E263: How to Make Cows Pay for a Bug Out Location

Catch-up with Co-host Jason and his efforts to parlay his small-scale beef production effort into paying for a bug out location.

To bring new listeners up to speed, Jason is one of the original hosts of ITRH. He and Aaron spent years playing around with rabbit and chicken production on the ITRH Urban farm. After the closure of the urban farm, Jason began a passion project with two objects:

1. Start a small-scale beef production operation (aka micro-ranching)
2. Parlay the success of the beef production into a business and use the proceeds to pay for a bug out location

Producing meat is a significant concern for most preppers. This is typically attempted through raising rabbits, chickens, or aquaponics.

Raising cattle to produce beef is often seen as too large a task with a monetary barrier to entry. It requires a large cash outlay to procure land and a starter heard. Then there are the infrastructure costs and time commitment.

But, done correctly, beef can be a highly profitable venture. And as the demand for locally sourced food trends upward, the ease of finding buyers increases too.

So what’s the end result of Jason’s venture?

A few years have now passed and we follow-up to hear about his progress and lessons learned.

Small-scale Beef Production Topics Discussed

• What’s easier about small-scale beef production than expected
• What’s harder about small-scale beef production than expected
• Costs associated with the project
• Becoming profitable
• The things he would do differently to shorten his timeline to achieving success
• Dealing with coyotes and other natural issues
• Leveraging government grants and programs
• Using natural and sustainable methods
• About that time two city boys used YouTube to learn about barbwire and the shenanigans that ensued
• The crazy way Jason procures free, high-quality feed for his cattle

Episode Resources:

• E138 – Micro-ranching