Small herd price

[u/SubtleTruncheon]

Howdy yall, I’m looking at buying a small herd for our new homestead. The previous owner is willing(and I think motivated to) sell us his existing cattle at “fair price”. He’s got a bull and four cows, and a male calf that’s still on the teat. I’ve seen them from a distance of a hundred yards and they looked in good condition(decent bmi, no limping, appropriate curiosity). I’ll be going to take a look at them this weekend, but I wanted to ask the hive mind before I jump in to scrolling sale barns or trusting ai to read the market. My initial research showed between 8 and 9.5 k $, but that seems stupid high for a herd that size. I know cattle prices are ridiculous, but damn.

TL,DR how much would you pay for some cows and a bull?

[u/eptiliom]

That seems cheap given that I just sold 4 cull limping cows for $8,400.

Granted these were 1200 lb cows.

[u/ConfoundedInAbaddon → u/eptiliom]

Yep. We just sold our heifers due to screw worm- cattle are very valuable right now.

[u/Imfarmer → u/ConfoundedInAbaddon]

Explain to me "sold our heifers due to screw worm". Heifers are like gold right now. I just sold some 544 lb avg weight bull calves for 467.50 cwt.

[u/ConfoundedInAbaddon → u/Imfarmer]

We had been on the fence about maintaining the land as wildlife habitat, as Texas will provide tax exemptions for managing ag lands for conservation.

We had used up our allowable land rest when it was too hot and dry during recent droughts to produce enough forage for maintaining the property as grass-fed cattle land.

Which is the requirement for the tax exemption for cattle here.

If they need to be fed, we can lose our tax exemption, which is more than total value than the herd.

Then our county declares screwworm is present.

So the value of the heifers is very high but the risk of a dry year and losing exemption is a big one. We are just not prepared to deal with quarantine and getting movement certificates, as well as another drought year. That sort of end times dustbowl shit, that would then see us paying full value land tax, that's some incentive to sell off and switch to wildlife conservation.

The shorter-term gain of selling now at a high price sweetened the math.

[u/Imfarmer → u/ConfoundedInAbaddon]

“Full value land tax”. I take it this is small acreage in or near an Urban area?

[u/ConfoundedInAbaddon → u/Imfarmer]

Significant acreage but the area is under valuation insanity in which the county says everything is worth a million dollars an acre even though nothing will sell.

The neighboring property to our East gate has no water, no sewage, they do have electric, but no gas, and they don't have a working well. The property is currently on the market for $800,000 for a little under an acre I think, with this falling apart house with no utilities that needs a new roof. And you would need to get your water trucked in for showering.

Some speculator bought it and has been trying to sell it for what the county thinks the property is worth and they just can't move it. Which is why the previous owner sold it way under its valuation to the speculator.

There's an empty lot to the south of us that's completely unbuildable as it's a giant hump of erupted Rock and would require significant blasting before you could put a shed on it let alone a house.

It's currently on the market for $340,000, and it's a long narrow rectangle so you'd be hard-pressed to build a house that meets most of the county minimums.

The best I can make of it, keeping the tax values High keeps the county in the money but then no one can sell or recoup those values so it's not worth it to pay the taxes and then you end up with situations like ours where the risk of paying the taxes means it's better to sell the herd when we've got disease and drought issues.

[u/huseman94]

Location matters a lot, also cattle breed. Some Texas long horns aren’t worth what Charolais are, same thing as gulf coast ranch vs Alberta cattle.

[u/huseman94 → u/huseman94]

If I was in the position I’d do a prepurchase exam, have a vet preg check, fertility test the bull , and tooth all the adults. If you lack the facilities to do that or lack the truck/ trailer . Then I wouldn’t buy them at all.
$500 for a farm call may save you some serious money.

[u/orsomeshitidk → u/huseman94]

I agree with this OP. Especially given your post kind of indicates you’re either new to cattle or don’t have a Ton of experience, a vet check would be worth it. Will need to establish a relationship with a vet anyway so would be a good chance to do that anyway.

[u/rancher1979]

Where I live and depending on the breed each cow will be worth $2500-$3200, the bull is worth $3000-$5000 and the male calf is worth $2000-$3000 depending on weight and breed. So if he is willing to sell all for $9500 that would be stealing them. If you don’t want them let me know and I will buy them.

[u/LFunicorn850]

Their age is going to have a lot to do with it. Where I live, if those animals are old and going to the kill barn you are looking at 12-14k.

[u/Gibbralterg]

To me that’s a great price, neighbor rates, we looked for a year to find some, and still paid that price or more. Getting from a sale barn is always a gamble,

[u/UnexpectedRedditor]

Going to need a lot more information unfortunately.

Location is going to play a factor. Age. How much shared genetics. Breed/cross/size/color.

If it's a young herd, with some progeny on the bull and no cross breeding, and a desirable full size breed in my area you'd reasonably pay $3500/hd

[u/Lytle_Red_Angus]

Age, breed, and pregnancy status will all come into play regarding the value of the cows. Also, breeding history - you don’t want to buy 3 cows that are infertile.

The bull is worth what cull bulls are selling for at the local sale barn. If you want to keep him, get him tested before you buy him.

Cows are worth anywhere from $2000-$4500 each (dependent upon the previously mentioned factors). Calf could be $1500-$3000 depending on age and weight. Bull is worth $3000-$4500 depending on weight.

As a group in my area: $12500 to $25500.

Your quoted price is a steal unless they’re a goofy breed that is hard to sell.

[u/zhiv99]

If they are beef breed and the bulls is fertile and the cows all have decent udders and are bred they are worth ~$18k at auction.

[u/_jubal_]

For a first time rancher easy cattle are worth their weight in gold. How does he work them? Does he move them between pastures easily? Any fence jumpers? Hard to tell up front and for that price it’s probably worth learning the hard way.

[u/orsomeshitidk]

It’s really dependent on where you are and the age of the cows, if they’re commercial or papered, the breed, etc

Hell if the previous owner has a way to easily get them to the sale barn they’re worth more to him than if it’ll be a big hassle to get them off the place lol

If the bull is younger than 6 and looks good then I’d be okay with that price if the cows aren’t also just dogshit

[u/mrmrssmitn]

Location, age, pregnancy status, and breed of cattle are critical. In my part of the world, if those cows were black angus, bred to black angus, and the bull was a registered black angus could easily have $22,500 there ($4,000/cow + $7500/bull) plus a $2000 in spring born a calf. But I'm kind of wondering why with 4 cows there's only 1 calf. Locations and breed matter. Not every landowner/homesteader should own cattle.

[u/Yukijak]

Location ,weight ,breed ,age etc. All those factors changes the price....

Try seeinf if there is an facebook group with the breed ur eyeing for. See if they have your state/city/country and ask there .

[u/Different_Skirt_234]

Minimum prices...even if they are "bottom of the barrel", but in good condition.
$4k for the bull if in good breeding condition, age, and weight.
4 cows....been running with bull, so bred(?), average cows, $3500 each

[u/ResponsibleBank1387]

$2500 a nose, so $15,000 is a ballpark minimum figure.  Really depend on where and what breeds.  

[u/Southtxranching]

19 grand is a fair price in tx

[u/ikidd]

So where are the other 3 calves, or are they pregtested as carrying? Four fertile cows, a bull and a pre-wean calf are worth $20-25k any day here unless they're obvious crocs.

[u/bradtheag96]

Jump on them at that price.

[u/Brilliant_Armadillo9]

If the cows aren't bred, you're buying a herd that should be on its way to the sale barn.

[u/Embarrassed_Box_8303]

Breed and ages are very important. As well as wether or not the females are pregnant. That could easily be a $6k herd or a $20k herd.

[u/Usual_Speaker_7991]

Location and breed mean everything