Totally New At This, Looking For Help Raising Cattle

[Betty]

There is no reason you can't have a couple of steers. They will not wreck your place, and with a single strand hot wire, they won't run off either.
You need to get tame cattle, any kind will do, they just need to be tame.
If you only want one, consider a little calf , keep it until fall(November, December) then
have it butchered. You can train it to be whatever you want. Cattle are gentle and smarter than you think. It could begin life on a small pile of straw in a corner of your garage. Halter break it early.
You'll be addicted for life!

 

[3waycross]

There is no reason you can't have a couple of steers. They will not wreck your place, and with a single strand hot wire, they won't run off either.
You need to get tame cattle, any kind will do, they just need to be tame.
If you only want one, consider a little calf , keep it until fall(November, December) then
have it butchered. You can train it to be whatever you want. Cattle are gentle and smarter than you think. It could begin life on a small pile of straw in a corner of your garage. Halter break it early.
You'll be addicted for life!

Betty
What do you think are his chances for a real good outcome as you have described? I say about 20% and that is being optimistic.

For once someone gets good advice here and takes it and says maybe this is not for me and now we are gonna talk him into it?

To the OP; some one said that if you want to do this do it with someone who is equipted both from a infastructure point of view and has experience with cattle, if you still want to be in the cow biz after a couple of years of that then go for it.

 

[Anonymous]

3way, while I agree with what your saying, I don't think someone should be completely discouraged from raising cattle just because their situation is less than ideal. There are ways to make it work the OP just needs to figure out if the work involved is worth it to them. Everyone starts somewhere

 

[3waycross]

I agree, but if you think about it objectively he has NO experience with cattle AT ALL, and NO facilities to keep them, and NO support system(mentor) in place to ask for help. That sure lowers his odds of success in my book.

What I am thinking about are all the pleas for help I have seen on here for the last 3 years from very nice, well intentioned folks who bought a couple of calves or a cow just like the OP is talking about doing. Then they come here looking for help in the middle of a full blown emergency at 10 pm in a snowstorm.

 

[Anonymous]

And neither did I 3way. I got a hair up my azz one day and said I wanted a cow. So I put a fence up, and bought one from the sale barn. That was just 3 years ago. Successful or not, the op has the desire to give it a go, and an awesome resource here, which I didn't find till after my first was at the butcher. Right off the bat the op has a leg up on where I started, and while I agree its wise to give the op a heads up on what needs to be done and what could happen, I don't think its wise to discourage them just because its not a perfect marriage right off the bat

 

[TobyBenoit]

I pretty much feel that way myself hooknline. I sent the fellow my thoughts and experiences via PM because of all the negativity I read on here. In my opinion and experience, with just a minimum of exttra effort, he can be quite successful. A couple of strands of hotwire will secure the property, an automatic waterer in the stock tank will allow him to leave his neighbor with little more to do than glance at the tank while he's gone.

Start with a 3 or 4wt steer and feed him out over the summer and put him in the freezer. He's not asking to strat a successful cow/calf operation of a feedlot from scratch; the gentleman only wants to put a little clean beef in the freezer for his family.

Should he? Yes. I belive he can meet his humble goals with relative comfort around his little farm and gain quite an education in the process.

 

[dun]

In a PM he thanked the forum members for their respnses and said he has decided against it and won;t be back.

 

[upfrombottom]

If he gave up that easy, it without a doubt, was the right decision.

 

[3waycross]

Any of ya'll ever heard of reverse psychology. I love using it to motivate people. I work in an industry that has a staggering failure rate, after watching a lot of good folks go broke and lose their life saving trying to own and run a restaurant it has become one of my favorite tools. I tell em that they don't have a chance in he[[ of making it in this business, the ones with no heart to make it thru the tough times believe me and walk away. The others last, sometimes for a long long time.

Now if someone has already made the leap I am all for them since they are already committed and I will do what I can to help them even if it's just a word of encouragement on the internet.

I don't apologize for doing it to this fella. In fact I admire him for weighing his options and walking away. I think the thing that really sent him down the road was the thought of the cows destroying all the hard work he had put into starting his orchard. Can't blame him for that!

 

[DaveinMaryland]

By the way I haven't totally given up, just think I need to wait a bit until I have the time. The mixed reviews about having only 1 has given me hope. Still I have so many projects around here already I'm thinking about waiting on this for now. I think the biggest hurdle is the inability to go on vacation and have then neighbor only needed to monitor the water. Looks like this is not the case.

I can't thank everyone enough for their comments. I'll stick around and continue to absorb the info.

 

[3waycross]

By the way I haven't totally given up, just think I need to wait a bit until I have the time. The mixed reviews about having only 1 has given me hope. Still I have so many projects around here already I'm thinking about waiting on this for now. I think the biggest hurdle is the inability to go on vacation and have then neighbor only needed to monitor the water. Looks like this is not the case.

I can't thank everyone enough for their comments. I'll stick around and continue to absorb the info.

Good plan!

 

[Floyd]

What spacing is your orchard on? Create alleys with hot wire. Labor intensive but trees live.

Sheep do good under orchards.


Not everyone has an angus/ black baldy/herford mindset. They would starve on my ground. Probably fall off it as well.

 

[Ruark]

Nobody's trying to be arbitrarily negative here; it's just a given that there is a MINIMUM amount of resources necessary to decently raise cattle, and this gentleman just doesn't seem to have it. This guy is way up in Maryland, remember. Temps in the low 20's all winter. He'll need to build cold weather shelters for the animals. Water supply will be an issue. Yes, he can run a hose out to an automatic waterer, but the water in the hose is going to freeze solid. Then what? Been there, done that. The only thing they'll have to eat 24/7 will be whatever commercial feed and hay he buys and puts out there (assuming he has a place to store it).

In this case, I'm really more concerned about him only having 2 acres. I've lived on a 2-acre plot, I know what 2 acres is. It's not much. Every blade of grass will be worn off of it in a few weeks. And after a good rain, you can imagine what that place will look like after a couple of 800 pound cows have walked all over it.

Again, I just can't see this working. Oh, sure, he could probably keep an animal alive, but it would be quite miserable in such POW-like conditions. My suggestion, as before, is to visit a nearby rancher and buy one of his calves or yearlings. Give him some money to cover feed, medicines, etc. and then harvest the animal when it's ready.

 

[chippie]

.....Oh, sure, he could probably keep an animal alive, but it would be quite miserable in such POW-like conditions......

Not trying to be negative? 2 acres for one animal would not be POW-like conditions. Good grief.

 

[tmlonghorns]

What spacing is your orchard on? Create alleys with hot wire. Labor intensive but trees live.

Sheep do good under orchards.


Not everyone has an angus/ black baldy/herford mindset. They would starve on my ground. Probably fall off it as well.

GREAT POINT!!!!!
I always get a chuckle out of folks who try to tell someone else what they should do and that this is the only way to do things. What works for one person may not neccessarily work for another. heck, I have even lived on two farms and can tell you that what worked at one place did not work at the other.

The fact of the matter is for this situation it never will be a money maker for you. With the limited amount of land that you have, whatever livestock you choose to get into to do it for the right reasons......do it becase you will enjoy it and not for the $. Just my .02

 

[spinandslide]

I immediatly thought of a "smaller" type of stock when you talked about your acerage..sheep or goats..or the lowline cattle.

I know for many, the fesability of a mini cow is nil, however, in your circumstance, it may be ideal. JMO

 

[DaveinMaryland]

Looks like I need to clarify a few things. We live on 5 acres, the majority of the property is taken up with yard at the top and woods at the bottom. That's why I estimate the field to be a little over 2 acres. We have 2 dogs that are now fenced off from the field. We take them down to the field a few times a day as a treat but for the most part they remain in the yard/house. Currently when they see livestock they bark like crazy in the truck. But I"m thinkiing that just like when we got the cats they will adjust. What I"m getting at is if we do only 1 cow the dogs may be able to provide some companionship, if only for a short time. I must say the electric fence on a pet does concern me. Every time we go to the county fair we fall in love with the goats. So no way I could ever raise a goat or sheep and then have them butchered. But a cow? That's kind of up there with a large mouth bass, just a big thing waiting to be eaten.

The "orchard" consists of 6 small fruit trees near the edge of one side of the pasture. I could probably quarter off that section but that cuts down on the available feed. Individual fencing is probably necesssary but won't the cow lean over the fence and eat my fruit? As for winter I was clear that my plan was to purchase a small cow (is that the right term or shoudl I say steer?) in spring, feed him all summer/fall, then to the butcher when the grass stopped growing. So no need for shelter or a heater for the water. My plan was to run a hose from the house. A poster PM'd me the great idea to cut the field in half to spread out the wear. But I really can't see any scenario where I'd be happy with a field full of mud. Geting back to the minis that sounds like a good way to start and get my training wheels on. But is it worth it if I only end up with a small amount of beef. And how do you go about selling the remainding meat? It's just my wife and I and frankly we don't have a need for 100 pounds of hamburger.

So with that said am I wrong to assume that if I run electric wire throughout the pasture and have my neighbor check the water daily that I can go to the beach for a week? I'm struggling to understand all the pitfalls the nay sayers are alluding to.

I do know one thing: if I end up with a dead 500 pound cow in my field my wife will KILL me. WTF am I supposed to do with a dead cow?

 

[dun]

You either bury it or call the nackers to haul it off

 

[Anonymous]

Let's put it this way.my pasture right now is only 3 acres.maybe 3.5. I have raised up to 3 head on it at a time, usually 2. Right now I have 6 out there, on hay and grass while we fence in another 5 right next to us. At no point in time was it a mud pit. Yeah, it got ate down good, but I also put out hay for 4 months.THERE ISNT ANY REASON YOU CANT DO IT!
If you want some pictures, pm me you email add, and ill send you all you want, including some from today. I say do it, have fun. Learn a few things and eat good while doing it

 

[Suzie Q]

The cow won't lean on the fence to eat your fruit if it is electric.

Why can't you run a fence around or through the woods at the bottom. They will provide feed and shelter.

I am sorry but I do not see cows and dogs as being companion animals. Queensland cattle are notorious for attacking dogs. You have to be careful as they make a beeline for the dog. The dog runs, the cattle chase. The dog goes behind you for protection. The cows are concentrating on the dog and not you and if they are not trained to step back when you step forward will go through you to get to the dog.