My husband and I have built up a cattle herd and want to continue ranching. We are in our 30's. We have no family land or ties to where we live now, but desperately want to carry on the heritage of agriculture. So, I'm curious...are there others out there in ranching? If so, do you love where you live? Find it affordable to buy? Welcoming? Just curious. We have education and resources, want to be active in our community, and I'm curious if there are places out there with the same goals. Honestly, I trust God to lead us, but I know it sometimes involves looking around too. Many places have such rich family heritage and while we desperately crave to have that, we are more like first generation ranchers. Anyone else out there doing this or just want to share encouragement that they love where they live?
Hoehne Colorado is a small ranching community that is very welcoming and great to raise kids in. All the other. Families help one another out too. Good luck.
I know nothing about ranching but there was just an article in our local paper about the wave of young people getting into farming that have had no experience. What has fueled this is the whole "buy local" movement. It is huge here. And for meat I know that there are farms that restaurants use and advertise as local sourcing. Plus many people I know now will contact farms to get meat that is cruelty free and grass fed. So maybe look into a local where you can be close enough to an area where you can workthis into into your business.
My cousins are on our "family" ranch that has been in the family for over 100 years. They are in Big Timber MT. Not sure how close that is to you. They are married, have 2 kids. I know the mom stays at the ranch house with the kids while my cousin is out working. His dad and mom also live there and his dads mom (who was married to my great uncle)...I know, confusing...but I guess its a "family" thing, the boys that are born on the ranch, stay there and that is their life. I dont know how they make it in this economy tho. I wish you the best, it would be a wonderful life if you can do it. =)
I am not a rancher, but I reccomend Texas! Around Hereford you can smell cow manure for 100 miles in every direction. Anytime someone mentions the smell, the response is always "That's the smell of money." Agriculture is a way of life here and there are a lot of family farms and ranches for sale. Last years drought was too much for a lot of people.
Hi there, just a quick background, I'm not currently living on a ranch but spent a good deal of my years growing up on one and raising cattle, horses, sheep, and alfalfa outside of Durango, Colorado. Long story short, I ended up back in northern California, where I was born. There's a small town at the very north end of the Sacramento Valley and at the base of Mt. Shasta. I know several people who have moved their cattle businesses out there and have flourished. I myself looked at property out there (it's about 2 1/2 hours from my house now) before my husband had a job offer in Seattle and that's where we're heading in 30 days. This small town is called Cottonwood. Property is still affordable and it's cattle country - beautiful, worth a look. Thought I'd pass along.... Good luck and God Bless
I don't but I envy you so much . . . would love to move out by you and do the same thing.
We live on a small farm, and love it! Good friends of ours are ranchers. They have 190 head of cattle, and live a couple of hours from us. Good for you for living your dream!
Congratulations. I hope you find what you are looking for.
I know there are some places like Arkansas where you can still buy land fairly inexpensively. In Arkansas you figure on how many cows per acre where as other places you figure how many acres per cow. North east Texas and western Arkansas might be good places to look because of the good grazing.
I have 18 acres in central Arkansas that I'm told will support 2.5 cows per acre. (I don't ranch.) And the last time I was there you could buy 40 acres to 160 acres at a time.
Good luck to you and yours.
M., I am in the same position. We are looking for a place to lease to run our cows. I have grown up in this lifestyle and have learned that most places have both positive and negative aspects to them. The people always seem to be good people though, so it is really just finding an area that works for you guys. I am sure that you will fit in anywhere :-)
I have two friends that raise cattle, I would hardly call them ranchers. Both of them have real jobs, not that it isn't real work what they do but apparently they make no money off of it.
My one friend worked for AB while raising cattle the other breeds dogs. Kind of sad when you look at how expensive beef is but apparently there is more money in breeding Golden Retrievers.
Oh, one lives on the Illinois side of St Louis the other in St Gen Missouri. Neither locations that people think of and think of cows.
Both tend to rely mostly on neighbors for support so far as the cows go.
