Longhorn on a Budget
So you retired and want to raise Longhorn Cattle. First of all, good luck. You’ve worked forty years in the city to make a living, the kids are grown and you have a small pension. You were raised with cows and want to go back to your roots. The first thing you do is find a small piece of heaven (cheap, small, dry land that is affordable). You stand on this piece of golden opportunity and dream and plan for the day you have your first cows. So much to do. Build a house, a shop, a barn (did I say barn?), fence, drill a well, build pens, buy cows. Now you have the house started, have a shop of sorts, bought a tractor, started the garden, have a well with sufficient water for a garden and household use. Time is not standing still. Your money is getting low, but that’s ok, your are coming closer to the day you will be ready to buy a few cows. You drive by a herd of Longhorn each time you go to town. Now you think that you must just stop and see what they sell for, be prepared for a shock. So you can’t afford the high dollar cows, so you look at calves. Almost affordable. Don’t know anything about Longhorn, take the word of the cowman selling the calves and buy one. What, no place to put it. That’s ok, you have time to build till it is weaned. Now you are totally out of sequence in your plan for things, bought a Longhorn too early. Get together enough to build a pen, buy a water trough, and a few bales of hay (shock, way back when, hay was $25 a ton, now ????).
Now you are a Registered Longhorn Breeder. Your dream to own has come to fruition. You become a member of the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America, how proud to be included with great members of like orientation in such a great organization. You join the local affiliate. Now you get the Trails magazine and start reading. Your pride and joy first calf is not what you see in the pictures, what must you do to improve your herd. You start looking for a bull. Can’t afford one, buy a bull calf. That’s ok too, your heifer is not old enough to breed yet anyway. Still no fence on the place, got to build fence before you can let the two out to browse on the weeds (darn little grass). Feeds still too high, pray for rain (if not to help your grass, maybe it will rain on someone’s hay and he’ll sell cheap). Still building the house, start the fence and plan inter fencing. You hear of an auction, must go check it out, not to buy but to see what they sell for. Ouch, bought two pairs (who says a house needs windows anyway). Spent more money on cows and still can’t turn them out. All in one pen (blood everywhere), better get started and finish the fence. Done. How to get the cows to the pasture you fenced? Load the cows in a trailer and drive them down. This is great; you now have a herd of two cows, three heifers and a bull. All is well with the world.
The State Fair is coming, you want to show your Longhorn off to the world. Now you know that you bought low end dollar Longhorn, but who cares. Surprise, your bull wins Grand Champion unhaltered. Boy, oh boy, did you do good. There is no stopping you now. You think there will be a market for your bull. Wrong, you live in the middle of beef country where the ranchers have spent 100 years trying to get the Longhorn out of their herds. Maybe other markets. You sell half interest to a neighbor just to be able to keep the bull a little busy. You sell two heifers and a cow. Market is saturated, now what??? Calves on the ground, feed is high, temperature at zero, but you have Longhorn to see each day and life is good.
Now the reality check, you have no money, feed is high, there is no grass, you spend all your time working on the infamous house, no barn, break ice daily, too many cows, little grass, but can’t sell. Auctions are 800 miles east, so that new bull calf will become freezer meat. The new heifers will just have to grow and with luck and some genetics, maybe sell next year for break even money. Life is good.
You start reading on all the things that must be done to have top cattle. Buy good cows, select a bull to meet your program, feed well, etc. The truth of the matter is that for the small breeders, you are luck to have average cows, you may and may not have a quality bull, generally you don’t have time to halter break a calf for show, and can only afford to go to one show a year. You can’t go to the meetings and even if you could, most of what is discussed is beyond your reach. But you are happy and have your Longhorn. Do you need to advertise, have the World Show Champions, spend thousands of dollars on a program, NO. You are the small breeder that enjoys the best breed on earth. To you, owning three to eight head is all you want, you drink your coffee in the morning, watch your cows and YOU ARE HAPPY.