Family cow

[Boondox]

Do any of you keep a family cow? One cow? If so, is it for milk or a beefer? What kind? What sort of housing and ranging arrangements do you have for it? Any lessons learned you want to share as the wife and I start investigating this possibility?

Pete

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Cows are neat. Some of them are real characters.

When the producers of Frontier House on PBS went looking for milk cows that were used to being handmilked they had heck finding such beasts.

Years ago I traded out labor to a rancher for whiteface and it's feed. I named it "Dinner".

Sorry, poor humor, but a bit of truth. Of course when daughter came over for dinner the other day we had chicken. First thing she wanted to know as my wife was setting the table was if it was one of dad's chickens. Miss Glenda told her we'd paid for the chicken.

After dinner wannabesoninlaw enlightened her to the fact that it was indeed one of my chickens.

She asked it's name.

I told her that chances are it was "Next" cause there'd been only one "Hey, You."

Chickens have more personality than cows, cheaper to feed, but harder to milk, and they laugh at jokes.

I've told cows jokes until I was blue in the face and never get a grin. But you tell a chicken a joke and they'll just cackle.

 

[HalseyGreen]

Growing up we had the family cow (gurnsey) and a steer each year for beef. We had a 4 stall (10x10) barn for shelter and storage of hay. One thing to remember, if you have a cow for milk, she needs to be milked twice a day, every day, no skipping a weekend for that trip to the beach. I can attest that the milk is good, and the cream makes great ice cream and butter, but watch the belt line. You will also need to breed the cow each year, we used AI with a Herford Bull donor, that way if the calf was a bull, we had our steer for the year, if it was a heifer, she was sold for veal, and we purchased a steer. If you have kids, the experience is great, and if you have kids, get them involved in 4-H showing the amimals. By the way, I was one of 7 children, so we used all the milk. Hope this helps.

 

[Bird]

Pete, I guess my experience was similar to HalseyGreen's. We had a single Jersey milk cow most of the time I was growing up (and also a second milk cow - a Guernsey part of the time). With 5 kids I'm sure it was a good thing then, plenty of milk, a calf to butcher each year, etc., but never again. Like he said, that's twice a day, every day - no such thing as being too sick to go to work, that cow's got to be milked!

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Harv

I think the PBS folks also wanted "period" cattle. Which was almost as big a hassle as the hand milked. A lot of the older breeds that frontier familys would have used are nearly gone because they don't do well on today's high production farms.

I sure liked Frontier House. Been watching for the next episode. This thing is better than survivor. Only 2 episodes and they've already found smuggled goods and everybody is fighting and suffering.

SHF

 

[skent]

Up till the drought of 1999, we always had a steer for beef. Yearly, We would typically buy a bull calf from a neighbor who dairy farmed. Typically we would end up with half holstine and half angus. At the time, day old bull calves sold for $20 at the stockyard. After weaning, we would put them on a halter and stake them throughout the meadow at different spots. We would keep them for two years and strickly pasure (grass) feed. Winter time we would buy hay. Last 90 days we would grain feed for finish. And while the rate of gain was not real fast, it certinly was cheap, and end up with a 1000 lb steer to butcher. Typical yeild was 400# wrapped and in the freezer and typical cost was less than $500.00. Cuts of meat was always good. Big savings is in butchering yourself. Lots of work - lots of fun though!

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Lots of work - lots of fun though!</font color=blue>

When I was a kid, we butchered our own beef, hogs, and chickens, in addition to dressing out squirrels, rabbits, birds, and cleaning fish. I agree with the "Lots of work" but we must have done it wrong - never did find that "Lots of fun"; in fact, I didn't think it was any fun at all!/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Argee]

We've raised both Herefords and Black Angus for beef. Prefer the Black Angus (better flavored meat). Purchased from auction barns & neighbors at about 600 lbs. and finished them to about 1300 lbs. We contained and grained (which is not the best way, in my opinion). Provide a small area 10' x 20' for each steer. Half of which is the opened end of a barn. Fed a diet of grain (corn) to some and (steer builder mix) to others, at 2% of body weight per day divided into two feedings daily, 12 hours apart. Also included a flake of grass hay (no alfalfa) with each feeding. Gave them free will on mineral salt and water. Took them to finished weight in 6 months. The meat was very heavily marbled, thinly textured and very tasty. I found the steer builder mix, while more expensive, provided faster weight gain.

We raised them singlely and in pairs. The pairs provided better meat and faster weight gain. I attribute that to (believe it or not) the fact that they provided companionship to one another and seemed more content.

I am currently in the process of fencing in 4 paddocks approximately 4 acres each in size in which I intend to rotate cattle through. Keeping them mostly on a grass diet (which they're designed for) and supplementing with some grain. This method, of course, will take longer to finish them, but will cut the feed bill considerably. I am also contemplating Dexter cattle as they require less space than conventional bovines and are ideally suited to small acreages.

There is many an argument about which is the better meat, grain fed or grass fed. The majority of people who purchase our meat are becoming more health concious and prefer a less marbled meat. I've heard the leaner meat (grass fed) requires lower heat and longer cooking times but is as good as if not better tasting than heavily marbled meat. Time will tell.

I hope this gives you some idea what it takes to raise cattle for beef. You need to have good neighbors or someone that you can count on to feed them should you take a long weekend or vacation.