# Want to know more about raising cattle



## Overthinking (Oct 24, 2021)

Howdy,

I have .62 acres I want to raise some cattle on. I also have a 1.8 acre i raise hay on. 

I'd like some more info about raising some cattle to feed my family.

How do i go about this please? Thank you
Ps I'm hear from backyard chickens site, just got the chickens going


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## farmerjan (Oct 24, 2021)

Not trying to discourage you but .62 acres will not sufficiently provide enough grass for any cattle.  You could have a mini and portion off some of it so it could eat some at a time... but it will not go far for any full sized animal. 
If you want to raise a beef animal then you will have to figure on feeding quite a bit of hay and some grain to finish.  Not impossible.... but still not cheap..... Don't know where you are located so the weather/growing conditions will also need to be taken into account.  Here in Va in this area we figure about 1 1/2 acres for a full size animal.... for the growing season which is about 6-7 months.. The rest of the year they have to be supplemented/fed hay and grain.... with exceptionally good rotational grazing on good land and not being overstocked, you can get 300 days of grazing and go down to 1 acre per head... but you have to be a very good stockman/grass farmer to achieve that.  
What is your production of hay on the 1.8 acres??? How many bales?  How many cuttings?  A mature cow/steer will eat approx 1-2 sq bales of hay a day... according to the weather and temps.  that is 40-75 or more lbs of hay.  We figure 1 round bale per 20 head per day or a 1,000 lb round bale will last 1 cow about 20 days.  That's a 50 lb daily average intake of hay.  
By the way,  and nice to have you join us.  If you go up to your name on the top right, and scroll down to account details, you can add a location to give us a general idea of where you are... you can put state or general area... does not have to be exact... but it helps to answer questions like you asked.  Let's face it hay/feed needs are different in northern states than southern states....
I will be glad to answer any questions but will be out of the loop for a few days so don't think I am ignoring you...


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## Overthinking (Oct 25, 2021)

Thanks for all the help, guess i have some thinking to do. 

Going to cost a lot of time and money if i do.

Maybe we'll do bee's next, but I'm hesitant


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## Bruce (Oct 25, 2021)

I was going to suggest you wait for @farmerjan to get her new knees but she's already answered. She is a great source for your question. Do you have other acreage or is the 2.4 acres all of it? It sounds like even a mini will turn the .62 acres into a dry lot.

And please do put your general location in your profile, it helps a lot.


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## Overthinking (Oct 25, 2021)

Just those two fields. Would love to raise some beef with my family like our families before us.

Basically moab area with water rights. (Actually, close to Montrose CO) Usually it's sunny and warm all year. Gets pretty hot in the summer


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## Bruce (Oct 25, 2021)

I've been through Moab, not exactly "high head per acre" country. You might be better off with goats.


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## Overthinking (Oct 25, 2021)

Bruce said:


> I've been through Moab, not exactly "high head per acre" country. You might be better off with goats.


I apologize,  I'm a weirdo. I should have said close to Montrose CO. I appreciate the help


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## Bruce (Oct 25, 2021)

Pretty much equally arid


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## Overthinking (Oct 25, 2021)

Bruce said:


> Pretty much equally arid


Haha pretty much, i thought it was close enough.


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## Alaskan (Oct 25, 2021)

Yeah.... not sure about stocking out there...  but in  a WET  area of the hill country in Texas, on my family land.. it is 18 to 22 acres for ONE cow.  @farmerjan with her super lush Virginia acres blows my mind!

I am thinking that your area of Colorado is drier than the Texas hill country, so 30 acres for a cow or some such.


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## Bruce (Oct 25, 2021)

Sounds like @Overthinking can handle about one hock, maybe including the lower leg and hoof


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## Overthinking (Oct 25, 2021)

Haha probably 

But i have several neighbors with around 2 on the same size land or smaller. They must buy a lot of grain


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## Alaskan (Oct 25, 2021)

Overthinking said:


> Haha probably
> 
> But i have several neighbors with around 2 on the same size land or smaller. They must buy a lot of grain


Very possibly.


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## Overthinking (Oct 25, 2021)

So maybe a steer will eat 1-2 square bales a day. How much cattle feed would they eat?


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## Alaskan (Oct 25, 2021)

I have never done cattle as full dry-lot, I only have experience with cattle on range.

But... this article looked good









						Calculate how much hay cows consume
					

Estimating forage usage by cows is an important part of the task of calculating winter feed needs. Hay or standing forage intake must be estimated in order to make the




					www.agupdate.com


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## Reindeermama (Nov 3, 2021)

I live in Texas near San Antonio in a dryer region. I have 1 acre of land around our house. Due to some fencing issues, I moved our 3 aberdeen heifers up into our 1 acre yard. We have 2 pastures, but we're having fencing issues with a neighbor  who didn't want us to repair or redo the fence between us that is so rotten. They are approximately 2 years old. Our stocking rate here is 1 cow to 5 acres. They were up in the front yard for almost 3 1/2 months. They didn't eat it down to a dry lot. However, we didn't mow during that time period. We fed a bucket of cattle cubes about every  2 to 3 days. Our bucket equals out to 5 pounds of cubes. I think you could probably handle 1 aberdeen cow and you could AI it for calves. Our's are registered and smaller than I realized they would be. They are approximately 36 to 38" tall, and probably 600 pounds. They are very docile and easy to deal with. Perhaps too easy as they stay in my back pocket, and have greeted me at the front door.


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## Ridgetop (Nov 4, 2021)

If you are planning to raise a steer for beef for your family, you wil have to carry all the hay and feed which will be more expensive than buying meat at the store - even at the prices they are getting now.  

If you just want to have the experience, and can afford the feed, buy a young steer calf and finish it off.  You don't want to have a cow that you will have to pay to breed either natural or AI.  Then you have almost a year before she drops the calf.  Then you have to vaccinate the calf, castrate it if it's a bull, and feed it out for another year before you can even consider it as baby beef!  

Farmer Jan can tell you what size feeder calf to buy if you want to raise a steer for fun and freezer.  It will still be expensive, but not nearly as bad as getting a cow to breed and raise the calf.  My son has 5 acres and is raising a steer calf for fun.  He has to feed hay and grain since his 5 acres won't support a steer.  Super expensive with hay and grain ration.  If you want to know how much feed you will have to buy, call the local FFA group at the high school.  The teacher should be able to tell you how much the kids put into their steers for Fair.  And they only have to feed them 180 days before showing and selling.


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## Baymule (Nov 4, 2021)

I raised a steer last year. I used the Pig Palace for his shelter and put the round bale of hay in it too. The pig pen is actually rather large but has no grass. I bought bulk feed, 1200 pounds and put it all in metal trash cans. I did run out before slaughter time and had to use bag feed to finish feeding him. 

The steer cost $500, plus some trading of 10 Cornish Cross meat chickens, average weight of 6 pounds, dressed. Then cut and vacuum sealed, frozen and delivered. He went through 2 round bales of $65 each. When all was said and done, cost was a little over $3 per pound, hanging weight. 

For a place the size of yours, I wouldn’t fool with trying to keep breeding stock. It just isn’t economically feasible. Much better to buy a steer, feed him out and take to slaughter. 





__





						Our Steer is Here!
					

Our steer was delivered today. He was born last October, 2019. He has a slaughter date in March 2021. He is half Charolais and half Hereford. We named him Goldie.



					www.backyardherds.com


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## Overthinking (Nov 5, 2021)

Thank you that helps. I'll skip the breeding. Try and get a young steer to finish. One thing is it seems like I'd have to have more than one since they are heard animals. 

If i broke even or saved a little vs the store I'd be happy. It's $5 a lb of ground beef atm if the shelf aint empty. Bet it won't get cheaper anytime soon. 

Mostly i just want the experience and pretend I'm a farmer. My grandpa had 200 acres of beef and told him we'd farm. Want my daughter to benefit from the experience. Doing everything to keep her from being an ignorant city kid glued to electronics and nonsense. We will have eggs we can eat in a few months but they named the darn things haha so we'll have to get different meat ones sometime and not name them haha


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## Alaskan (Nov 5, 2021)

You can name them and eat them.....  starting out though, it is good if you name them food names...  helps you remember what is coming. 

So a good rooster name is Stew, or Soup.

Our last pigs were Bacon and Sausage.

When we had turkeys we had Christmas and Thanksgiving.   Clearly we should have also had Christmas Backup or some such....
Because Christmas died.   (as a poult, before he was eating size).


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## Overthinking (Nov 5, 2021)

Haha i like that


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## Ridgetop (Nov 5, 2021)

Don't worry about the 'herd animal" thing.  A single steer will be fine in your small property.  Just start with one.  It will be easier for you to handle and cheaper for feed.  

Also check out the cost of butchering.  If you are planning to sell part of the meat you will need to schedule a date for butchering as soon as you buy your steer and know how long you will be keeping him.   Knowing the cost of processing will also allow you to figure out how much $$ you will be paying per lb. for the packaged beef.  If you are splitting the beef with someone or selling it, you will need to know how much to charge per lb., not forgetting to allow something for your labor and the water it will drink.  Don't sell individual cuts either, since that will not be to your advantage.  There are only so many choice cuts on a carcass.  Selling by the half steer means you each will get the same amount of cuts.  You can tell the butcher you want the liver, heart, tongue, etc. for yourself if you like those parts.

Also do you have a large enough freezer to store a full or half steer?  Another expense if you don't already have one that is usually half empty.  If your freezer is always full, you will need another.  If you need a freezer you will have to order it soon - delays on new freezer deliveries are 3 months and more.  They are apparently all sitting in cargo ships off the California coast!     We just ordered a 3rd freezer and were told it would take over 3 months. Our fingers are crossed that it arrives.  The appliance guy said to order the one that was out of stock (which we really wanted) because they had a guaranteed order arriving in 3 months.  The ones that were shown to be in stock (not what we wanted but would have taken) he said often have to be hunted for and then often take more than the order time to arrive or will show up in the computer after several months to actually be out of stock!  

Unless you have plenty of pasture, raising a steer is costly but can be fun.  Beef prices have almost doubled in the past year and look to keep rising.  You need to know the price per pound of what you are raising once processed and wrapped.  The head and hide of a steer can weigh 150lb. and the hanging weight (minus the organs) will still be more than the finished meat weight due to trimming of bone, etc.


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## Bruce (Nov 5, 2021)

Ridgetop said:


> If you are planning to sell part of the meat you will need to schedule a date for butchering as soon as you buy your steer


Isn't that true whether you plan to sell some or not (unless one plans to do the work themselves) since the slaughterhouses are already booked out a year in advance?


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## Baymule (Nov 5, 2021)

Everything @Ridgetop said! 

I have to book a slaughter date a year or more in advance, before I even have the steer or pigs! 

For chicken to eat, buy Cornish Cross chicks. That’s the same breed of chicken sold in the grocery store. BUT you feed them yourself, fermented feed, raise in a chicken tractor-moved to fresh grass daily (and away from the gobs of poop) and the meat is delicious! I name them. I name them Dirty Birdies. LOL


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## Ridgetop (Nov 5, 2021)

Yes.  Even my longtime guy who guaranteed to fit me in could only fit me in December 10!   Booked it for next group of lambs but had to take 3 ready to slaughter to auction.  Decent money though so I will be taking more to auction next month.


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