roly, I don't doubt that the prices are much higher in Britain but cattlemen there are not trying to make a living off of 50 acres without government support. Here we are attempting to maintain an industry that does not receive regular government subsidies. We would like to keep it that way if we can.
In regards to land, farmers_son, it has always been so that ranchers move from an area that is becoming popular and developed to areas that are cheaper and far from towns and cities. The reasons 100 years ago are the same as those today--cheap land is the only way to make a profit raising cattle. You don't have to move to Sask. to do this--there is lots of cheap land in northern Alberta. I think the secret to success in cattle country is to run an extensive, paid-for operation on lots of cheap land with efficient cattle that calve in the spring. Hire someone to custom cut your own hay on unfertilized hayland. Feed with a half-ton and a bale hauler(or like cswilson, with horses). Raise your own replacements.
Your costs would be next to nothing--no transportation costs to pasture, no land costs, no machine costs, custom hay cutting and baling will cost about $10 a bale so, say, $60 to feed a cow over the winter. I think your margins on this kind of operation could be $400 per calf.
If you bought a ranch in northern Albert for, say, $800,000, you could run 250 cows, feed them and, with current prices, net out, I think, more than a 10% return on capital.
I think that will work. I don't think running cattle on a section in central Alberta where the land prices are $2,000 an acre and rising and you've either got to buy winter feed or transport the cows to summer pasture and pay pasture rent of $30 a month, then ship them home, will work anymore. Sure if your land is all paid for you and you've got no kids you can scratch out a living. But you're really only deluding yourself because all that money you could get out of the land is not generating a good return. Or at least not the return you can get somewhere else or in a comparable investment.
kpb
In regards to land, farmers_son, it has always been so that ranchers move from an area that is becoming popular and developed to areas that are cheaper and far from towns and cities. The reasons 100 years ago are the same as those today--cheap land is the only way to make a profit raising cattle. You don't have to move to Sask. to do this--there is lots of cheap land in northern Alberta. I think the secret to success in cattle country is to run an extensive, paid-for operation on lots of cheap land with efficient cattle that calve in the spring. Hire someone to custom cut your own hay on unfertilized hayland. Feed with a half-ton and a bale hauler(or like cswilson, with horses). Raise your own replacements.
Your costs would be next to nothing--no transportation costs to pasture, no land costs, no machine costs, custom hay cutting and baling will cost about $10 a bale so, say, $60 to feed a cow over the winter. I think your margins on this kind of operation could be $400 per calf.
If you bought a ranch in northern Albert for, say, $800,000, you could run 250 cows, feed them and, with current prices, net out, I think, more than a 10% return on capital.
I think that will work. I don't think running cattle on a section in central Alberta where the land prices are $2,000 an acre and rising and you've either got to buy winter feed or transport the cows to summer pasture and pay pasture rent of $30 a month, then ship them home, will work anymore. Sure if your land is all paid for you and you've got no kids you can scratch out a living. But you're really only deluding yourself because all that money you could get out of the land is not generating a good return. Or at least not the return you can get somewhere else or in a comparable investment.
kpb
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