Educate me on having cattle

[JasperFrank]

Yes, I was tongue in cheek, about the Highlanders and the Romans.
A family friend moved his small herd from Maryland to a spread he bought near Cameron, Texas.
We got to talking about his cattle, on a visit, and why he stuck with the Highlanders. I asked him, "Aren't you concerned about coyotes taking new born calves?" He goes, "Yes, those damn coyotes, every other day or, so I have drag out a dead one." Me; "Those poor calves." Him; "No. The calves are always fine. I meant all the dead coyotes."

 

[ponytug]

Yes, I was tongue in cheek, about the Highlanders and the Romans.
A family friend moved his small herd from Maryland to a spread he bought near Cameron, Texas.
We got to talking about his cattle, on a visit, and why he stuck with the Highlanders. I asked him, "Aren't you concerned about coyotes taking new born calves?" He goes, "Yes, those damn coyotes, every other day or, so I have drag out a dead one." Me; "Those poor calves." Him; "No. The calves are always fine. I meant all the dead coyotes."

A neighbor has a small herd of twenty or thirty; she likes them, and has fun with them. Her main herd is black angus, a couple thousand I think.

Personally, I can do without horns, which is why we went with another Scottish breed, Belted Galloways. I have had fun times hiking along Hadrian's wall; there are some beautiful areas there. Parts of it are remote/wild enough to imagine Picts just over next ridge, and many of the old foundations of the sally ports are still visible. Lots of theories as to why and where it was built. More here;

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall (known in antiquity as the Vallum Hadriani or the Vallum Aelian) is a defensive frontier work in northern Britain which dates from 122 CE. The wall ran from coast to coast at a length...

www.worldhistory.org

All the best,

Peter

 

[EddieWalker]

I brought another load of hay to my brothers place yesterday, and then I moved his feeding troughs around. He had one in the middle of his catch pen, and another at the far side of his land. I put both of them next to the fence so I don't have to go into the catch pen with a sack of Creep, with all the crazy cattle!!! With all the rain that we've been getting, it's also become a muddy mess getting through the gates. Seems that where they walk over and over again, it gets extra muddy!!! Now I can dump the sack over the fence, which makes it easier for me.

I've been watching YouTube video's on fence line feeders, and I think that's something I want to do for my round bales. I'm already struggling with my horses being close to the gate when I want to bring a round bale in. Having cattle will just make this more of a chore. If I pour concrete, put a roof over it, I think it should solve a lot of issues.

While I was unloading the hay from the trailer, one of the people that my brother bought his Hereford's from stopped by. Her family is one of the bigger Hereford ranches in the area that I've seen online and in some of his magazines. Did I mention that my brother subscribed to a bunch of magazines? Anyway, I asked her about the Livestock Exchange/Auction that's down the road and she rolled her eyes and said that they will not go there anymore. Athens is a lot better. So that was good confirmation for me. She also agreed with me keeping 6 cows and selling the others. She didn't offer to buy any, or anything like that, but she said that she knows the guy that is helping me and that I'm in good hands.

 

[MossRoad]

On a humorous note... just keep the end in mind. Thanks for sharing the story so far. Seems you're getting some great advice from people near you.

 

[LouNY]

On a humorous note... just keep the end in mind. Thanks for sharing the story so far. Seems you're getting some great advice from people near you.

View attachment 770399

Nice pictorial,
it's amazing at times over at my brothers when someone is getting a half a beef and they seem to think it will be all steaks.
Or they will want 10 pounds of filet mignon and the rest in steaks and maybe a bit of hamburger, Occasionally you get a first time customer that actually understands a bit about the cuts and may even want the tongue or heart and liver, and even a few asking for ox tails for soups and some bones for soup or dogs.
But we do seem to accumulate some organ meats at times, you would think some of those cows had multiple organs besides the stomachs

 

[MossRoad]

I never new beans about cuts of beef until I married my wife and started splitting a side of beef with her parent every year that we'd get from her mom's cousin. Did that for about 25 years. Then cut down to splitting a quarter. Now, we just get some ground beef, some roasts, a couple steaks, liver and tail. Just the two of us now can't eat it all. We get if from close friends that process 2-3 every year.

That's one of the reasons I'm interested in Eddy's thread. My friend always has 4-6 head in his pastures. 2-3 up for processing. 2-3 getting fat. He's had his bred a couple times, and he's also just gone to the auction and picked up some calves. And that's about it. He has about 9 acres divided and fenced into 3 pastures for the cows. And another acre to move them or the neighbor's sheep into if needed. They used to have horses for their child as well. Child moved and took horses. They also raise 2-3 pigs every years. He has a nice sized barn that can hold probably 1000 or more bales of hay. There's a shed and small paddock off to one side where he feeds the cattle if they feel like it. He offers it to them once a day. If they come from the pastures, they eat. If they don't feel like it, he puts it away. They're pretty happy with their grass. He rotates them amongst the pastures fairly often, which is just opening a gate in the lane in front of them and closing the one behind them.

All in all, he says it's not too hard. Just required every evening to scoop any poop near the barn where they eat, or in the barn if they come in for the night. Keep old grain and hay picked up to minimize the rodents. Keep the grain covered. Etc. But someone has to look at them daily.

Then he does his own hay with a neighbor that raises sheep. So they kinda can count on each other to watch the animals of either has to go out of town.

I think lining up someone to watch over things if you need to leave would be the biggest concern overall.

 

[EddieWalker]

We lost the ability for both of us to go anywhere when we started collecting Akitas. We tried to get her son to watch them, but he is too lazy and irresponsible. My parents used to be able to, but they are too old now. We have friends that have volunteered, but we’re not comfortable with that. We’re still looking for somebody that we can trust, but it’s not looking good.

Adding cattle to the mix will make it harder to go any where, but I really done need to go anywhere. One of the things that I am going to do is build a barn that will make feeding a lot faster and easier. That’s should start in a couple months. I need my fence done first, but I don’t think I want to bring the cattle here until I have a barn for them.

 

[LouNY]

In your area is a barn necessary for cattle?
Even in our area a barn isn't for keeping many of the cows in, it's for when we are working with them.
One group of feeders does get to eat in the old feed bunks from when it was a dairy farm.
But 3/4's of the animals life outside summer and winter. We have a couple of fields that get designated as winter feed lot fields.
We know that they will get excessive manure on them as well as feed waste from shoveling out the feed wagons. As well as getting packed down and requiring plowing in the spring instead of being no till fields.
I can see one for keeping feed clean and dry.
For cows a roofed over shade cover should be good.
If you start to feed in a barn or even a 3 sided shed you will concentrate the manure in that location,
and the ground close up will get chewed up and mudded when it rains.
Barns and stalls concentrate the cows and will mean added equipment such as a manure spreader,
and if hay or straw is mixed into you will find that tines work better then a bucket.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I will say, you need to do something with the young bulls. More than one bull in the pasture is going to cause issues. Depending on the big bull's attitude, he could kill those smaller ones.

On a second note. You need to try to age those heifers. They don't need to be bred too young, but of course it may be too late.
I bred my heifers at around 18 months .

It is said, you have to keep a good paying job to be able afford your cattle ! LOL

I know when I started, the guys around me asked..
'' you want to know how to make a small fortune in the cattle business'' ?
Of course eager me says yes !
He says, ''start with a large fortune, pretty soon you'll have a small fortune''

30 cows per bull.

 

[JasperFrank]

There is always a fad, for the surrounding subdivisions, in to small ranchettes, city folk buy. These can be anything from raising Emu Birds, to Pot Belly Pigs. These fads don't last long, and only the first involved make any money.
If your interest is really to maintain the AG tax advantage, there are less labor intensive animals to work with that satisfy the lower taxes. I would put Cattle on the wrong end of that decision of animal that satisfied the tax code. You can go exotic, with animals that require near no maintenance. And this is just opinion, and we all know what opinions are worth.

Just for fun, I will point out, that Chuck Norris never had a Highlander in any of his movies.