Retirement Did not work out for me!

LOL I made it about a year of taking it easy from July 2020 to July 2021 and have since been doing more and more geared to buisness and income generation or property and quality of life improvements. I have no intention of ever returning to the size and scale I was pre July 2020.

Instead I have been focusing on building the Cattle herd up and selling Slaughter Steers and Cull Cows and raising select Bull Calves up to 12-18 Months and selling them as bull for breeding. I figure I have Wully Bully a Top of the line Papered Lowline Arberdeen (Angus)


He throws a lot of Bull Calves that are near Carbon Copies of him with two of of the High End Cows. Like this 18 Month Old that is ready to sell. And just starting to fill out with the Bull Traits and features.


Yesterday was a nice cool day and PoP was in a mood to agitate the cattle and the cattle were in a mood to chase PoP.
https://youtu.be/Oyol7wLFPQs

All a big game for PoP and she is FAST A lot faster than the Cows and Calves A game for the Cattle as well as predator defense training. When PoP is done playing she just jumps over the fence and the cattle are content that they drove the dangerous predator away LOL.

I picked the starter herd up in yet another failedsmall farm fire liquidation sale for $10,000. (Wully Bully, 2 Cows and 1 Heifer) The owner before me paid $16,400 for them from a top of the line genetics Lowline Angus Ranch $10,000 of that was for Wully Bully. He is not a cheap Bull. Sadly these small farm start ups almost always start up foolishly and buried in debt and 95% are Bankrupt in the first 2-3 years......... Because they borrow money to buy Bulls and Cows they can't really afford and tractors and implements and trucks and top of the line everything else and then 1-3 years later the Bank is liquidating in the Foreclosure/Bankruptcy Liquidation fire sale.


You can't convince these young geniuses to start small, keep the debt low or not carry any at all and grow and improve the equipment and livestock as you get more skilled, knowledgeable and known. Good advice my Grandpa Gave me a lot of years ago "if you can't make a profit with 10 tomato plants, you sure as hell are not going to make a profit with 10,000!" LOL same applies to livestock if you can't make a profit with a $1500 bull and a Couple of $800 cows, you are not going to do any better with a $10,000 Bull and $6400 worth of 2 cows and a Heifer

Anyway I didn't buy the Cattle to make money, I bought them to save money by putting beef in the freezer. Friend stopped by while I was putting two bull calves in the clamp to cut them into steers and said it is a damn shame you are going to cut such a fine bull prospect into a steer, pointing at the better of the two being cut. And he wrote me a check for $3500 and came back with his trailer and picked up his new Bull. Since that day I keep the better bull calves intact and sell them from $2000-$4000 depending on how much like their daddy that they are. I don;t bother with papering them, I probably should because they would sell for a lot higher price to a certain group of folks. But I don't and won't paperwork and registrations have never been my thing and the paper doesn't make the beef taste any better

So I grew the herd to Wully and 5 cows and leveled it off and have maintained it there. I make a nice little income selling a Bull Calf and 3 steer or Cull slaughter Cows per year. Between the cattle and the 2/3-1/3 crop lease I get a nice chunk of money going into Winter. It did not take long to recover the $10,000 I invested into the starter herd, but I had a old and loyal customer base already in place, its not like starting from ground zero and having to find someone to buy your stuff. I made a post on FB that I had 2 slaughter steers available and they both sold within 15 Minutes. And then the messages, emails and phone calls started...... "Are you getting back into selling cattle and Hogs" "Are you going to be selling packaged meats again?" Etc It seems I still have around 60-70 Customers that want to buy my stuff, even though I retired in 2020 LOL.

So I have been kicking around the idea of expanding the herd of cattle up to 12 Cows and 2 Bulls and running 2 unrelated herds to cross back and forth. That would amount to having 38 cattle on the pastures all of the time 2 Bulls + 12 Cows +12 Calves + 12 Finishers That is the Max Number My Pastures, Hay Field and The % of my Corn I would be willing to shift to grain finishing would support. I wanted to get to know the Lowline Arberdeen (Angus) Breed a whole lot better than I did when I bought them. I know Conventional Large Frame Angus very well and they can be real spooky and flightly. By everything I read the Lowline Heritage Breed is easy going, docile and does not tear everything up. LOL I have heard that about every breed of cattle and have learned to verify that for myself before believing it. At least with my herd everything good said about them has panned out to be accurate.

One of the better things about them is they require 1/3 less pasture/hay/grain to Finish out at 900-1100 pound hot weights Than a Conventional Angus or Hereford does. The Conversion from hoof to hang is running 66% on mine and Conversion from hang to cut and packaged is running 73%. As general rule you can figure a 60%/60% conversion on a Conventional Angus or Hereford. I use Conventional Angus and Hereford because those are the only two breeds I have raised that are not heritage breeds. Over the years I have dabbled with several Heritage Breeds Highlanders, Belted Galloways, Irish Dexters tall and short, and Devons and now a good bit of experience with Lowline Arberdeen/Angus. The two winners in my book and that I like equally are Irish Dexters and the Arberdeens. The Arberdeens win out over the Dexters simply because of price and availability. There are 18 Ranches Devoted to Lowline Arberdeen Angus within 150 Miles of me with different bloodlines. There are 3 Dexter Ranches that rarely have any replacement bulls or cows for sale. I typically had to travel to TX, OK or KS for replacement Cows and Bulls for the Dexter Herd, you have to refresh the blood now and then. A closed herd ends up being a inferior inbred herd with a lot of issues. I tend to replace the Bulls with the best ones born here before turning the old cows into whole beef hamburger and buying in young fresh blood heifer calves of the same age as the replacement Bulls. Individually unproven heifers are cheap and quality Bull Calves are Expensive. In reality it works out to the same cost of replacement since the number of heifers bought in = the cost of a new bull. It does spread the risk out though, if the Bull dies it is a big loss if a Heifer dies the pain is a lot less Dexters are a winner because they are multi purpose breed that produce top notch Milk and very high quality beef but also very small cuts of beef compared to beef/meat breeds. Arberdeens are a winner because they are easy keepers, cost less to finish, have comparable weights to Conventional Angus and IMO much better Beef/Meat than Conventional Angus. They also like the Dexters excel at foraging and converting pasture into muscle.

So my plan has evolved in to buying in 6 medium framed Herefords Heifers next Spring and putting them with a Prospective Bull from my Herd to breed % arberdeen/herefords A bigger framed hybrid that will have 150-200 pound higher finished weights, that will still be exceptional forage converters and add 1 more Arberdeen Cow to the Arberdeen herd. The friend that bought the first Arberdeen Bull put him with a group of his Herefords and the resulting calves were beyond impressive. Low Birth Weights for easy calving and very fast growth, A shorter frame than a pure Hereford and 1250-1300 pound finished weights on the steers and 900-1000 pound finish weights on the Heifers. And after eating a couple of packages of his Ribeyes and T Bones I have Zero complaints about the meat quality!

With only 12 finishing per year I won't even begin to meet the demand from my old loyal customers. I down sized the Hay and Pasture land A LOT. It seems several of the Customers are working together to go in on halves and quarters together. So that helps.

The price of Beef in the store is NOT going to trend downward. Sure there will be the occasional glut in the market triggered by big herd sell offs here and there. But the reality comes down to basic supply and demand. There is a growing population of humans creating and maintaining high pressure on the demand side and a continually shrinking National Herd population. A LOT of people are turning to reputable small and mid size farms like myself for affordable beef. They get the added bonus of knowing exactly how their meat was raised and finished and knowing the farmer that raised and finished it. A lot of us will custom finish as grass fed and finished or grain finished to the buyers specs. LOL Personally I like heavy grain finished for the last 6 Months with lots of fat and marbling but not that greasy ass level of fat and marbling that expensive Krap like Wagyu is.... may as well just grill a chunk of lard fat IMO. Reputable and Honest is a must though and it takes time to build that kind of reputation, something the Fly By Night Farms can't seem to grasp.

The Arberdeens just don't take much work and they don't tear the fence and barns up. The only times they escape are when a tree or big limb falls on a section of fence or some shit for brains opens one of the gates on the South Side of the pastures. And when they do Escape they don't go anywhere. Every time they have I find them grazing around the fence perimeter looking for a way to get back in. LOL Cattle are really dumb and struggle with the concept that they can go back in the same way they got out. Unlike Hogs that are smart and just like tearing stuff up! Escaped hogs won't go through a 20' wide open gate but will tear up 20' of fence to go under it....... right next to the 20' wide open gate LOL.

My Amish Friend John has pretty much given me a full education on Hair Sheep and sold me on the idea of putting 20 or so on the pastures as companion grazers to the cattle. The Hair Sheep will eat the Goldenrod, Ragweed and Pepperweed down that the cattle won't touch. And they are not Goats! I hate loathe and despise goats!!! After spending a considerable amount of time with and observing John's Hair Sheep, I am now convinced they are not goat like at all other than in their grazing and foraging habits. I have no use for wool sheep, I have nothing against them personally beyond the mandatory shearing and the occasional maggot infestations in the wool on them. I also like Lamb and there is a decent market for it locally. I like lamb even more after John showed me his sales and Net Profits from his hair sheep. Very impressive numbers! So again a low maintenance livestock with high returns on investment in the Hair Sheep Department. The Hair Sheep are going to fill the gap that getting out of hogs left here.

Hogs I am just simply not going to get back into them! I will buy a few feeders every year and finish them but I will never go back to a breeding program and finishing 250-300 per year. They are just too much work and too expensive in grain to maintain the breeders and finish the finishers. If someone is doing 100% pasture raised and finished pork...... it will be about the most foul and shitty pork you have ever tasted. And lets just be honest the people claiming that and charging insane high prices for it, well they are straight up liars. I have known enough of those clowns and seen their operations and practices. They run them on pasture but feed as much grain as any hog barn does, they just hide the feeders from sight. At least their hogs do get pasture time and are not confinement hogs......... But there is still a whole lot of Bullshit peddled in the Pasture Pork business Honestly a rancid old feral hog taste better than a real 100% pasture raised hog. Anyway no more hogs here other than my personal bacon makers. I am getting to old to be chasing constantly escaping hogs down and leading them back. I made A LOT of money with the Hogs for a lot of years but that time has came and gone.

Chickens and Poultry, I just bought 500 pullets Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks and Buff Orps. They will be grown up enough to breeze through winter and start laying in the spring. At my peak I was selling 75 dozen eggs per week at $1.75 per Dozen profit Charging $2.25 per Dozen it was a easy $130 per week in pocket change. With 500 online and laying that will be a dependable 36 dozen give or take per week and a easy $65 or so per week. Eggs have been a big request from the customers for me to start selling again. My little personal flock of 8 hens and Rooster running circles around the hen house is great for just us but would not make a dent in the request. Not big money by any stretch but it adds up over the course of a year to around $3000 I would not have otherwise and only take 20-30 minutes of work per day.

I put 50 of the pullets in one of the containers to experiment with housing them in a 20' container. LOL they don't quite trust me yet. In a few weeks I won't be able to open the gate without them swarming me. With doors open and a fan on the container stays in their temp comfort zone on a 100 degree day. And I put up a 20x30 run for them outside of the container


Seemed like a good use for the garden shed container by the high tunnel...... After cut down all of the giant ragweed around it.


The other 450 are in the old 24' GN Trailer I set in the woods by the new house after I cut the axles off and laid a 3" rock pad for it to sit on. I put up a 24' x 160' chain link yard for them. I can't let them just free range and moving chicken tractors every day is a PITA So I mow a few strips of grass out of the pastures into a bagger every morning and bring the pasture and bagged bugs to them LOL it does not take long for every bug and green blade of grass to disappear!

So cattle, hair Sheep and Chickens work will average out to about 20 hours of work per week by my reckoning. Hanging Weight price for Slaughter Steers and Cows is averaging $6 per pound now days on the National Average. The Local average is closer to $3.75-$4 per pound hanging weight. My cattle hang weights run 750 pounds on steers and 600ish on Heifers, Boned Cuts and packaged = And average of 500 for steers and 440 for heifers. So 3.75 x750pounds for a steer = $2812 for me. Processing cost vary greatly from plant to plant and the individual cut orders. The Plant I prefer is $1.25 per pound for Basic Custom Exempt processing (Processing is based on Hanging weight) So Figure $937 for custom processing on the 750 pound hanging weight. $2,812 to me + $937 for processing to the packing plant = $3,750 (Round out) $3,750 Divided by 500 pounds = $7.50 per pound of packaged Steer. A comparable Burger at Walmart is running $6.50 per pound, Ribeyes kind of comparable are running $14.97 per pound, Chuck Roast $8 per pound....... you get the idea. Prices vary by region so it may be less in one area and a lot more in another.

This raises the question of..... Is it worth it to buy direct from the small and mid size beef producers and have it custom processed? On average you will pay someone like me and a packing plant less than you will Walmart. Us Farmers get to put a lot more money into our pockets than selling it contract or at Auction. That higher price you pay at the store is after every middle man along the way takes their cut along the chain. The farmer gets a very small % of that store meat price. That is why I started selling direct to the end consumer 25 years ago and never looked back. I win, the local and regional packing plants win and the End Consumer wins. I like it when everyone wins! Is it worth it is totally subjective and up to the individual. What I do know that as the beef supply continues to shrink and the demand continues to rise, A lot more folks are looking to us small and mid size direct marketing producers to meet their beef needs.

For my purposes say I produce and sell 12 steers per year at $2812 per that is $33,744 that comes to me. If I sell it on the Auction Block it will bring me Maybe $10,000-$13,000 on a good day a whole lot less on a bad day. And at the end of the chain the consumer will be paying 15%-20% more overall than they would have paid buying direct. Drawback to buying a whole steer is 500 pounds of beef takes up a good chunk of freezer space. That is why a lot of my customers go into together on Halves and Quarters and divide it up equally. I DO NOT get involved in that aspect of it. Once the livestock steps off the trailer at the packing plant, My job and involvement is DONE

So I thought folks here might appreciate the perspective of how things work and what my future plans look like as far as livestock goes. As usual I am not trying to sell anyone anything, Not like I have anything that isn't already spoken for up for sale anyway other than a 18 and a 12 month old pair of bulls that will most likely be sold within the next 12-48 hours and won't have anymore bull calves available until this time next year. I am the slow grow with your market kind of guy. Not start big and hope you can grow a market, seen one after another go bankrupt playing the go big game and very few win the lottery with it. I have been around as a small farm business with $90,000-$150,000 annual net profits for 26 years now the first 5 years making it 31 years total were getting established, earning customers trust and growing a viable market and income. 10% that start up a small farm business are still doing business after 5 years 1/2 of 1% still exist after 20 years. LOL it is pretty safe to say that after so long and being in the less than 1% I know a thing or two about what I speak of. I have earned a pretty good living by scratching it out of my small farm. Good enough that I could quit and retire at 52 very comfortably. And at 55 get the strong urge to get back into it in the aspects that I enjoyed the most and have the least amount of drama, regulation and interactions with the assholes in the general public. Hope you folks gain something from this whether it just be some insight or some motivation to start producing. It ain't easy but I can't think of a better life and way to earn a living than the one I have had.

 

Retirement doesn't mean "Do nothing".
It means having the ability to do things on your own terms and still generate enough income to live on.

 

I find all of this extremely interesting! Actually, my retirement has gone from a madhouse to boredom as I finally got the property cleared and all the problems worked out. So much so, that the wife took a job at a local grocery store in the produce section which she loves since she would rather be around fruits and vegetables than people...or maybe just me. LOL! Anyway, I'm bored to tears now and got to find something to do. Sure wish I could raise some cattle...I only got 5 acres so not viable but sure wish I could raise my own beef.

"I like it when everyone wins!"
Hell KK, that the best advertisement you can have! I will be looking into buying beef locally after reading your post. Should have done this much sooner... Thanks!

 

Just avoid the moonbat leftist farms for anything really, have one here charging $20 per pound for grass fed and finished hamburger that taste like dirty socks. He doesn't cut the bulls to steers and at 18-24 months old they are getting pretty rancid. LOL another lefty charges $50 for 5 pound broiler chicken......... Need to find the normal farmers that would rather sell to regular folks instead of to the contract or auction barn. Craigslist and FB Market Place are often good places to find them advertising locally.

Can do quite a bit on 5 acres a Dexter Cow for milk would work if you have the grass and throw in a couple of sheep or *Spits* Goats to keep the weeds ate down. Rabbits in hutches on the side of building, one of the best manures around for a garden. A hen house and some layers. A good size garden. Get crazy and make 1/4 acre fresh water prawn pond. Grow grapes and get into wine making, One of my favorite winter hobbies is taking the grape juice I squeezed out in the summer and tinkering around making wines. LOL half of it only good for cleaning battery terminals but some turns out pretty good.

 

i wish i was smarter on stuff like self made money like this. I try and think of stuff but my brains pretty dumb lmao. I enjoy reading everything you post about this stuff though!

 

Yes, we really should have a chicken coup and the wife has shamed me into getting her location ready for one but so many folk around here do chickens that we get fresh eggs really cheap so I haven't seen the sense, but she does so... We do have good size garden and it provides enough for the two of us plus now, she is working in the produce section she gets deals, like 100 pounds of tomatoes for $9 which she canned for salsa and spaghetti sauce, etc. Are these Hair Sheep for eating also?

 

I pretty much just reverted back to what I learned and knew growing up. FOOD everyone has to eat and everyone always has to obtain more. You get to know your customers and they get to know you and they over the years get to be friends and some as close as family. It has been fun watching their kids grow up, then their kids making them Grandparents. Kind of proud that I am on two generations of Customers kids that call me Uncle Mike now. Means a lot to me also that I have customers that have been with 25-30 years now. I don't think me fully retiring was ever really in the cards. LOL I missed those regular see them every week or every other week folks and well they missed me to. I am not going to take on any new customers but will do the best I can to take care of the ones that came to depend on me and my farm to provide food for them. I just got so damned sick of the left wing customers that were a constant revolving door and the endless complaints. All of the behind the scenes back stabbing and treachery that is just a part of the Markets and doing business with the general public in the local and regional food scene. I needed the break from it all and I needed to take some time and do for myself instead of everyone else.

 

Was taking some pictures while finishing up mowing some spots and took a break in my chair on the pond point. Guess I hit the record button on the camera and made this accidental video. Yeah this is what I want to be doing a fair portion of my time now days LOL but I also want to stay active and productive. Forgive the Garb I don't dress well for working around the farm

https://youtu.be/6UJnFfYMhi4

 

KK, I would be a damn liar if I didn't admit I am green with envy of your ponds/lakes...

 

They were something I have always wanted and just never had the time to take a entire summer to build. LOL I don't regret even a little bit taking April through Mid November last year finally doing it! My butt and tail bone might disagree with me on that, it was a whole lot of time in the tractor saddle that ranged from spring cool, to burning through the summer to finally saying good enough in November when the cold North winds started beating me. Then watching everything come to life and fill in this year. Not much better than sitting in my chair on that point with the dogs laying beside me and just watching, listening and relaxing. Not a problem or care in the world once the butt hits the chair

 

It does amaze me when i sit and dovehunt these old farm ponds in kansas, crazy that all of them ive seen have been there for 50+ years. Man can do some pretty cool stuff.

 

Retirement usually means too little money and/or nothing to do. For people that have worked most of their lives the boredom can be a killer. Unless you have a plan on how you are going to LIVE the next 20-30 years of your life you might as well keep working, otherwise, you're just a zombie (aka the walking dead)!
I'm glad that the pond worked out for you. Usually, if you dig a hole for a swimming pool, it will rain every day, but if you dig a pond there will be a prolonged drought! The ponds/lakes will be a source of pride, enjoyment, income and a damn good prep!

 

Watched your video, and though I heard someone digging around in a cooler and popping the top on a beer (or maybe a Coke).

 

Probably my rickety harbor freight chair LOL

 

This time of year, Rural King usually has a sale on chairs.

 

I would probably have to rebuild it from the ground up LOL.

 

Yea, a $5-10 Rural King chair isn't going to last long! What you need is a lounge chair or a hammock and a cooler of cold beer, but be sure to take a fishing pole too, otherwise people will call you a lazy drunk.

 

" a lazy drunk "
Is that a bad thing ??

 

Not necessarily, but if you take along a fishing pole you are a "fisherman"!

 

Expensive bulls and cows (with papers) are for breeding operations that raise and sell high priced bulls and heifers to other farmers/ranchers for additions to or replacements for their herds, not for slaughter where most any bull or cow will do the job. Many of these young or new farmers expect to have it all from the get-go, they want to have new top-of-the-line everything when they should be looking for gently used second-rate equipment and animals. Farmers like you have nice stuff cause you paid your dues years ago, and can now afford nice equipment and such.
My Father got back into farming about 60 years ago. He was raised on a small north Alabama cotton farm in the1940s and 50s and swore when he left that he would never go back. He made a little money in business, and he and my Mother built a house on a former cotton field on the family farm. Cattle were doing good at the time, so he was looking to rent some land to raise cattle. He found a farm that seemed perfect, it was near the house, the rent was cheap, and most of all it had good fences and a pond. However, the rent had to be paid in bales of cotton, in part to maintain the cotton allotment. He got a a new JD 3020 package that included a plow, disk and cultivator, and arranged for an established farmer to plant and harvest the crop. He tested the soil and added fertilizer and lime. He also had a bulldozer clear out the drainage ditches (it was a little low). He planted what we called 'the 21-acre field' and it turned to cotton! He made 3 bales to the acre that year, more than anyone else in the county...more than anyone else in north Alabama! The county extension agents wanted to know what he had done and brought other farmers out to look at it. Well, it went to his head, and he changed his plans, instead of cattle with some cotton, he went with cotton and some cattle. He paid-off his equipment and bought a 4-row planter and a 1-row cotton picker that mounted on the tractor, then he rented additional land and bought a gently used 2-row cotton picker. We would sometime buy a bull and cows cheap in the fall let them eat the cotton seed remaining in the field (also grass and hay) and sell breed cows in the spring. All of this was possible because of the farm policy under LBJ and Nixon, and when that changed, he started looking for a way out of farming and into something else, which he did.