Jim:
Just a few things to be added on cattle raising.
One can often buy older cow-calf pairs in the spring, let the cow raise the calf over the summer, sell the cow as a slaughter animal at auction in late summer or butcher for yourself and have the calf left over at very little cost. You can then sell the calf or wean and raise to a yearling for either sale or fattening for your own butcher beef. These old mommas know how to raise a calf, that’s why they got to be old in the first place. Prices for these pairs are basically the value of the cow for slaughter and the price of a baby calf, you generally are paying no premium at all and often they can be bought for at or less than what a cow without calf at side brings.
Know how to figure the value of the cow for slaughter by the pound and the value of the calf and you’ll know what they are worth. Focus on the slaughter value of the cow because that is really the source of most of the worth and what you are paying for.
Older cows don’t have much tooth length left so don’t run them on desert range but if you have some good grazing pasture they will do fine.
If you stick with older cows you don’t need a bull either since your purpose is not to keep them as breeding animals but rather to raise the calf and then use them for their slaughter value. And when you go to sell the slaughter cow and the calf (ready to wean) you often have enough money to then buy back a younger cow that is already bred. Regards, – Aaron R.