cow/calf prices?

[ALLFARMER]

Kind of nice to know the 950$ open heifers I
bought last spring are worth nearly 2200$ making
only 1250$ shit that's how to go broke!

[comtex]

Never look a gift horse in the mouth... might be wise to take profits while you can!

[grassfarmer]

Sheer fantasy Allfarmer - so now you kept your
heifers at zero cost for a year so you can boast of a
$1250 profit (unrealized because you didn't sell
yours) based on someone else's cattle selling at the
other end of the Province. Keep on dreaming.
I'm reminded of the phrase "none are so blind as
those who will not see"

[smcgrath76]

This is interesting as I had the same
discussion on the phone today...
Equity vs. Cash flow.
AF - you are correct. If you were to do
a balance sheet today you may have made
$1250, and your land may have made you a
millionaire. It is also possible to be
in that position and not have enough
nickels to pay for groceries.
We came back to the farm in '02, and
realized the need for serious business
training. That investment combined with
3/8" of rain in 02 and BSE in 03
certainly honed our system and skill
set. The one thing that stuck with me
from business training (formal) is that
CASH IS KING (OR QUEEN OR BOTH).
Our experience in driving our costs down
and value up and increasing cash flow
and available cash has been very
positive in that we have been able to
take advantage of opportunities that
have come along. Do we generate enough
free cash to take advantage of every
opportunity? Thankfully no, but it has
certainly improved our quality of life
and in the end has improved our balance
sheet quicker than when we were strictly
equity rich.
A good question to ask yourself about
anything you do is "Why?" If you can
honestly answer that question with good
logic 7 times in a row, then keep
firing, if not it might be time to step
back and take a deeper look.
GF - I think some farmers do generate a
15% return when you consider growth in
equity (land) along with small cash
(production) profits. I see a real
accounting challenge here in that for a
farm (or other business) personal
expenses such as electricity may be
deemed a business expense and yet, if
you had a "regular job" you would have
to pay those same expenses out of your
pocket. So the farmer may have a lower
income, but still have a telephone, etc.

The science of economics is often the
science of justifying what you were
going to do anyway...

[Horse]

ASRG I also have a rented truck would you likr to buy it you wont own it but you can still buy.
Grazing lease $227 per yr means at $2.39 per AUM equals 95 cows for 1 mo or 19 cows for 5 mo. How much is that worth?
App $27 per AUM as that is what it costs in the real world more than gov grazing fees so 27 times 95 = 2565, now how much of that should a person pay for something that was given in the first place by the tax payers ?

[ALLFARMER]

The science of economics is often the  
science of justifying what you were  
going to do anyway...


Exactly

Fiscally I am a liberal. I like the farm toys. It's a
way of life for me. Call me addicted to iron so be
it! I can afford my toys. So the wife and I work off
farm jobs so what we both love our jobs.

Often people have come to my farm and they say
this is the farm they dreamed of.

[ALLFARMER]

Bred cow prices? Likely same as last year 16 to
1700

[grassfarmer]

OK Allfarmer I take back much of what I said. Didn't
realize you were just in it for a hobby supported by
off farm employment. Go ahead - spend as much as
you like on iron or cow feed, it's different when it's a
hobby and not a business.

[smcgrath76]

If the goal of an operator is not to pay
income tax, then not being profitable
would qualify as unmitigated success. In
my mind that also means you have forgone
the right to complain about being a "poor
farmer".

[ALLFARMER]

Ya a hobby farmer just like you Grassfarmer. Go
ahead list the names off of all your pet cows. If
you want to lay around and live off 100 cows
wow that's some ambition. Cry some more about
there not being any money in cattle....o that wont
work, no money doing that. A cheap and small
operator who thinks he's the worlds greatest
academic. Academics are useless if they don't do
anything. O right you run a outfit just like Doc
Weiders. Lol