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Post by greybeard on Aug 3, 2019 8:46:55 GMT -6
Assuming you don't intend to just die of old age with one hand on a headgate handle... Do you think you'll miss it..regret keeping some around?
Seriously, if you don't have family that is at all interested in cows or land even just for the sake of having them How does one do this? You just sell everything one day, walk away and move into a small place?
My age and health are leading to this faster than I want, and none of my kids are interested in it at all. Grand kids not even that much. Had planned on selling this one anyway and moving back West but now not sure I want to have cattle out there, as it takes so much more acerage to support a pair and I can't take care of much property any more. How do you live not having cows around?
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Post by 3LT Farms on Aug 3, 2019 9:07:32 GMT -6
I haven't put a lot of thought to it. Our place is family, I'm the youngest of 30 something grandchildren with ties to the place and the only one interested enough to do a damn thing with it. I was the only one that cared enough to keep the place whole and buy the others out. I plan on being there until it's over. Be it with cows or not. I think if nobody wants to fool with them after I'm unable I'd just lease it to someone who wants to run cows or make hay.
Cows aren't what ties me here, it's the place itself. I grew up when we were a small row crop operation. Back when you could be a small row crop operation and make a living. We quit that in the early 90s and have had cows ever since. It don't pay the bills, not even close, but it lets me be attached to the place I was raised on.
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Post by M-5 on Aug 3, 2019 9:21:14 GMT -6
Got to work to noon the day of my funeral so I'm no help.
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Post by greybeard on Aug 3, 2019 9:59:05 GMT -6
3LT, I'm kinda in the same boat. myself and 3 of my siblings ended up with this place, I bought out and/or leased the rest of the property from them after initially buying some of it from my father and inheriting a little more when he passed away. Total land this year is 164 acres owned or leased. Been family property since 1964 and the perimeter fences, my brother and I built when we were mid-teenage. Had cows on it continuously since 1966. Brother and sisters have never done a thing with their parts and now brother is gone and sisters are in worse health than I am and their kids don't want anything to do with it either. I can lease it out I suppose, but my wife don't really want to spend our last years here in East Texas, especially after seeing the flood of 2017 and, and since this place is debt free, I would really need to sell it to keep from having a mortgage payment when I do move back West. I've been here long enough to know how to make it work with cattle...not a money making thing except that they pay the taxes, pay their own way and put a few $$$ in my pocket at the end of the year. I have investment income and SS otherwise I sure couldn't make it with cattle alone and this isn't cropland no way. As my neighbor and friend reminds me, This has always been "The York Place" as long as he can remember. Gonna be hard to walk away from it and harder still to not have cattle in my life.
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Post by okie on Aug 3, 2019 10:32:22 GMT -6
I thought selling out would be the part of the divorce that killed me. But I honestly don't really miss it. I have a few individual cows that I miss and I miss playing with genetics but that's about it. I have enough room for a few cows here and I found one of my registered cows that was more like a pet than a cow running around on my neighbors place about a month ago. He agreed to sell her back to me next time he gets them up so I'll have at least one cow but I don't know that I'd care to get back into it given the chance.
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Post by 1982vett on Aug 3, 2019 17:52:38 GMT -6
The bulk of the land I operate on is land my grandparents bought in 1901..... yeah I’m 3rd generation in 118 years so far. Being the one to end that streak is all that kept me from dumping it 8 years ago. It’s on my mind again this week as baling 50 acres of hay this week by myself has kicked my butt. Went to urgent care this morning because a knee pain has become unbearable. Currently diagnosed as a non displaced bicondylar fracture of unspecified tibia....supposed to find out more next week. Selling out and letting someone else lease the place doesn’t sound all that appetizing but what is one going to do. I’m loosing my will to stay in the fight waiting to see if a better day may show up.
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Post by ebenezer on Aug 3, 2019 18:01:24 GMT -6
I wonder about it but have no idea right now.
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Post by okie on Aug 3, 2019 18:11:08 GMT -6
The bulk of the land I operate on is land my grandparents bought in 1901..... yeah I’m 3rd generation in 118 years so far. Being the one to end that streak is all that kept me from dumping it 8 years ago. It’s on my mind again this week as baling 50 acres of hay this week by myself has kicked my butt. Went to urgent care this morning because a knee pain has become unbearable. Currently diagnosed as a non displaced bicondylar fracture of unspecified tibia....supposed to find out more next week. Selling out and letting someone else lease the place doesn’t sound all that appetizing but what is one going to do. I’m loosing my will to stay in the fight waiting to see if a better day may show up. A little off topic but I understand that all to well. I am seventh generation Californian and I farmed and lived on ground that my dad and I bought back into individually after one generation outside of the family. When I left it caused a stink with some of the family. I finally told them that our family went to California because it was better than where they were. What better way to honor that than to go somewhere better. It took a while but everyone, including my dad, agrees that I made the right choice.
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Post by randy on Aug 3, 2019 19:24:18 GMT -6
Greybeard stay close to that chute.
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Post by dave on Aug 3, 2019 19:31:17 GMT -6
When I retired I sold the place I had lived for 37 years. Did a lot of searching before landing here. This place is a lot more than we were looking for but it just worked out. Because of the timing of the move we leased the entire place out at closing. The BLM allotments were included in the lease and the BLM requires a three year lease. I told the guy we leased to that I would help out where ever I could but he would have to teach me somethings. I had never done flood irrigation before. I am still learning but he got nearly 30 tons more hay this year than last so I must be doing something right. So I don't own any cows right now. When the lease is up I will continue to lease the rangeland. I am too old to be chasing cows on that type of ground horseback. I am not going to run year around cow/calf. We will run stocker, or heifers to sell as bred heifers, or broken mouth cows that are one and done, or something else that I think will make money. They will be run on the flat irrigated ground in the valley. Every year there will be a part of the year when there are no cows here. That will probably mostly be in the winter as I am not going to be making hay. I will limit the time spent feeding hay because the hay will need to be purchased. That is my plan. And if I die with my hand on the head gate handle it won't be a bad thing.
There is a guy here who owns 7,000 acres. He leased the pasture. He still makes hay on the irrigated ground. And because of the odd ball size and shape of his fields they are all irrigated with hand line. He is 84 and still changes the irrigation himself. There is a 90 year old woman here who still does a lot of farming. The family probably makes hay on 700 acres or more. She cuts a lot of it and does all the raking. In the spring when the cows leave the hay ground to head to the hills she drags in all with a chain harrow. Both of these people are very active. I do believe staying active is one of the secrets to a long life. I knew an old guy who at one time had 3,000 acres of wheat and 300 cows. As he got older he sold off and reduced down. At 93 he was down to 20 cows and enough irrigated ground for pasture and hay for those cows. He still made the hay himself. Made small square bales. Only stacked 2 high on the trailer and it took him a while to get it into the barn. His nephews convinced him that he didn't need to work that hard. Got him to sell the place and move into the little town. He was dead in lass than 6 months.
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Post by highgrit on Aug 3, 2019 20:32:26 GMT -6
When I retired I sold the place I had lived for 37 years. Did a lot of searching before landing here. This place is a lot more than we were looking for but it just worked out. Because of the timing of the move we leased the entire place out at closing. The BLM allotments were included in the lease and the BLM requires a three year lease. I told the guy we leased to that I would help out where ever I could but he would have to teach me somethings. I had never done flood irrigation before. I am still learning but he got nearly 30 tons more hay this year than last so I must be doing something right. So I don't own any cows right now. When the lease is up I will continue to lease the rangeland. I am too old to be chasing cows on that type of ground horseback. I am not going to run year around cow/calf. We will run stocker, or heifers to sell as bred heifers, or broken mouth cows that are one and done, or something else that I think will make money. They will be run on the flat irrigated ground in the valley. Every year there will be a part of the year when there are no cows here. That will probably mostly be in the winter as I am not going to be making hay. I will limit the time spent feeding hay because the hay will need to be purchased. That is my plan. And if I die with my hand on the head gate handle it won't be a bad thing.
There is a guy here who owns 7,000 acres. He leased the pasture. He still makes hay on the irrigated ground. And because of the odd ball size and shape of his fields they are all irrigated with hand line. He is 84 and still changes the irrigation himself. There is a 90 year old woman here who still does a lot of farming. The family probably makes hay on 700 acres or more. She cuts a lot of it and does all the raking. In the spring when the cows leave the hay ground to head to the hills she drags in all with a chain harrow. Both of these people are very active. I do believe staying active is one of the secrets to a long life. I knew an old guy who at one time had 3,000 acres of wheat and 300 cows. As he got older he sold off and reduced down. At 93 he was down to 20 cows and enough irrigated ground for pasture and hay for those cows. He still made the hay himself. Made small square bales. Only stacked 2 high on the trailer and it took him a while to get it into the barn. His nephews convinced him that he didn't need to work that hard. Got him to sell the place and move into the little town. He was dead in lass than 6 months. Dave, I use to get a chuckle every time you mentioned how many days you had left before you could retire.
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Post by simangking on Aug 3, 2019 22:38:47 GMT -6
No one ever told me retirement was an option? I always figured you just dropped dead one day, and that's when your farming career end.
And what's these vacation things people keep talking about?
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Post by highgrit on Aug 4, 2019 5:09:17 GMT -6
No one ever told me retirement was an option? I always figured you just dropped dead one day, and that's when your farming career end. And what's these vacation things people keep talking about? I don't understand the mindset of young farmers. The one's I know want to farm come hell or high water money - retirement be dammed. There's a young man that grew up with us and his dad is a good friend of mine from since high school. Dad owns a million a year plumbing company and wants to retire to Georgia and son wants to farm. It makes no sense to me to work like a dog till you die. I'll take as many vacations as I can for all you work a holics.
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Post by tcranch on Aug 4, 2019 6:13:12 GMT -6
"Retirement" is subjective. We retired when Hubby was 54, I was 40, walked away from the Corporate World and city life. Bought the ranch, built the house, started out with 33 bred cows, never worked harder. Love it more than I ever imagined! But sadly, it will one day just go away when we (actually, when I) can no longer take care of the cattle or property. I would like nothing more than to pass it down to his 5 kids (currently 11 grand kids) but they have zero interest in anything but the $$$$. Vacations? Nope. But that's fine with me because I hate traveling - been there, done that, over it.
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Post by hook on Aug 4, 2019 7:44:53 GMT -6
I got a ways to go, but if neither of the kids are interested, ill find someone young and interested and lease it for pennies. Hopefully still get to watch cows
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