mixing cows with a stud horse

MtnCows93

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Foothills of NC
ok ive got this 10 acre pasture rented that I would like to use to put heifers in from 8 months old until about 15 months old. the problem is there is a older intact male horse in there by himself. they did have another horse that died a few years ago and this horse is probably 20 years old. still gets around good and is friendly. anyway I've been told he could bite or mount any heifers or cows and also stomp baby calves. is this true? I'd love to just leave him with the heifers but I'm guessing I'll have to build a cross fence to separate them. any input on this would be appreciated!
 
I've got a 27yo gelding that hasn't spent a day away from cows/calves/heifer/bulls in over 10 years. Separate him out and he quits eating and calls for the cows until he can't anymore. There was 2 geldings and a stud with my cattle herd but now I'm down to one surviving horse.

All that to say it depends on the horse.
 
I agree with @chevytaHOE5674
It all depends on the horse.
We have a 6-7 year old stud in with our spring pair's this year. He seems fine. (It's a really long story, too much to type. My landlord lost a small pasture he used and I now have 5 sheep, a geriatric donkey, and a palomino stud running with my cows)
On a side note; I haven't killed any of them off yet. They all eat corn silage, wet gluten, mix 30 liquid protein, cattle mineral, and ryelage all winter long with the cows.
 
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Mixing them may or may not be a problem. Every situation is different and animal personalities are different. The horse is older and he has had a companion animal with him in the past. That's a plus. He's intact, so that's a minus.

What I would do if I were you is set up a pasture rotation using temporary fence (more difficult with 'teenage' cattle than mature cows, but still not hard) and put the cattle and stud horse in a leader-follower rotational pattern. Not only will this keep the animals separate, but it will increase your pasture utilization efficiency (amount of feed the animals have to consume form what is available) from about 35 percent to somewhere around 65 percent. That's about doubling the amount of feed/grass the animals can eat that is available on the pasture. This is in comparison to turn the cows out on the entire pasture and let them have free rein over the whole thing for 8 straight months.
 
On a side note; I haven't killed any of them off yet. They all eat corn silage, wet gluten, mix 30 liquid protein, cattle mineral, and ryelage all winter long with the cows.

Same my horse eats baleage, cattle mineral, gets pour on, etc and he's still kicking. He rotates pastures with the cows, trailers to away pastures with the cows, etc.

There's also 3 donkeys in the herds for protection. Never had a lick of trouble with and equine and cattle co-mingling.

I wouldn't hesitate to at least give it a try. I've been doing it for 15ish years and haven't had a single issue. But every animal is different.
 
I'd think you'd know in the first 10 minutes if the horse intends to be mean. Like some others have said I'd be more worried about foundering a horse on cow feed, but that doesn't seem to have been a problem for a lot of you.
 
I know of people that run horses with their cattle. Some people winter their bulls with their cows and have no issues. I don't like to take chances so I like to keep things separate and not invite trouble.
 
Keeping a horse or anything in a separate pasture here without a herd is an invitation for it to become prey. The horse I have is in with cows because once upon a time he was pastured with 2 other horses about 75 feet from the house when what we believe was a cougar attacked him. Shredded his back hips and bite marks to the mane. Safety in numbers.

Also makes it easier for salt/mineral, water, pasture rotations, etc.
 
Same my horse eats baleage, cattle mineral, gets pour on, etc and he's still kicking. He rotates pastures with the cows, trailers to away pastures with the cows, etc.

There's also 3 donkeys in the herds for protection. Never had a lick of trouble with and equine and cattle co-mingling.

I wouldn't hesitate to at least give it a try. I've been doing it for 15ish years and haven't had a single issue. But every animal is different.
we had an old Mr Sn Peppy stud horse that would chase cattle and was pretty aggressive but I've had 15 0r 20 0thers run with cattle and they have all been fine, especially if it's just pasture. They can try to take over a feed trough but there's a lot of times during the year when the horses and cattle run together on our place with no repercussions
 
I didn't. What wasn't said though was how many head of cattle were being introduced.
Take 10, subtract the acres it takes to run a horse, and that will tell you what can be introduced.

What's that, 2 cows and a horse best case scenario? I would put money the horse dominates the feed in that scenario.

If they won't contain the horse at their cost it's a hard pass, imo.
 
I'd put an electric fence between them for a while and let them get used to each other. Give it a month or so and then see what the horse does when you put him in with them. Maybe he's good, maybe you need to keep them separated.
 
I wouldn't. Any horse can be playful. A baby calf is too valuable these days to risk.
He said 8 month old heifers. At 8 months old they better be 50% the size of a horse or larger.

Because I was curious I looked back at my records. My horse/horses have been running with cows for 13 years. In that time there's been 1334 calves born/raised/weaned here all of them with horses. I haven't had a horse bother a single one. Guess I better start playing the lotto.
 

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