rustydollar
Silver Member
I'm retired in northern rural Minnesota. One of my neighbors is a young guy who runs a small herd of cattle and is a full time school teacher. Several years ago, we agreed on his running his cattle on my pasture if he would be kind enough to fix the barb wire fence should a tree limb land on it. So far, no broken fence. I have two hay fields which he bales. I charge him nothing. Several years ago, I leased them but I changed my mind and would rather see this young guy use the hay....teachers aren't rich either. Last summer, I even used my tractor to help him take the hay to his farm. My wife really enjoys the cattle when they come to visit us. Our back yard butts up to our pasture and they tend to congregrate on the other side of the fence. It might have something to do with her hand feeding some of the cows and his bull....and then again, maybe it doesn't.
You can tell how many heifers and cows a man has in his herd by counting the number of bulls he keeps penned, an educated farmer does not let the bull range year round with the herd. You want your calves to drop in the same month early spring.
One bull services 30 females, sounds good but glad I'm not a bull - one stroke. Now a stallion takes his time, that's for me.
Another acquaintance a dairy farmer uses radio collars which keep track of how much milk she is giving this regulates the amount of feed the animal gets. If for some reason the animal is receiving medication the milk is automatically routed out of the mainstream then used for feeding calves.
Breeding is done by artificial insemination., a few tractors used for silage and bailing hay.
