Enough space for two or three cows?

[promiseacres]

A rough stocking rate is 1000# of livestock per acre. If he is having to mow I would consider a rotating system with a dry lot.

 

[ShadowsFIAL]

I talked to my husband for a while. We are going to just start off with sheep and goats and see how it goes. That will give us four pastures. Two for the sheep being about 1/3 acre, and two for the goats about 1/3 acre. So that we can rotate them. I really wanted cows, but we would rather be self sufficient. ; ^; Perhaps later when i can get my hands on some more land.

 

[Bunnylady]

My brother-in-law has a horse and two donkeys on 2 acres and they are not making a dent in his grass. He keeps having to now.

Equines are like cows, in that they don't like to eat over their own manure. I suspect that the grass your BIL is mowing is growing in or near piles of "road apples" from the horse and donkeys, and the areas where they are actually eating are chewed down to the height of a putting green.

I guarantee, if you put two cow/calf pairs on a quarter acre, you will need to be haying year-round.

But what goes in must come out, which creates another issue - smell, and flies, and all the other fun stuff associated with manure. When you are making your calculations, you need to figure out how you will deal with that (and any neighbors that may have a problem with it).

 

[ShadowsFIAL]

Equines are like cows, in that they don't like to eat over their own manure. I suspect that the grass your BIL is mowing is growing in or near piles of "road apples" from the horse and donkeys, and the areas where they are actually eating are chewed down to the height of a putting green.

I guarantee, if you put two cow/calf pairs on a quarter acre, you will need to be haying year-round.

But what goes in must come out, which creates another issue - smell, and flies, and all the other fun stuff associated with manure. When you are making your calculations, you need to figure out how you will deal with that (and any neighbors that may have a problem with it).

The grass was just tall everywhere. Even where they had not defecated. But, we just want to be safe and go with smaller livestock for now. We might end up getting two mules or mammoth jacks though, since coyotes are a big problem out there. I don't have the time to really train LGD's. I am thinking about making a 4' perimeter all around the property to let my GSD's run the lot.

In the future I deffinitely want cows! So I would probably need 10 acres at least to keep two cows and a bull? That is the 10 acres to themselves.

 

[Bunnylady]

The grass was just tall everywhere. Even where they had not defecated.

Horses are surprisingly picky eaters. If they had pooped somewhere in the past, they wouldn't eat there, and the grass would grow tall. Horses don't like to eat tall grass, because it has a lot of the fiber that they can't digest (because cows chew their cud, they can break this stuff down, but the horse's simple digestive system doesn't process it). Horses instinctively prefer the short, tender grass. Once grass gets to a certain height, horses generally ignore it - keeping a pasture in any kind of shape with horses on it pretty much means you have to mow it regularly.

I trust you are doing your research on donkeys/mules as livestock guardians. I have a miniature mule (not as a guardian, but "just because"), and she made my goats' lives living he11 for the first week or two she was here. Once they learned to steer clear of her, they got along OK, but I have heard of donkeys killing goats while "playing" with them. I hear that the donkey/mule is actually protecting its space, not the animals in it, and that seems to be true for my mule. While she has been observed attacking things like foxes and raccoons, she has also gone after chickens and ducks. Donkeys that have been raised with goats are usually safer with them, but there are no guarantees, especially with intact jacks.

Most people are surprised to find out that goats are picky eaters, too. They are browsers, not grazers; given a choice, they won't eat off the ground, either. Put hay in a rack, and they will drag it all out of the rack and refuse to eat what gets dropped. When browsing, they usually eat a few bites here, a few bites there, moving along and eating only a little bit of any one type of plant. One theory is that this is an instinctive behavior, born of the fact that a lot of the plants in their native land have irritating or toxic oils in them to make them less palatable to herbivores. By only eating a little of any single plant, a goat avoids getting enough of its toxin to actually cause illness. Interesting theory, I thought.

 

[ShadowsFIAL]

Horses are surprisingly picky eaters. If they had pooped somewhere in the past, they wouldn't eat there, and the grass would grow tall. Horses don't like to eat tall grass, because it has a lot of the fiber that they can't digest (because cows chew their cud, they can break this stuff down, but the horse's simple digestive system doesn't process it). Horses instinctively prefer the short, tender grass. Once grass gets to a certain height, horses generally ignore it - keeping a pasture in any kind of shape with horses on it pretty much means you have to mow it regularly.

I trust you are doing your research on donkeys/mules as livestock guardians. I have a miniature mule (not as a guardian, but "just because"), and she made my goats' lives living he11 for the first week or two she was here. Once they learned to steer clear of her, they got along OK, but I have heard of donkeys killing goats while "playing" with them. I hear that the donkey/mule is actually protecting its space, not the animals in it, and that seems to be true for my mule. While she has been observed attacking things like foxes and raccoons, she has also gone after chickens and ducks. Donkeys that have been raised with goats are usually safer with them, but there are no guarantees, especially with intact jacks.

Most people are surprised to find out that goats are picky eaters, too. They are browsers, not grazers; given a choice, they won't eat off the ground, either. Put hay in a rack, and they will drag it all out of the rack and refuse to eat what gets dropped. When browsing, they usually eat a few bites here, a few bites there, moving along and eating only a little bit of any one type of plant. One theory is that this is an instinctive behavior, born of the fact that a lot of the plants in their native land have irritating or toxic oils in them to make them less palatable to herbivores. By only eating a little of any single plant, a goat avoids getting enough of its toxin to actually cause illness. Interesting theory, I thought.

I didn't know that about horses! It might be possible that was the issue.

Yeah, I was debating on getting some that were foals and bottle raising them with the sheep and goats, but I was still a little hesitant. I am hoping that my 4' fence with two or three strands of hot wire & barbed wire will deter them.

As far as the goats go, I am planning to plant a seed mixture that was designed for goats. Supposedly what is out there goats love to eat, as far as the neighbors with goats have said, and my brother-in-law. But it will be all new to me. I have researched the minerals, and hoof trimming and such general care, and that they like forbs, that was one of the things I looked for in the pasture mixture I am planning to purchase.



Is 10 acres a good amount for three head of cattle? Two would be cow calf pairs possibly. I am looking at gyr, brahman most likely if I manage to get my hands on that much land. Or should I aim for more, are cattle like chickens in that they are addictive? I hope to be able to show them as well, just like with my sheep and chickens. I thought about trying to find 20 acres, and perhaps I can fence of 15 for them, 2 for the sheep, and 2 for goats, then an acre for the homesite with the poultry, rabbits, dogs, car shop, grooming salon, and garden.