Starting a cattle farm with no money is hard but not impossible. You can lease land, enter partnerships with family members or seek out investors to acquire land. You can also source the youngest calves that will take at least 12 months to grow and do much of the labor yourself.
Starting a cattle farm can be daunting, especially if you are on a limited budget or have no money at all. A good cattle ranch, station or dairy farm can cost between $100,000 and millions of dollars, depending on its size, location and profitability.
The good news is that even if you have little money to start the farm, there are various measures you can put in place to see your passion and hard work bear good fruits.
Table of Contents
What You’ll Need
The basic requirements for a small farm are universal and must be met for the farm to be fully functional and profitable. These requirements include:
- Farm location
- Farm business plan
- Cattle
- Barns, fences, and storage space
- Cattle feed
- Labor
Choose The Right Farm Location
There are two crucial aspects when it comes to farm location. Firstly, you’ll need at least 1-2 acres of land to support each cow in fodder production and living space, while more is better.
Good cattle farmland should be fertile, spacious, and topographically conducive for hosting livestock, growing fodder crops, and operating farm machinery.
The land should also have room for expansion in the future when your own cattle business propers and requires extra space.
Besides, the climate in your location should be forgiving. Given you have no buffer in your bank account, there should be room for you to bounce back soon from mistakes you might make along the way. A common mistake is choosing a type of cattle that’s not well suited to the climate.
The climate has a bearing on aspects such as the quality of milk and beef, cattle health, farm success, cattle reproductive progress, and cow disposition.
Secondly, your location determines the market for your cattle farm produce. This is particularly important if you plan on selling directly to local consumers.
Is there a ready market for beef, milk, and by-products like manure? Does the cultural background of the people around the farm allow them to consume beef and milk?
Sourcing Farm Land With No Money
Depending on where they are at along the farm startup journey, new farmers have the following options for land:
- Ancestral or family land (readily available and needs no payment)
- Leased land (requires a monthly payment but is cheaper than buying right away)
- Land obtained as a gift from someone else (rare and is often as an inheritance)
With no spare money, obtaining a bank loan to purchase a farm is next to impossible, even if you have a regular job. For the lucky few that do qualify, the interest rates are often very high.
Create Realistic Farm Business Plans
A farming operation is like any other small business. It requires a workable business plan to guide you in establishing and growing the farm. The plan also helps you find investors, partners, or favorable government and non-governmental grants.
A good business plan should outline details such as:
- Your farm business goals, mission statement, and vision
- Expected expenses and profit projections
- Expansion prospects
- Assets (and liabilities)
- Niche market
Choose The Ideal Cattle
Choosing ideal farm animals isn’t easy. You have to consider whether you’ll raise beef or dairy cattle and if you want young or mature animals. You must also consider the cattle breed most suitable for your location.
Beef cattle can be more forgiving to a beginning farmer than dairy cattle. The latter are more capital- and labor-intensive, but you reap monetary benefits sooner than running a beef cattle ranch, even though beef animals offer more flexibility and have fewer housing needs.
Cheap yet hardy breeds include:
| Easily adaptable | Brahman, Watusi, Dexters, and Texas Longhorns |
| Traditional beef | Black Angus, Hereford, and Charolais |
| Most forgiving | Guernseys, Milking Shorthorns, and Jerseys |
You could start the farm with calves, bred or unbred heifers, mature cows in lactation or dry, yearlings, or dam and calf pairs for a cow-calf operation. Younger cattle are significantly cheaper to buy and care for than older animals but will take many months to see yields.
When on a budget, you can find cattle less expensively in ways such as:
- Finding a beef rancher or dairy farmer looking to give up their small farm or herd by selling it cheaply or gifting it to someone else (this is rare)
- Arranging with a friend or a company to raise cattle for them to return the base stock later and remain with the offspring begotten at your farm. This is common in Africa, especially in Kenya. (You must always ensure the cattle are insured.)
- If you are starting a beef farm, buy emaciated but disease-free cows or bulls at lower prices and fatten them for sale.
Even if you’re lucky enough to land a big investor or optimistic family member with cash to spare, it’s best to start with a few head of cattle rather than many at once for your first year.
Barns, Fences, Storage, and Other Farm Structures
You’ll need shelter when raising cattle to shield them from the weather elements.
Farm structures can be constructed using readily available materials like old timber, iron sheets, poles, fencing wire, and building stones or bricks.
Cattle Feed
What you feed your cattle and how you do it is a determining factor for farm success or failure. Before you bring in your cattle, you should have the barns ready and accumulate cattle feed that can last 6-12 months, depending on how many animals you want to raise.
You’ll be feeding your cattle on commercial concentrates and minerals, as well as purchased or self-grown fodder like hay, grass pasture, and silage.
It will be cheaper to grow your own fodder and rely on purchases only to supplement what you have.
Farm Labor
It’s easy to overlook labor when starting a farm, especially if it’s small. At the start, you can find less expensive labor in yourself and willing family members.
You’ll need to hire salaried farm workers if the farm is larger.
How To Save Money
Besides the above requirements, you’ll also need various farm equipment like:
- Tractors
- Freezers
- Windrowers
- Balers
- Marketing trucks
- Wheelbarrows
- Milking buckets
- Feeding troughs
- AI tanks
- Milking machines
- Vaccine holding tanks
- Sprayers.
You’ll also need equipment for dehorning, deworming, castrations, and hoof management.
Here’s how to save money on equipment:
- Recycle, upcycle, and reuse stuff
- Obtain stuff on lease
- Borrow from neighboring farms (and return everything in better shape than you found it!)
- Purchase old or used, in-good-condition stuff and rehabilitate them
Getting Started Without Debt
The temptation to take farm loans from friends or refundable startup funding from financial institutions can be overwhelming. Try your best to start the farm with zero debt to allow plowing back profits instead of losing them to debt repayments.
You have a few options as a beginner:
- Partner with family or friends to share bills, responsibilities, and technical know-how on basic farm management
- Join community farms where farmers collectively raise cattle, and each farmer gets a calf each year (painstakingly slow, but sure)
- Look for grants from non-governmental or governmental organizations like the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), such as the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, which targets enterprising young farmers.