# How much area and housing do we need?



## scrapmom5 (Jul 21, 2008)

Hey Y'all:

We are currently looking to buy some land so that we may farm.  My sweet DH would like to have cows.  He wants to raise meat cows to sell and 1 or 2 dairy cows for personal comsumption.  What would a minimum space per cow be?  And since I have never farmed (DH has) what type of home do they require?  I want really happy cows and hope to have green pastures for them to graze and plan on rotating them through different fields as the green disappears.  What should I do?


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## wynedot55 (Jul 21, 2008)

you can run cattle on 20 or 30acs or less.as for housing i dont know what state your in.cows really like being on pasture year around.


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## scrapmom5 (Jul 21, 2008)

How many cows on 20 or 30 acres?

I am in Utah but am looking anywhere I can find some nice land.


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## wynedot55 (Jul 21, 2008)

depending on how much grass is there an the rain.you could prolly run 10 or 12 cows on 30acs.now a horse needs 3 to 5acs pre horse.


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## Farmer Kitty (Jul 21, 2008)

wynedot55 said:
			
		

> depending on how much grass is there an the rain.you could prolly run 10 or 12 cows on 30acs.now a horse needs 3 to 5acs pre horse.


I would agree. If you have good green pasture you would be okay. If the pasture tends to get dry and stop growing you will need to supplement feed during the dry time.


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## scrapmom5 (Jul 21, 2008)

I have a pasture near my cabin...the pasture is divided into 5 sections, each section is 2-3 acres each.  The farmer keeps around 40 cows on the pasture.  He separates the cows from the bulls and uses two pastures at a time. (the fifth pasture rarely is used)  His fields are always green;  My question is this; If you should have 10-12 cows per 30 acres how does he do it.  I never see sprinklers going, it doesn't rain a lot up there, and yet just yesterday his fields were thigh high with green.  He does have an irrigation ditch that is full only when the cows are in that particular field.  His cows seem happy except when it is hot and they all huddle under the one lowly tree.

Forgive my all my q's.  I am new at the cow thing and want to have all the answers.  is there a place to get all the answers?


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## wynedot55 (Jul 21, 2008)

scrapmom5 said:
			
		

> I have a pasture near my cabin...the pasture is divided into 5 sections, each section is 2-3 acres each.  The farmer keeps around 40 cows on the pasture.  He separates the cows from the bulls and uses two pastures at a time. (the fifth pasture rarely is used)  His fields are always green;  My question is this; If you should have 10-12 cows per 30 acres how does he do it.  I never see sprinklers going, it doesn't rain a lot up there, and yet just yesterday his fields were thigh high with green.  He does have an irrigation ditch that is full only when the cows are in that particular field.  His cows seem happy except when it is hot and they all huddle under the one lowly tree.
> 
> Forgive my all my q's.  I am new at the cow thing and want to have all the answers.  is there a place to get all the answers?


if he runs 40 cows on 15acs.he is irragating it.if you have 30acs of pasture.you can make it into 15 smaller pastures to graze cows in.an move the cows every 4 or 5 days to a new pasture.it cost about $100 an ac or more irragate if you have access to water.


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## scrapmom5 (Jul 21, 2008)

Now does it change if I supplement them?

And what about sheep?


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## Katy (Jul 21, 2008)

I agree it just depends on where you are and how many cattle you want.  Where I live it takes 7-10 acres per head to support a cow/calf pair on summer pasture.

I should add that you will need to have additional acrerage to grow feed for them to eat in the winter.


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## Farmer Kitty (Jul 22, 2008)

scrapmom5 said:
			
		

> Now does it change if I supplement them?
> 
> And what about sheep?


If you supplement them it does change the equation. It just depends on how much you want to supplement to how much you can get away with.


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## wynedot55 (Jul 22, 2008)

the thing is you want the cattle eating grass for as long as they can.so your better off understocking your pasture than over stocking.the way i figure it youll be feeding hay 5 months out of the year.so thats 5 4 by 5 round bales pre cow a year.so if you have 12 cows thats 60 round bales a year.sheep can be ran 3ewes to a cow/calf.but there again if you overstock your going tobe buying alot of hay.if you can its best to buy alest 70acs.so you can have 20 or 30acs in hay ground.


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## scrapmom5 (Jul 22, 2008)

You guys have been soooooo helpful.  I am on a huge learning curve with this.  I had been looking at 21 acres but have decided to move on to find more acreage.

Thanks for the help.


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## beefy (Jul 22, 2008)

it varies from place to place. in georgia, for example, we _CAN_ run 1 pair per acre but the recommended stocking rate is 1 pair per 2 acres. 

depending on how many head of cattle you want, cost of land, fertilizer, hiring someone to bale, etc it may be more feasible to use your land for grazing and purchase hay rather than trying to make your own. 

with rotational grazing it is possible to increase stocking rate per acre, which is what your neighbor has done. do you know if he keeps that same amount of cows year round or does he sell some of them and then restock when the grass is growing? does he bale the extra pasture for hay or does he graze it in the fall?


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## amysflock (Jul 23, 2008)

For us in Washington, we can just about graze 1 Scottish Highland per acre. We have a small farm (just over 2.5 acres of pasture and paddock) so only plan to have a maximum of 3 adult animals at any one time. The Scottish Highland, though, are extremely hardy and browse more than graze, so they are happy with brush, apple trees, scotch broom, blackberry thickets, whatever. Ours are on hay right now as our grass is in its summer dormancy, but we'll put them back out again in September for a couple of months before pulling them back into the paddock for hay through March.


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## scrapmom5 (Jul 23, 2008)

beefy said:
			
		

> do you know if he keeps that same amount of cows year round or does he sell some of them and then restock when the grass is growing? does he bale the extra pasture for hay or does he graze it in the fall?


I only see the fields and cows...I have never seen a farmer maintaining them.  I never see dried grasses out there either.  In the winter the cows are there until around April...they then disappear for a few weeks and then return.

We get several feet of snow and you can see where the cows are scrathching through the snow to get to the feed.

I will probably just need to get out and about earlier to see the work getting done.


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## dairy_girl (Jul 25, 2008)

you could do a simple shed like this if you have free range beef cows 





dairy cows "if you end up getting alot of them" need something like this:





and i agree with 12-30 acers!


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## troynmary (Mar 17, 2009)

If you'd like a good smaller cow, Dexters make great milk cows and are about half the size of the average cow.  They only get about 750 lbs and I understand they calve very easily.   We haven't bred ours yet but have 3 heifers and 3 steers (also a Lowline/Dexter cross heifer) on about 10 acres.


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## Farmer Kitty (Mar 17, 2009)

troynmary,


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## wynedot55 (Mar 17, 2009)




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## GrassFarmerGalloway (Mar 18, 2009)

scrapmom5 said:
			
		

> Hey Y'all:
> 
> We are currently looking to buy some land so that we may farm.  My sweet DH would like to have cows.  He wants to raise meat cows to sell and 1 or 2 dairy cows for personal comsumption.  What would a minimum space per cow be?  And since I have never farmed (DH has) what type of home do they require?  I want really happy cows and hope to have green pastures for them to graze and plan on rotating them through different fields as the green disappears.  What should I do?


Rotation grazing is definitely the way to go.  It works well, but only if managed properly.  Ideally, you want to move your cows daily or once every few days, and have them not return to the same spot for a few weeks.  That can be difficult to do.

Let's say you're raising ten cows.  I'd give 'em half an acre to an acre a day to graze, moving them daily.  Have a complete rotation cycle of three weeks to a month, I'd say for rotational grazing, thirty acres per ten cows.  When you get really good at this, you can work your way up to more cattle, maybe.  It depends upon the quality of your pastures, what cows you get, etc.  Start small, and work your way up.  Don't jump in too fast.  Make sure you have a market, take your time.

If you make hay, bear in mind that you will need an extra acre for each cow, upon which you make the hay.  This can vary, again, on the quality of your pastures.

There is very little I can tell you but the basics.  The rest you must find out for yourself.  What works for me might bankrupt you.  So don't listen absolutely to everything I say.  Take your risks, but don't rush it.  Start out with a single or pair of cattle to see if you like it.  Then work your way up to the size herd you want.

I'll recommend some good books for you to read.

Storey's Guide to Raising Beef Cattle  -  Heather Smith Thomas  

Great, overall cow book.  If you look, I'm pretty sure there's a diary version too.

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Salad Bar Beef  -  Joel Salatin

Everything you need to know about pulsing the pastures, proper grazing management and so much more!  (Bear in mind, what works for him might not work for you, so read with an open mind and a critical eye.)

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The Encyclopedia of Country Living  -  Carla Emery

Great, overall book.  Covers everything you need to know about farming.  It's all basic stuff, but it's got LOADS of great references and links.  Only get if you have ample bookshelf room (it's a HUGE book!)


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## Imissmygirls (Mar 18, 2009)

I did a really nice rotational grazing for a few spring/summer/falls using about 5 acres and 7 cows/heifers, but it was a moist pasture where the grass grew well.  
We divided it into 4 paddocks and grazed the group until the grass was about eaten in one area, then moved them.
The one thing I found absolutely necessary was to mow the eaten pasture area after the cows were moved. It made all the difference in regrowth.
IN the spring, the animals can't keep up with the grass growth, so you have to plan on mechanically harvesting some of the acreage so it keeps growing for fresh forage for later in the season.


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## lupinfarm (Jul 29, 2009)

That is totally stupid, 3 to 5 acres per horse. If you properly manage your pasture, seed yearly, rotate, keep a sacrifice field for the spring months, you can keep a lot of horses on a small pasture. There is a small farm (5 acres) near me that has 3 horses, they rotate and keep a sacrifice field and they always have lots of green grass. When our top fields are fenced we'll be using the bottom field that our pony is on currently for hay (it yields about 400 small squares) and she'll be rotated on the top pasture and in the dirt paddock. 

We're on 8 acres.


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## lupinfarm (Aug 10, 2009)

Also for cows... 20-30 acres is an awful lot for 10-12 cows, most farmers here would run upwards of 40 cows on that land.


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