Selling the cows?

[mbfarmer]

I give you guys alot of credit...it is a tough decision...I am looking at it from the other end but can see the troubles you are having. My parents (mother in particular) did not force me to come farming. So I went to College and got an education, worked off farm, but something was always missing. Calving is tough, cold weather, scours,etc...however going out at about 5 pm and watching all the calves run as fast as they can...you can not beat it. As you know cowman...health is everything. Lately there has been alot of young people going down with cancer, around here. It sure makes you sit back and want to get you priorities straight. My new outlook in life is...stop and smell the flowers because you are never too sure when your walk in the pasture will be over.

Cowman: Here are some food for thought.

Find someone you can trust and lease some of your cows out...depending on the lease it could give you a stable source of income as let you sell your cows a few each year.

I also agree that selling your whole herd would give you the most return. What if you sold your cows in 2002, kept your steers until 2003, bred the heifers and sold them in early part of 2004. You would still have the flexibility of purchasing additional feeders if Mr. Martin comes calling.

It is almost impossible to avoid taxes...the government will out live all of us. The best method is to level the amount of taxes paid each year through feeder purchases or what ever will work for you.

[surespendalot]

Mbfarmer.. Your thoughts agree much with mine. If cowman could find someone that really can look after the cows , you could lease him the cows on a share basis and each year he gets a percentage of the heifers as all his and each year you get to sell a similar percentage of the cows . eventually you will be out and the tax man will not have gotten rich.
I sure agree also that it sure is rewarding to see a crop of good calves running and playing in the early morning sun and to know that they are able to do that because you have done a whole bunch of things the correct way.

[cowman]

I've actually only got 60 cows left on paper. My son has 90. I sold them to him last year in the drought(farming the government!!) so I could defer the money and trigger a big AIDA payout!!! This will add to my problems. My accountant is pretty good! We have a little joke about how someday we'll share a cell together!! I spent a little bit of time with him yesterday and he gave me some pretty good advice on how to sell out the cows. There is a new little scam he has come up with involving NISA that looks good!