When I was growing up I did quite a bit of work with cattle but I have not been around them much in the last ten years or so because I was living in town. I now have a place in the county with some small acreage and I want to get a few cattle. I just finished fencing my entire property with 4 strand hi tensile electric and am in the process of building some working pens. I planted some haygrazer a couple of months ago and we have had a lot of rain and it is now very thick and about 5' tall. Additionally I have some of my land that was planted in winter wheat that came up good but was not harvested. I don't know if the cows will eat this or not? Anyway I would like to put a lot of cows on my land to eat down these crops for maybe a month or two and the I can sell them and prepare my land to plant it all in wheat this fall.
I was thinking of putting 500 lb steers out there, letting them put on about 100lbs over a couple months and then selling them.
Basically what I am trying to figure out is how many cows should I place per acre to graze this down in a short period of time. I am not really intrerested in how many in can support continually, but rather how many it would feed for a month or two because I am going to plow everything up at that time. I was thinking around 5 per acre? I don't know.
I was thinking of putting 500 lb steers out there, letting them put on about 100lbs over a couple months and then selling them.
Basically what I am trying to figure out is how many cows should I place per acre to graze this down in a short period of time. I am not really intrerested in how many in can support continually, but rather how many it would feed for a month or two because I am going to plow everything up at that time. I was thinking around 5 per acre? I don't know.