Looking for advice re grazing cattle

[Eagle1]

The Dexters will eliminate all the woody growth down low and trim all your trees as high as they can reach. I started with overgrown ground they are are turning into grass land. Currently rotation is not a good solution but once I close up here they will gain a ton of pasture in the bottom of the holler and I won't be cutting grass every 5 days.
Hay is always a challenge in dry years it helps to have someone you do you long term business with, well until they change the rules mid stream. I finally found someone close that was expanding and I hope to do business with him long term. Most of the hay around here has a home before it is cut.
I have learned that cows you know well are good for the soul, it's peaceful to sit in the pasture and watch them feed, with most friendly coming up for a good scratch.

 

[ponytug]

My fencing plan is to create 4 pastures of about a dozen acres each, with half being good quality grass, a quarter being wooded, and the other quarter being kind of a mix. Long term will be to increase the amount of grass and maybe even learn how to make round bales myself. Finding hay seems to be a challenge every other year because of rain, bugs or fertilizer. Seems it's always something!! The current plan is to rotate the animals into a fresh pasture every week, and keep them there for the week. Then I will have three weeks to work on, improve, clean up and spray the pasture they just left. Here, hay peaks in protein about every 30 days, so this should allow me to have the best grass for them, every week. This is all just my thoughts on doing this. I'm getting a 16 foot cattle trailer this weekend, so that's another step in the right direction.

I really enjoy reading everyones experience with Belted Galloways and Dexter's, or any other small breed of cattle.

That sounds like a well thought out plan to me.

If you want to get in to haying, you might consider sharecropping it with an up and coming hay farmer, at least for a bit. You contribute land, they contribute machinery and perhaps labor and you split the results. It would give you a chance to learn by doing and see how much you want to do it before buying the equipment.

All the best,

Peter

 

[OldMcDonald]

Any suggestions will be appreciated. On my own, I will likely get ten young steers - Black Angus or Santa Gertrudis - which is what we had before - until the neighbor's bull visited. They are tolerant of heat and hardy.

Why was a visit from your neighbour's bull a problem with steers? Not trying to be picky, just curious. I am well aware of some bulls that just want to beat up everything that is not a cow in heat. I once had one attack a horse I was riding. Not sure if he wanted me or the horse.

On a more pertinent note. The advice of jyouts regarding buying steers post #6 is the best you will get. You know cattle and your local markets so might want to juggle the weights, but buying oung steers and selling according to your grazing needs is the simple answer.

No way that a miniature breed weighs that much. A full sized breed like angus will weigh in at about 1200 lbs. for a market ready steer.

As posted, your advice to buy steers gets my vote.

Belted Galloways are not normaly miniature. The original was black but a belted mutation was developed - very easy to spot in bad weather. It is possible it was a crossbred and not a mutation.

I agree with you that an Angus will be ready for killing at around 1200lbs (given that some breeders want extra size at the expense of quality), but I am aware of a farm in my native Northumberland that about 15 years ago had Galloways (Black & Belted) averaging killing at slightly over 1250lbs. My knowledge of the breed, admittedly limited, is that this would be about right - very close to AA in size in their original locations.

I am lucky in that having retired from a farming life around the world last year I now find myself in the situation (Orkney) where the nearest butcher's shop just happens to be run by an AA breeder. I only eat AA beef now. I used to eat my own bred beef, but this is better.

 

[beowulf]

Why was a visit from your neighbour's bull a problem with steers? Not trying to be picky, just curious. I am well aware of some bulls that just want to beat up everything that is not a cow in heat. I once had one attack a horse I was riding. Not sure if he wanted me or the horse.

OldMcDonald, When we bought the property we also bought the cows he had - they were not all steers. He had Santa Gertrudis cattle, but the neighbor had angus and other mixed breeds. So, when the neighbor's bulls tore through the fences and visited our cows, our cows started dropping other breeds, and from there on we had a bit of everything. My comment about steers was about what I would likely get now.

Years ago we had a bit of everything, including bulls. Our bulls were quite tame. The neighbor's bulls - well, that is a different story.

 

[Hay Dude]

Low line angus very docile and wont fence jump

 

[dodge man]

Can you mow it instead or is a lot of it not movable?

 

[OldMcDonald]

OldMcDonald, When we bought the property we also bought the cows he had - they were not all steers. He had Santa Gertrudis cattle, but the neighbor had angus and other mixed breeds. So, when the neighbor's bulls tore through the fences and visited our cows, our cows started dropping other breeds, and from there on we had a bit of everything. My comment about steers was about what I would likely get now.

Years ago we had a bit of everything, including bulls. Our bulls were quite tame. The neighbor's bulls - well, that is a different story.

OK. Now I understand.

 

[kenmac]

I don't know why, but black, and black baldy steers /cows bring the most money here