New Guy

[rookiefarmer]

Hey folks, I am new here. I have been raised around cattle horses all my life, but have yet to own a single cow. I have 12 acres right now,but Ihave my horses on half of it. I have always wanted to get into cattle farming. what should I start with and how many can I put on the 6 remaining acres? I would like to have some breed of beef cattle.

 

[vs_cattle]

you can have as most as you want to pay for feed but for sure six cow / calfs to start and you can bring in feed for them as needed also start with some good looking commercial cows that have calved already once or twise and go from there also make sure you got some shelter for them to get out of the weather and a good feeder and waterer and your started Good Luck if you need to know more just ask check out my site http://www.vasquezandsonscattle.com

 

[Frankie]

Hey folks, I am new here. I have been raised around cattle horses all my life, but have yet to own a single cow. I have 12 acres right now,but Ihave my horses on half of it. I have always wanted to get into cattle farming. what should I start with and how many can I put on the 6 remaining acres? I would like to have some breed of beef cattle.

Start with a visit to your extension office and find out the cow ratio to acres in your area. We have some improved pastures, but here in my area, it takes about 12 acres to feed one cow and calf. Plus hay and cubes during the winter.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Hey folks, I am new here. I have been raised around cattle horses all my life, but have yet to own a single cow. I have 12 acres right now,but Ihave my horses on half of it. I have always wanted to get into cattle farming. what should I start with and how many can I put on the 6 remaining acres? I would like to have some breed of beef cattle.

do you have any working facilities yet? you will need to back up a few.dont want too go at it half cocked. you gonna buy your hay ?

 

[lb200]

What part of louisiana do you live in . I live in Folsom and I run 1 cow per acre. And feed hay and feed in the winter .

 

[ALACOWMAN]

I forgot to throw in a plug for what cows....Brangus

 

[rookiefarmer]

What part of louisiana do you live in . I live in Folsom and I run 1 cow per acre. And feed hay and feed in the winter .

I live in Downsville. The north central part of the state.

 

[rookiefarmer]

Hey folks, I am new here. I have been raised around cattle horses all my life, but have yet to own a single cow. I have 12 acres right now,but Ihave my horses on half of it. I have always wanted to get into cattle farming. what should I start with and how many can I put on the 6 remaining acres? I would like to have some breed of beef cattle.

Start with a visit to your extension office and find out the cow ratio to acres in your area. We have some improved pastures, but here in my area, it takes about 12 acres to feed one cow and calf. Plus hay and cubes during the winter.

Thanks for the info. I plan to stop by there this week. I do plan to buy my hay. I have a guy that I have been buying from for years for my horses. he has some really good quality hay and the field he cuts is less than 5 mins from my house so I get a discounted rate for picking it up in the field.

 

[rookiefarmer]

you can have as most as you want to pay for feed but for sure six cow / calfs to start and you can bring in feed for them as needed also start with some good looking commercial cows that have calved already once or twise and go from there also make sure you got some shelter for them to get out of the weather and a good feeder and waterer and your started Good Luck if you need to know more just ask check out my site http://www.vasquezandsonscattle.com

I added your site to my favorites. i am sure i will be full of questions.

 

[rookiefarmer]

Hey folks, I am new here. I have been raised around cattle horses all my life, but have yet to own a single cow. I have 12 acres right now,but Ihave my horses on half of it. I have always wanted to get into cattle farming. what should I start with and how many can I put on the 6 remaining acres? I would like to have some breed of beef cattle.

do you have any working facilities yet? you will need to back up a few.dont want too go at it half cocked. you gonna buy your hay ?

I am not sure what you mean by "working facilities" I have a 2000 sq ft barn and am working on a storage barn for round bail hay for the cows. I will be buying my hay from a guy near my house that has sold me my horse hay for years.

 

[rookiefarmer]

I forgot to throw in a plug for what cows....Brangus

What makes the brangus the best choice? Size? Calf size? Remimber , I am a rookie!

 

[rookiefarmer]

Working facilities mean, catch pen to catch the cattle in. Alley way to run them into. Chute to get them into once they have left the alley and a sweep chute like I have works best as you can close the crowd gate on them and push them on through the next alley and into the head gate. At the very least if you dont but a squeeze chute to go on the end of the working chute that you either purchase or build you will at the very least need a head gate. You are aware that you have to worm and vaccinate your cattle every 6 months to insure good health dont you? Secondly horse quality hay may not be good for horses in that it could potentially cause the cattle to bloat especially if it has alot of alfalfa in it. I feed fescue, orchardgrass, and clover mixed hay to my cattle as well as bermuda hay and they love it. Go easy on ritch feeds like alfalfa or you are asking for trouble. Secondly the cattle will have to have good minerals. You will need to ask your county agent what is recommended for your area as all areas are different.

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I have been involved in the "doctoring" process with cows a good bit. I have worked with all the suppliers of cattle for our events helping sort and tag, vacsinate and occasionaly cut the bulls. As far as the hay, we do not have alfalfa in my area. we are feeding coastal bermuda to the horses. Will this be OK for the cows?

 

[IluvABbeef]

I forgot to throw in a plug for what cows....Brangus

What makes the brangus the best choice? Size? Calf size? Remimber , I am a rookie!

Do a search on here. You'll find lots of info/discussion on brangus.

 

[rookiefarmer]

I forgot to throw in a plug for what cows....Brangus

What makes the brangus the best choice? Size? Calf size? Remimber , I am a rookie!

Do a search on here. You'll find lots of info/discussion on brangus.

I have been doing some looking. I have a few choices that I am considering. I was looking at the aberdeen angus, herfords, and charolais. Most of the larger farms around here have mixed herds. what would be best? Stick with one breed or mix them up?

 

[msscamp]

You could always cross Herefords and Angus. That will give you a Black Baldy and I don't know of any area that they don't do very well in.

 

[rookiefarmer]

Yes coastal bermuda would be a great source of nutrition for the cows. Bear in mind that the average pounds per head per day is 30 pounds of hay in winter maybe more depending on how cold it gets but as a general rule it is 30 pounds per head per day. So square bales really arent going to cut it. 1 square bale will feed about 1 cow lol. Good fresh water is a must to. A cow will drink about 15 gallons of water per day on a regular day on really hot days it could go as high as 30 or perhaps just a tad more. I cannot stress enough good loose cattle minerals free choice available at all times. Not sure on the land there in LA but here where I live in East Tennessee the rule is one cow with calf per acre.

I plan on feeding round bale hay free choice with a hay ring. is that resonable?

 

[rookiefarmer]

I sent you a pm. You can check it out if you would like. Cross bred cattle are more productive. If you take good genetics of each breed and mix them together you are going to make some nickles every time. Cross bred cattle are more productive than straight breds provided they arent heinz 57's. Gelbvieh and Angus are a great cross. Salers and Angus are a great cross etc. If you want more pounds gained you want to use a continental bull (Gelbvieh, Charolais, Salers, Limousine, etc) bull on british cows, ANGUS, Herefords, ETC.

Not only am I rookie farmer, but I am not real up on this computer either. At the risk of sounding like a total idiot.....How would I check the PM????

 

[IluvABbeef]

I have been doing some looking. I have a few choices that I am considering. I was looking at the aberdeen angus, herfords, and charolais. Most of the larger farms around here have mixed herds. what would be best? Stick with one breed or mix them up?

Well, it depends on what would work best for you. Personally, I would consider going with the straight herefords because of their docility which makes it great for newbies like yourself to work with. Keep it commercial and not registered, primarly because reg'll be too much to dive into right away, with all the work of keeping records, showing, maintaining business title, that sort of thing.

If your planning on starting out, go with straightbreeding first, then start your crossbreeding once you've got a significant number of cattle to go off of. Again, it depends on what you want to do.

 

[rookiefarmer]

You could always cross Herefords and Angus. That will give you a Black Baldy and I don't know of any area that they don't do very well in.

Seems to be a popular choice here. the pastures around here are full of them.

 

[mdmdogs3]

Working facilities mean, catch pen to catch the cattle in.

boy is this true! :roll:
our bull and the neighbor's bull had a fence discussion last night (ours won )
(neighbor bull was all by himself and ours was defending his harem)

anyway, they tore up the fence and 2 heifers are now mixed in with the neighbor's herd.
on this 40 acres, he has no way to catch the herd let alone separate out our 2 one year olds

might have to get someone to just go in and rope them...