Want to know more about raising cattle

[Bruce]

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

 

[Overthinking]

Haha probably

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

 

[Alaskan]

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.

 

[Overthinking]

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

 

[Alaskan]

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

 

[Reindeermama]

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.

 

[Ridgetop]

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.

 

[Baymule]

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

 

[Overthinking]

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

 

[Alaskan]

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).