. We have our days when I am ready to scream, but it is what we do. Yes there are days when I wish we didn't have all this responsibility, but he has pencilled it out to where we had to be to make it pay or to do it, small scale, as a "hobby".
I am in total agreement that not all things have to be profitable. That said, you do need to have an idea of what you are putting into it. Some things just are not practical no matter how you justify it and no one on here that I have seen is a millionaire.
I did pastured free range layers for several years. Paid for my two used and retrofited camper trailers and all their feed plus misc equipment on wholesale egg prices in less than 2 years. Plus buying my pullets as ready to lay @ 20 weeks, off set by the value of the 2 yr olds as bigger cull hens that are very in demand here by different ethnic groups. But I could not justify the costs of the d*****bald eagle that carried off 122 hens in one year so I quit. I have some purebred hens that I show so they are a hobby but the sale of hatching eggs and the value of FRESH eating eggs make them about a wash money wise. All hobbies don't have to be justified. My sister and her ex used to have a boat....they enjoyed it but it never gave them back anything financially...At least my chickens do. And they eat bugs and I enjoy them.
My steers that go in the freezer come out to average about $4.00 lb for everything; steaks, roasts ground beef etc. That's the cost of ground beef at the market and I KNOW WHAT MY ANIMALS HAVE EATEN. So I am coming out even with input, but at the value of the meat ( steaks and such) at the store, I am ahead.
Have any of you ever seen what they figure the cost of venison is ???? If you had to go out and buy everything to be able to shoot a couple of deer a year?? What I am trying to convey is that the initial costs are high but over time they can be averaged out. And yes I like venison...
We have White Texas Dall sheep. a hair breed that is semi-wild. We raise them for the rams trophy heads. Takes 4-6 years for a ram to make the grade, often a horn on one side will get broken and take them from a $5-800 ram down to a $150. ram, so we lose on them. My son likes them. We sell all the lambs that we aren't retaining for breeding or don't make the cut for keeping for horns, as feeders and the prices vary wildly year to year. No they aren't money makers, but he enjoys them. He also has purebred poultry. bloodlines that his father and grandfather have developed and they don't make any money but has eggs. A hobby that he does sell some breeding stock and culls from so they aren't a "money pit" but not profitable.
Our cattle operation is a different story. It is a business. He has an accountant that is very good, we have alot of land rented, alot of equipment, and work alot of hours at it. We run a cow/calf operation; average of 200 head of momma cows, so have an average 350 head counting heifers and calves, at any one time. We calve a group in the spring and another group in the fall. We also sell hay, and do custom bush-hogging. We make money some years, some don't, but also have tons of write offs. He figures that he will have his farm paid off in 20 years so all the cattle income after that will more than pay the costs plus give him a small income. This is a business, and we are constantly looking at ways to be more efficient. Prices have been on a HUGE roller coaster ride the past 5 years. We also have a big debt load from buying most of the equipment from a friend who had cancer, before he passed away, at a VERY low interest rate which gives his widow an income; to be paid off in less than 20 years; plus we rent the farm, for a too high cost, but it is central (literally and figuratively) to all that we do so we justify it that way. We don't pay rent on several places as people want the land use tax advantages and aren't going to farm it or are elderly and no longer can farm it. So we can offset rents that are high by places there is no rent. There are places we have lost due to sales, some we have given up when the rent cannot be justified. We have people calling him to make hay or run cattle on their place because we try to do right by the landowner, if they are fair to us.
We are in this for the long run. We have our days when I am ready to scream, but it is what we do. Yes there are days when I wish we didn't have all this responsibility, but he has pencilled it out to where we had to be to make it pay or to do it, small scale, as a "hobby".
I am in total agreement that not all things have to be profitable. That said, you do need to have an idea of what you are putting into it. Some things just are not practical no matter how you justify it and no one on here that I have seen is a millionaire.
