# BYH system of raising, selling and moving cattle



## BlebFam (Feb 8, 2013)

Hello cattle owners!

New to the forum and will soon be (next 6-8 months) moving onto some land with the hopes of getting some livestock. 

For someone interested in a small herd, what is a common system of raising, breeding, selling, replenishing and eating cattle? If we had our druthers, we'd slaughter a cow every year or two for our own meat and sell one or two every year all the while breeding to replenish the herd (sounds so easy! haha). I'm not interested in making this a our income stream, but making a little cash to recoup a bit would be nice. We're really just interested in raising our kids around the outdoors and animals as well as eating what we've raised.

Thoughts?


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## SheepGirl (Feb 8, 2013)

If they were sheep, I would have a flock of 5-10 ewes, giving birth to 8 to 20 lambs. I would keep one ewe lamb as a replacement, keep two of the meatiest lambs (can be ewes or wethers) for my own use, and sell the rest of them at auction.

I say you could do the same thing with cattle--have a herd of 5-10 cows, who give birth to 5-10 calves. I would keep back a heifer once every year or once every other year (she will be 2 yrs old before she calves for the first time), and keep one calf to raise up as a feeder every year--it will be about 1.5 yrs old before it is finished--and then sell the rest at auction.


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## Cricket (Feb 8, 2013)

I think it really depends a lot on how much land you get and your location as to how many cattle your land will support.  What region are you in?


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## WildRoseBeef (Feb 8, 2013)

BlebFam said:
			
		

> Hello cattle owners!
> 
> New to the forum and will soon be (next 6-8 months) moving onto some land with the hopes of getting some livestock.
> 
> ...


As Cricket said, it depends on your acreage, stocking rate, and even size of cattle...Location helps a lot as well. 

Starting off you could just purchase some weaners, raise them for a few months, choose one to keep back for butchering and sell the rest, and repeating the cycle.  Good way to get your feet wet.

As for a breeding herd, it shouldn't be much different from what bigger producers do when they raise their animals.  If you have five to 10 animals, you can expect a calf crop of about 5 to 10 (or four to nine) calves per year, keep on their mommas until they're 6 months old, then sell them and keep one back to fatten up for slaughter.  Your turn-over rate for cows to heifers will be less than with a bigger herd, since you'll most likely be either having to source replacements from some wheres else or choose to keep only one heifer for replacement if you have a cow that needs to be culled.  With five to ten cows you may find you will only need to have replacements to develop once every two to even four (maybe five, though that could be stretching it) years at a time.  It all depends on whether you actually need one or more replacements or not!

With breeding itself, a bull is worth half your herd and even so can easily cover twice to thrice as many cows as you may have in your little herd.  You may have to choose the option of AI or renting a bull from a neighbor.  Having one bull around means having one less cow around. 

With selling, you can choose to try to sell meat via direct sales through some customers wanting your beef or sell your calves through the auction mart.  

Raising, however, isn't much different from big herds.  Have enough pasture to graze them and enough feed to keep them over winter.  Supplement when necessary, have water, salt and mineral in front of them at all times.  Vaccinate when it's needed, and keep an eye on the cows and heifers when they're ready to calve.


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## BlebFam (Feb 8, 2013)

Thank you very much for the replies.

I hate to "shoot from the hip" with this amateur and premature questions, but I will help me out in the long run.

We are moving back to Southern Indiana. As of right now, our goal is to find at least 10 acres, with roughly half being pasture.  

I like the idea of starting slow (er, small) and getting some weaners. I appreciate the ideas. Plenty of more questions to come. 

What's a good breed for the warm summers and cool winters in S.Indiana?


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## WildRoseBeef (Feb 8, 2013)

Go with what's popular around there already, if you want to.  Angus seem to be quite popular around there, and I've heard Herefords are not exactly unheard of either.  

But it really depends on whether you want to go with a breed that is already prevalent or one that isn't.


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## Straw Hat Kikos (Feb 8, 2013)

Here in NC we have tons of Angus, Herefords, and of course Black Baldies. Those are all very common. We have alot of other cattle but they are most common by far.


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## OneFineAcre (Feb 9, 2013)

Some of the earlier replies talked about scenarios for breeding and replenishing with 5-10 cows. With 10 acres and 5 being pasture this isn't going to be a reasonable scenario for you.  You can't support that number of cows on that amount of pasture, unless you are spending a lot on hay.  Trust me, my father in law tries to do the same thing on a much bigger scale and it is the absolute most expensive beef you will ever eat.  

I think the idea of buying a young weaned heifer or steer (or two) to finish would be a better scenario.

If you wanted to have a true breeding replenishing program for meat animals sheep or goats would probably work better with that amount of space.

Don't mean to be discouraging, but I think with that amount of pasture, you will not be able to support that type of numbers of cows to do much breeding and replenishing.

Get a few goats and sheep, and then by a weaned calf to finish.


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## Straw Hat Kikos (Feb 9, 2013)

OneFineAcre said:
			
		

> Some of the earlier replies talked about scenarios for breeding and replenishing with 5-10 cows. With 10 acres and 5 being pasture this isn't going to be a reasonable scenario for you.  You can't support that number of cows on that amount of pasture, unless you are spending a lot on hay.  Trust me, my father in law tries to do the same thing on a much bigger scale and it is the absolute most expensive beef you will ever eat.
> 
> I think the idea of buying a young weaned heifer or steer (or two) to finish would be a better scenario.
> 
> ...


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## BrownSheep (Feb 9, 2013)

You could always try smaller breeds as well.

I not certain about dexters but I know with our yaks we can put three out for every one cow.


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## BlebFam (Feb 10, 2013)

OneFineAcre said:
			
		

> Some of the earlier replies talked about scenarios for breeding and replenishing with 5-10 cows. With 10 acres and 5 being pasture this isn't going to be a reasonable scenario for you.  You can't support that number of cows on that amount of pasture, unless you are spending a lot on hay.  Trust me, my father in law tries to do the same thing on a much bigger scale and it is the absolute most expensive beef you will ever eat.
> 
> I think the idea of buying a young weaned heifer or steer (or two) to finish would be a better scenario.
> 
> ...


Not discouraged at all!

This is why I love hearing many thoughts and opinions. The amount of pasture we will end up may be anything, once we find that out, I will acquire the correct livestock and numbers after further research. But, if we did have 5 acres, I think your finishing idea makes a lot more sense. I think my wife and I have both agree to start with goats and see how things go. Thanks again for you post!


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## OneFineAcre (Feb 10, 2013)

If I had 10 acres, I would absolutely buy a weaned calf to finish.


Probably get a couple of feeder pigs to finish too


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