Farming
- Thread starter BIGDAWG44
- Start date
This board is mostly comprised of Yuppieville from my 20 years of reading. I suppose, even in Mississippi, this shouldn't be surprising. Either way, good luck. See the first response 
I don't raise cows or sheep but I respect it. I also don't live in Yuppieville.
I don't raise cows or sheep but I respect it. I also don't live in Yuppieville.
I have an ant farm, about 1000 head.
Go for it. They always do as they should, they are low maintenance, when you put up a fence they respect that boundary, cheap to feed, they are fine by themselves when you want to go on vacation, and it never gets old getting up on those beautiful winter mornings to feed them. **********
Farming is when you go broke waiting on seeds to grow into plants.
Raising critters for people to eat so you get the tax write off is called ranching.
Raising critters for people to eat so you get the tax write off is called ranching.
That sums it up pretty well, but looking back on how I grew up I can say 100% I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. Praying everyday I can manage to retire early and go back to it one day.
Growing up our neighbors were dairy farmers. That has to be the most dedicated and thankless jobs in this country. The average person has no idea the commitment of a small family dairy farmer.
If you have the cows. If you want to expand you’ll have to do it by calving because calves are ridiculously high that it doesn’t pencil.
We own some land in Holmes County. Back in the late 90s some dude from Chicago decided he wanted to retire and be a cattle farmer. He bought around 1000 acres, I think, and a bunch of cattle. He had been told that cattle needed no maintenance. He literally didn't visit his "cattle ranch" for over a year until he thought it was time to sell some. Fences were down and a bunch of the cattle were gone and the rest were not in good shape. He ended up losing his butt in the deal and paid some hefty fines for animal mistreatment. Rumors were that several of the cattle had already been turned into steaks and such.
After getting out of college and getting married I decided I was getting into the cattle business. Dad had retired and sold out at this point but was around for help. I started buying steers, topping them out, and reselling them. Small scale, around a dozen at a time. If the majority of the herd wasn’t born there, they weren’t staying there. I chased more cows in a few year span than I did in 18 years growing up with ten times the cattle. I figured that there had to be a better way to make an extra buck.
Slight hijack:
For those of you that do work the land what movie is closest to reality? Whenever I think about how hard it must be and how easy I have it I think about The River with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek.
For those of you that do work the land what movie is closest to reality? Whenever I think about how hard it must be and how easy I have it I think about The River with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek.
Still lots of cattle in Holmes County and prime pasture land. If you just randomly drive around during the spring and summer you'll occasionally see herds just walking up and down the road that have gotten outside the enclosures.
There’s like one farmer here and a bunch of dudes who struggle to grow grass.
A four foot high barbed wire fence to a cow is like a lock on a screen door to a thief, it’s just a suggestion. I’ve seen 1500 pound cows jump a four foot fence standing flat footed with no running start and then look you in the eye as if to say, “17 you”.
User name checks outThis board is mostly comprised of Yuppieville from my 20 years of reading. I suppose, even in Mississippi, this shouldn't be surprising. Either way, good luck. See the first response
Overspray is real. Farmers don’t want to get the Highboy out of the shed unless the wind is blowing at least 15mph.
Everybody here is probably "all hat and boots, no cattle"
Just replanted grass in my front yard, tree roots killed a huge patch. You’re right I’m struggling. Throwing down rye fescu and Bermuda Have to literally buy bags of soil, too sandy and crappy in that spot
Cattle farmer told me if you want to make a small fortune start off with a large fortune.
The average person has no idea how few of them are left. It's basically an impossible business model for a small operation these days in the US. The bucolic advertising is complete BS. It's fully corporate. Provides cheap milk though I guess.
The idea that somebody would think cattle ranching is hands off and easy is incredible to me.
Hell, growing a pine tree isn't hands off and easy and it's complete cake compared to growing animals.
Hell, growing a pine tree isn't hands off and easy and it's complete cake compared to growing animals.
is yuppie even a thing any more?This board is mostly comprised of Yuppieville from my 20 years of reading. I suppose, even in Mississippi, this shouldn't be surprising. Either way, good luck. See the first response
Grew up in the delta where no one had cows but the people that lived next to the levee (law won't let you plow and plant a levee). Wife's family has cows that we have helped take care of. My kids grew up helping cut hay, work cows (cut/band, tag, spray for flies, give shots, pull calves, fixes fence, etc), ride/take care of horses. My daughter still has 3 of the horses as her own. It was absolutely great for them.
He was an engineer from Chicago. When he first started, he told my brother that he had watched several westerns shows/movies and it was easy. Just put the cows out and sell them when it was time because cows were descended from wild cattle they could take care of themselves.
Growing up in the 70’s I knew at least a dozen dairy farmers. The last one around home died last year. It was just him and his son. His son sold every cow before the funeral.
My family had cattle when I was growing up. Reading this I had flashbacks to being 15 years old, riding across the pasture on an old International, doing about 10mph with hay bales on the front and back forks. Its overcast, 35 degrees with 20 mph winds and heavy mist coming in sideways and I had an epiphany... "I gotta go to college".
I love a good steak so I respect the folks that do it, but it was not for me.
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You just described my teen years except there was no big round bales. It was about fifty square bales on a wagon because those round bales were an absolute waste of good hay. My Dad said he’d quit farming before he bought a wasteful round baler, he was good to his word. I still have the old International.
Getting the cows out of the pond when it’s 100 degrees or trying to drive them to the barn on frozen ground when it’s time to be milked was a royal pain in the butt. Not to mention everybody getting their bellies full and kicking back to watch football Thanksgiving and Christmas and you have to leave to go milk cows. People always seem shocked that I grew up on a farm but never hunted much, and it’s because I was always milking cows during the prime hunting hours.