Why do people have cattle if its so unprofitable?

[brokeno]

Some of the richest people I know raise cattle right next to their own oil wells.

[ramrod]

Have any of you cattle guys introduced Akaushi to your herd? Full blood or cross breeding? After doing a little research it seems like a no brainer given the current market. Asking for a friend.

It is a limited market, not a lot of operators looking to buy that type of cattle. Also not many people willing to spend $40-$50 dollars on a single steak. Additionally, Americans have been trending to leaner ground meat.

[tdwinklr]

Not going to get in an argument.

The majority of wildlife exemptions require working hand in hand with a government entity/worker and, I just prefer not to have them telling me what or how I can do something. Or spend money on a helicopter to survey what I have. Hope you understand.

I agree that it requires a little intervention from the gov. but holy cow why would you want to pay 1000s of $ in taxes when with the exemptions you might pay a few $100 per year? With wildlife exemptions, you only have to do 3 of 7 tasks in the TPWD list and all 7 of those are things you're going to do anyway on any game lease, and they're easy to accomplish. The biologist comes by once a year to look and that's it.

[Razrbk89]

Nope you just put it in CRP and make millions.... lol

I’d love for someone to show me how a declining insurance basis is more profitable then harvesting. It’s doesn’t work that way, but bob’s friend jorge’s uncle scam farms for insurance and make 100k a year in CRP, and nails the dought insurance predictions

That’s my favorite....

“Just buy some row crop ground and lay it out. It’ll pay for itself! Farmer welfare!”

As far as the cattle stuff goes, if you have the land (and it’s good pasture...) you should be making a little money. It’s hard to make money up here if you’re buying ground to put cattle on. 2k+ An acre for good pasture is hard to recoup on. Take care of your grass and it’s an easy business in my opinion. There’s just not near as much to it as people make out.

[Stolle]

If I wasn't making any money off the few cows we have I would lease the grazing rights out. We have 30 cows and this year I have sold $14K in calves. Expenses will be in the ball park of $7K if that much. I'm not going to be able to live off the income, but it does make a profit.

[Farmdog]

Did you forget your pickup and cattle trailer, squeeze chute, and fence and catch pens?

[Farmdog]

Fertilizer on your hay and cost of bailng?

[JANKEII]

I guess you didn't read my first quote. I do get a tax break with a few cows.

Why not just stick them up in front pasture. Have the county come drive by and see the the cows and poop. Or sell a couple every couple of years showing you buy and sale them. Or right up a contract saying your friend is leasing the land.

What happens if money gets tight for some reason, and you can't do what the govt wants you to do. Will you lose your exemption

Easy to go from ag exemption to wildlife exemption. Not sure the other way around.

I agree that it requires a little intervention from the gov. but holy cow why would you want to pay 1000s of $ in taxes when with the exemptions you might pay a few $100 per year? With wildlife exemptions, you only have to do 3 of 7 tasks in the TPWD list and all 7 of those are things you're going to do anyway on any game lease, and they're easy to accomplish. The biologist comes by once a year to look and that's it.

[160class]

Some of the richest people I know raise cattle right next to their own oil wells.

That’s the truth right there!

Who would’ve known little Ole Smiley, TX would produce so many millionaire cattle ranchers??

[Burnadell]

when you lose money you pay less tax

I hope you realize that you don't get 100% tax savings.

Let say for argument sake, that you lose $30,000 of real negative CASH flow, and you are in a 22% tax bracket. You will save $6600 in taxes.

So you spend $30,000 to save $6600??? Please explain how smart that is. I must be missing something.

[Dushon]

Still looking to lease some more country for cattle if some of y’all are tired of being unprofitable [emoji16]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ilik2hunt]

Not going to get in an argument.

The majority of wildlife exemptions require working hand in hand with a government entity/worker and, I just prefer not to have them telling me what or how I can do something. Or spend money on a helicopter to survey what I have. Hope you understand.

I guess I don't understand because we don't have to do any of that.All we have to do is show that we are doing 3 of the 7 tp&w guide lines,we actually do a little more than required,we show protein feeding,predator control,a visual animal count that we see though out the year,we also have food plots,and keep up on the erosion around the ponds,but we did all this already on our lease before we bought.Now we send this information to the tax office instead of telling the ranch owner of our lease.

[TX_Hoghunter]

I hope you realize that you don't get 100% tax savings.

Let say for argument sake, that you lose $30,000 of real negative CASH flow, and you are in a 22% tax bracket. You will save $6600 in taxes.

So you spend $30,000 to save $6600??? Please explain how smart that is. I must be missing something.

When I say tax savings it has to do with land taxes and not income tax. The tax paid on ag land is significantly below what you would pay on non-ag land.

-john

[ken800]

Longhorn can be pretty cheap to raise if you have good genetics and the calves will bring enough to make it worthwhile. They are much hardier (MUCH) than angus or other breeds of beef cattle. Though they return half of what a big beef cow would, they cost next to nothing. Cows rarely have birthing issues. Calves are up and running quick. Herd is very protective of newborns against predators. They'll eat a lot more native browse than other breeds. All that said, you can't make good money in cattle on small land. It's for the tax benefit and a little side income.

[RiverRat1]

I hope you realize that you don't get 100% tax savings.

Let say for argument sake, that you lose $30,000 of real negative CASH flow, and you are in a 22% tax bracket. You will save $6600 in taxes.

So you spend $30,000 to save $6600??? Please explain how smart that is. I must be missing something.

If you were already going to buy that 30k (whatever) then you actually only pay $23,400 for it. It's like when women shop and "save" all that money on sale items