How big is your operation?

[C-CROSS]

about 3000 acres 250 cows and 40 bred hfrs

 

[showsteerdlux]

My family is still small on numbers but increasing each year. We run cattle in the Southwestern mountains of NC. When I'm home I manage about 25 cow calf pairs for somebody, always have plenty of fence to check, and cattle to feed. We've had a pretty good drought here the past 3 years so thats starting to hit hard with feed and hay prices. Starting to try and fool with e.t. a little. I'm a full time college student with the cows 5 hours away so its interesting to try and make breeding decisions from that far away. During the summer I work for a Department of Agriculture Reserach Station that runs 100 cow/calf pairs, a small backgrounding operation, alot of vegeatble production, most of the burley tobacco research for the state and then christmas trees and wheat. All this manages to keep me busy and we also show pigs, steers, and commercial cattle. Lastly I've fitting more and more on the side when i can find the time.
Main goal right now is to get some e.t. calves, and then I'm looking at trying to get into the contract hog business.

 

[Endless Meadows]

We are pretty small peanuts and just getting started and kind of learning the ropes.  I have 12 registered cows that are kept and ran with my father's herd of commercial cattle.  I supply the bulls and for "share" he gets 2 hfr calves a year.  With the shorthorn herdbook open and only using PB bulls, dad is keeping back hfrs from some of his best lines of the commercial cattle and breeding them up.  This year we will be keeping our very first 7/8 blood hfr.  The big picture is to have all registered purebreds.  All together we are at about 25 PB and the rest are commercial and SS Plus.  Of that 25 about half are 3/4 bloods.  Our biggest downfall is pasture.  We have enough, just barely, but in three different pastures 10 miles apart.  Kind of a pain, but it actually works out well for the bull rotation.  By the time his great grand daughters are being bred, one of the bulls is cycling out and replaced with a new one.

 

[red]

Northwestern Ohio.
We have 3500 acres that is farmed w/ hubby's family. Commercial herd has about 55 cows. We feed out those calves & some from smaller local herds.
Hubby & I have 3 acres & & Maine Anjou cows. Our herd might be getting even smaller if health issues & lack of kids to show persists.

Red

 

[Dusty]

Our ET program is becoming a bigger part of our operation every year. Right now we have over 20 donors. These 20 cows produce more income than the other 200 females, so AI am wondering why I spend so much time chasing and feeding  the others.

The classic 80/20 rule.  The thing is that some of those donor cows were in the 80 percent at one point and worked their way into the donor pen I imagine.  If you downsize too much your pool of potential donor canidates will shrink and it will be harder to keep 20 or so elite cows in Embryo production over the long haul.  At least thats the way I look at it...

 

[kanshow]

We run around 200 commercial cows, about 20 registereds, and most years we background feeders.  We also farm around 2000 acres.  I have a small  insurance business on the side.

 

[midway6376]

I: live in south westeren Ill. and have 10 reg angus cows, 3 show heifers, 2 show steers, a herd bull, and 2 non-reg. angus cows. We farm about 900 acres of crop ground and my dad runs a small trucking company and my mom works off the farm. The cattle are just a hobby that I picked up a few years ago and it's an expessive one at that.

 

[AAOK]

I have 47 acres with a nice Barn and Lot along with a Dog, Cat & a Semen Tank.  During the 14 years we were considered "Big Time" in Show Business, we had 55 acres along with 9 to 12 head of registered Maine-Anjou cows.  All A.I., no E.T.  We purchased three heifers through the years, and raised the rest.  Anytime we decided to keep a calf, we would sell a cow.

Our operation was not a hobby, rather a family project.  Never able to see any net on the positive side, but always was, and still is a great way to keep "my" money.  I'm now in the process of converting to Pecan Farming.

 

[xxcc]

i should just change the name of mine to 'Badly Scattered Cattle'  !! <cowboy>

 

[jrg]

We are in north central Oklahoma and run about 50 cows.  We have about 30 fall calvers that are Maine/Simm/Angus and another 15 Angus and Maine/Angus that are spring calvers.  The angus females are ohlde-bred from Chan Gates in SW Kansas.  They work well to Whiskey or Carneyman for replacements.  We are currently flushing 3 cows, so we put an egg in everything, then AI what doesn't settle with an embryo.  This seems to work well for us is the fall, but our ET rates are not as high in the spring.  My wife and I live on 10 acres, I am a loan officer and she is an elementary teacher.  My dad farms mostly wheat and stockers on about 1,500 acres.  There had never been a female on the place until I bought a show heifer in high school.  My sister is a senior at OSU looking for a job in a great economy.  All she wants is something with great pay and lots of free time on her hands!  She owns half interest in all 3 donors with me.

www.grellcattle.com

 

[rtnok]

I have 6 cows that I AI then turn in the bull . Trying to build up the heard  with replacement heifers. Hope to have 30 cows by the time I retire from my  town job. This is done on 80 acres hope to rent more when cow numbers increase.  I am also in north central ok. Roni

 

[JbarL]

this spring is my third breeding season...i started with 2 pb heifers  1 recip cow with her then 3 month old bull calf...this is my first years calf crop out of him.( dec- march) .....i purchased a 3/4 maine bred heifer in june, and i have a jan/08 heifer calf out of my origional puchased heifer that will be bred in may... ...then partnered on 4 pb ( non registered ) bred angus  ( 3 hiferes  1 cow)  in oct.  for F1 crosses.... my facility is 30 acres total,  ....i too will have to rely on rented pasture this year as well..our plan is to get down to where i will be "owning" and pasturing  about 4/5  cows and  owning or co oping a tank.......we are finalizing the details now for leasing our   facalitiy  and local hay and feedstuff supplies next winter to a co op partner.....not only have i meet some great folks since i started this project....but i have become close friends with 2 particular people...cows or no cows...that will last forever...raising cattle at my place is something that i have wanted to do for about 18 yrs with my farm...but circumstance took me in a different direction in 1993.....starting it up two years ago as an absent owner before i moved back,  was a great concern for me for quite a while..( and still is from time to time)...but seems the long wait andt he  bumps in the road along the way have truly given me a full life....and i thank you all for letting me participate and get back in on the rising side of the curve in this part of my life as well.....jbarl

 

[oakview]

We had built back up to 65 females this summer, mostly because I wanted to prove that I could still do it.  Sanity is creeping in, though, and I need to be down to about 20 due to help issues.  We have about 180 acres, pasture and hay.  All Shorthorns since 1963.  Work off farm.

 

[Show Heifer]

VERY surprised at some of the answers. Not so surprised at others.

I (that is ME) own 40 head of cows, 2 bull calves, 3 herd bulls (soon to be 1), 7 replacement heifers (3 of which were embryos from one of my cows). Various breeds.
Unlike most (apparently) I am increasing in numbers.
Have  380 acres, cash rent out crop ground. Do my own hay, pasture ground.
Own my own business, but as most know, have started to teach to keep ag in our local school. Might not last long due to district "restructuring".

Also have horse, Aussie, 3 farm cats, 1 house cat.

Few observations: Funny how many have insurance jobs. Variety of breeds represented. And age of respondants.

 

[klintdog]

VERY surprised at some of the answers. Not so surprised at others.

I (that is ME) own 40 head of cows, 2 bull calves, 3 herd bulls (soon to be 1), 7 replacement heifers (3 of which were embryos from one of my cows). Various breeds.
Unlike most (apparently) I am increasing in numbers.
Have  380 acres, cash rent out crop ground. Do my own hay, pasture ground.
Own my own business, but as most know, have started to teach to keep ag in our local school. Might not last long due to district "restructuring".

Also have horse, Aussie, 3 farm cats, 1 house cat.

Few observations: Funny how many have insurance jobs. Variety of breeds represented. And age of respondants.

Right there with you Show Heifer. I'm kind of amazed at how many insurance folks we have on here as well! It seems I'm one of the few that is looking at increasing numbers as well. Need to work on picking up more hay and pasture ground though first. One step at a time!

I'm also pretty psyched that I started a thread that made 4+ pages!