Yep, land, equipment, maintenance, vet supplies, labor, taxes and risk on your calculations of return.
That said, I agree 100% that a person should acquire necessities first. Are you going to buy another bred cow once you have an extra $1,700? What about if you had a couple hundred thousand dollars to invest???
Just sayin'...
“Yep, land, equipment, maintenance, vet supplies, labor, taxes and risk on your calculations of return”
And gold ownership doesn’t come with extras as well? Where is the gold stored...safe deposit box, a safe, under the mattress? All have either expense or risk tied to them. If the value of the cow goes down I can still eat it and get the full value I paid for it out of the meat in the animal...if the value of gold goes down you lose money. That is the reason I still do not see the “insurance” side of owning gold...I understand the risks of a cow, but I also understand the risk of owning gold...
“Are you going to buy another bred cow once you have an extra $1,700? What about if you had a couple hundred thousand dollars to invest???”
At this point I would not need to...the cow will be bred again shortly...but I could buy another one now if I wanted to since I do not need to buy milk or meat for the family, there is extra money available. If I did have a couple hundred thousand dollars to invest I would buy more land to increase the size of the hobby farm...I can provide for my family currently on this farm but the family is growing so eventually we will probably need more land...and then I could probably raise my own hay for winter feeding reducing my costs even more...that is our long range plan.