does anyone here know much about cattle? im trying to find a breed to raise for my FFA project next year. what im interested in the most is Brahman, preferably Red Brahman. i am currently looking at HK Cattle Red Brahman but the price is a bit high for me. what appeals to me the most is that the ranch is about 30 miles away from me. any other Red Brahman breeder is 200+ miles away. the best price ive found is unfortunately all the way across texas over 600 miles away, so that is out. what HK is asking is $1,500 for a bull calf. anyone know if that is a good price? they have many many award winning cattle, which is a good thing. im pretty sure i want a Brahman, but i want to look at more. im thinking about taking a trip down to King Ranch (all us F-150 fans know King Ranch) to look at cattle (nearly 1 million acres of land and almost every known breed of cattle). im just looking for opinions on the price of them. what is a good price for any Brahman bull calf? thanks for the help

 

One source you may check is a dairy magazine called Hoards Dairyman. They are awesome. The website is www.hoards.com. They have tons of articles as well as classified ads - maybe you can compare prices there. Hope this helps!

 

just a thought, did you contact them and tell them it was for a school project.
they may give a considerable discount as long as it's a project, encouraging you to utilize their business later.

 

yep i tried that but met some very nice people yesterday. i was at a local livestock show and talked to some people raising Red Brahmans. they said they could sell me a 7 month old calf for $500. im really excited now. it was just weaned about a week ago and will be ready in about a month. the reason the other place was so expensive is because that is how they make their living, these people just do it because they like doing it. they had the calf's sire at the show and its an excellent bull. i have 2 pictures of the sire that i will post later if anyone wants to see it.

 

like i said, here are some pics of my calf's sire (dad). the bull stands at about 5 feet to the top of his back. this creature is beautiful when you look at him. he looks like a giant puppy when you look at his face. anyways here are the pics




i know most people dont care about it, but im too excited i wanna brag and show off to anyone i can.

 

As an animal lover I can understand your excitement and I'm glad you found one you could afford! The sire is a very fine looking bull. What will you do with your calf when school is out next spring? Post some pics of him when you get him, calves are so cute!!

 

in march each year we have a livestock auction and sell everything, unless its a heifer we are going to breed. its up to the buyers as to what happens to the animals, usually they will have them processed and eat them. we make good money with them too. last year i raised a Dexter steer and sold it for $2,400 and it was only about 700lbs. if my brahman weighs 1500lbs ill probably get $5,000-$6,000 for it.

 

$5000-$6000--Thats a pretty good deal for a $500 calf. Who supplies the feed? You or the school? It still sounds like a pretty good profit margin! I wish you luck!!

 

i pay for everything. since its a show steer i cant buy cheap feed or cheap anything though. total throughout the year i spend about $3,000 on everything. that includes buying the calf, all the supplies, feed and everything. its quite a bit but then i save all the profit for the next year and dont have to put out any money the next year. then after that i keep all of the money from that year for college. i also raise chickens which are a really easy source of quick money. i raise them for 6 weeks and sell them for a couple hundred dollars (they cost about $60 to raise). this year i made $1,300 from my chickens because i won Grand Champion. thats only for 3 chickens, too.... we raise a pen (25) of chickens and sell 3. we keep the rest to eat.

 

I remember at some of the state bonus sales some kids in my school got around $15-$20,000.

The heifer's look nice in my opinion.

 

i could go for a whole lot more money, but i sell at my local school FFA chapters sale. at big sales like that you usually dont have much of a chance to win so you probably wont get much more if any extra money

also, just pointing out, thats a bull in the pic not a heifer.

 

yea, I know the pic was of a bull. Just stating that Heifers look the nicest.