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Why did this cow die?

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  • sobi1998

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    Instead of the headaches and expense of running livestock or dealing with a grazing lease you can convert the ag valuation from livestock to wildlife. Of course you’ll have to do certain activities to show your using it for wildlife and some paperwork but it’s very easy to do and tx parks and wildlife will assist you with the planning and paperwork.

    That’s a goal at some point. We’ve looked into that. The cows are only good to us for the taxes and eating grass


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    sobi1998

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    Ill just say I bet the annual upkeep/expense of a “few cows” costs you more than you save in yrly taxes.
    Just wonder if ya ever put Pen to Paper to calculate it.

    I plan to go the wildlife exemption route if any on mine. Have to “do the math” and see if the expense/hassle is worth the tax savings.


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    Actually, without throwing out numbers, it saves well over 50% a year...


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    gll

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    Most people don't go into raising cattle for the money. The biggest part of the money, is the taxes saved by having an agriculture exemption. There are much easier and more profitable means to making money than with cattle.
    My brother used to run a cow/calf operation on his place; now he makes more money selling hay...
     

    Rhino

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    * this might get a little graphic towards the end, fair warning*

    I recently got a handful of cows for land tax purposes. Got some cheap, bottom of the barrel, cows. I don’t know the exact ages but one in particular was probably up in age (maybe 8-9 idk). Anyway, yesterday I was doing some work around my property and I saw her sitting down for a long time earlier in the morning (seen in picture below). It seemed odd that she’d be laid up all day like she was. Keep in mind this cow is *skinny*, hips, ribs and eye sockets all showing under skin. I kept working throughout the day and maybe 3-4 hours later I went to check in on the cows. I now see that she had moved about 6 ft away from where she was, but she was now on her side, her neck craned with chin on her spine. She was twitching her legs and had labored breathing. It was obvious that she had taken some turn for the worse.
    She definitely didn’t look comfortable in that position so I decided to push her upright how she was laying earlier. This would soon be a bad decision because within a minute of doing that, she started to throw up all her contents. I ultimately decided to put her down.

    Does anyone have any idea of what happened? I didn’t see any obvious wounds or anything. She was acting “normal” in the days before. Had only owned her for nearly a week...


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    Sounds like she was literally starving. A number of years back I had a Jersey die that was being bullied by other cows and the vet said she was literally starving.
     

    Axxe55

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    Sounds like she was literally starving. A number of years back I had a Jersey die that was being bullied by other cows and the vet said she was literally starving.

    It does happen. Seen it far too many times over the years. Any time there is a group of animals, it happens. Animals, like some people will pick on, or bully a weaker member of the group.

    This why cross-fencing or having several separate pastures is important, so that the groups of cows can be separated.
     

    mad88minute

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    Ill just say I bet the annual upkeep/expense of a “few cows” costs you more than you save in yrly taxes.
    Just wonder if ya ever put Pen to Paper to calculate it.

    I plan to go the wildlife exemption route if any on mine. Have to “do the math” and see if the expense/hassle is worth the tax savings.


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    Yeah but I'd rather blow my money on something like cattle then hand my money to the .gov

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    Texas45

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    Not where you are
    Yeah but I'd rather blow my money on something like cattle then hand my money to the .gov

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    Agreed.
    I only have a small place (10.5 ac) so I cant raise enuf cows to make $$. I currently am preparing it for my home in future. So taxes mow are low as no improvements. Just got pwr on it this yr.

    Once all is done and I land there for good I will decide best route to for me to take.

    No one wants to give ol uncle any extra for sure.


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    cygunner

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    Most people don't go into raising cattle for the money. The biggest part of the money, is the taxes saved by having an agriculture exemption. There are much easier and more profitable means to making money than with cattle.
    Ranching has improved quite a bit lately. Slaughter cattle are nearly $1.50 per pound. Not so very long ago we were pretty happy with 50 cents. You don't go into the money making part with a few head though. Several hundred at a minimum. We mainly sold stockers and they are nearly $1.90 per pound today.
     

    cygunner

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    It does happen. Seen it far too many times over the years. Any time there is a group of animals, it happens. Animals, like some people will pick on, or bully a weaker member of the group.

    This why cross-fencing or having several separate pastures is important, so that the groups of cows can be separated.
    That's also why there are cattle for sale at every barn. Bullies, Bullied and Bunch Quitters. Ours would trail my father's horse as we moved them on country roads. If they wouldn't off to the sale barn they went.
     

    sobi1998

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    It does happen. Seen it far too many times over the years. Any time there is a group of animals, it happens. Animals, like some people will pick on, or bully a weaker member of the group.

    This why cross-fencing or having several separate pastures is important, so that the groups of cows can be separated.

    Two of the cows are already doing that. A smaller one is ramming an older one away whenever I go feed them nuggets so I just throw nuggets at her since she can’t get close


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    Axxe55

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    I know a lot of people raise livestock for an ag exemption to help with taxes. Not a thing wrong with that. Most people raising cattle is sort of a hobby for them.

    Raising cattle is a very labor intensive job, year round. We are constantly riding fences to ensure they are not compromised in some way allowing the cows to get out. We are constantly watching the cows, so we know if they are having problems and can address them quickly. Pretty soon, we are fixing to have cows dropping calves. We are thinking about 15 got bred this year. So for the next few months, we are going to be keeping a closer eye on the cows, and fixing to separate some from the herd into another pasture.
     
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