Okay guys. Paul is considering adding two steers to our menagerie. The idea is to raise them to butchering size. Keep half of one for our own freezer and sell the rest off to cover expenses. We plan on doing this spring to fall only. No overwintering stock because them you get into buying hay that is rapidly becoming very expensive around here.
Now I've been told it's just a matter of putting them out to graze, giving them water and grain. Rotating them to different fields as needed and that's it. Is it really as simple as all that? A lot of this will fall on me to carry out and I don't want Paul getting me into something that is over my head.
All and any feedback is deeply appreciated.
MollyD
Raisig Steers, a few hundred questions!
That is about it. I want to say and when he gets home i will ask him, that it is 2 head of cattle per 5 acres of good grazing land. I also plan on doing this but I am going to wait until next spring to do it. I am also going to get me some pigs, just gotta get a pen built for them.
L2G I was fancing more the idea of buying a share in a steer and any other livestock we'd want to eat. Way cheaper than doing it ourselves and less work for me. There are lots of farms around me that will do that. They sell shares in an animal. They raise it, get it butchered. You get the cuts you want for your share. Nice and neat. Saves you the expense of buying the steer, feed, medicine and any other expense.
MollyD
Hi Molly, just bumped a thread on cows. It is not the exact same situation as the one you are thinking about, but it is about beefers and I thought it was interesting.
I think that for you, going in on shares at first might be a good idea. I say this mostly because you would have the added expense of having to fence in your pasture and you had said that's not really going to work right now. My DH said that you could keep a couple of steers in with a single hot wire ........if you can teach them that going past the wire or touching the wire will hurt. What he didn't say but I have seen is that some cattle will figure the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and don't mind getting a 'pop' to get to it. Then the chase is on. Chasing down cattle can get really old, really fast. Our neighbor has a large herd of beefers.....cows and calves, that are always getting out. They have gotten out so many times that no one is shocked by it and just know to keep an eye out.
What breed of steer were you looking at? That can make a big difference on when they will finish out for you. DH said that an Angus would finish out at the end of summer at around 800 lbs, but the meat wouldn't have that fat, flavor, and marbling if you kept them until they were about 1200 lbs. He also told me all kinds of percentages for what their daily food intake would be and also grain blend percentages and amounts, if you want to know about that. He knew the % that they need for protein and fat and how we got it, but he wasn't for sure how you would get it.......meaning that grains that were available to us for a reasonable price might be sky high for you. We used to use a lot of bean meal, but the price has gone so high I think a lot of people are trying to stay away from it. We also used to use cotton seed in our feed ration, also for protein, but he thought in NY you might not be able to get it, or it would be very expensive.
If you want to check into this farther, I think you should talk to your feed store....if there are knowledgeable people there and other farmers that raise beefers. They would be able to give you a better idea of what is available at the best cost in your area.
I hope this helps in some way. Let me know if you want to know more. DH got started on such a roll last night when I asked him about this that I started writing it down.......lots of notes. He said so much about what he would do as far as feeding at different sizes I thought for a minute that I was talking to an animal nutritionalist . I got a bit confused about it. If you want to know info about each weight group, it would probably be easier to do that way.
Christy
Going the share route is good also. I think that is what we are going to do this year. DH knows alot of cattle men around our area and get a fair price for them and also knows what they have eaten and such. Talk to Dh last night and he told me we dont have the land right to get any cows. waaaaaa. We do not have any "fields" its all timber or for the most part. I do so want to raise my own cattle, but I guess that is another dream far off in the future.
L2G....waaaaaa is right! We have problems of a different sort. We would like to get a beefer or two and have the pasture with fencing that will need very little work, and a pond that 'feeds' to a livestock watering trough, but no money for the cost of the beefer calves or the grain. Ohhhh, one day though. We can't raise hogs. That's what my DH's job is and for bio-security reasons we can't keep them. That's ok though......the company offers employees a pretty good price on buying a whole finished one.
Christy
Thats odd. But you probably know more why you cant. Another stopper for us we dont have a barn or a stall to pen them up in to feed them out the last 4 to 6 weeks before butcher. We could maybe get 1 or 2 and hay and grain feed them. Time will tell. I have been checking the prices in the local paper and can get a pair for around $550. I forget the weight of them. Again that would have to be hubbys doing. I wouldnt know a steer from a bull. Just about 10 years ago i learned that cows have horns to. Lol i just thought only bulls. City girl here and loving every minute of my secluded country life.
When we go to town and hubby sees all them baby cows laying on the ground he just shakes his head and says pure profit laying there on the ground. But then there is probably about 200 to 300 head on that land. Maybe I can get my brothers to go in with me they have the adjoining next 2 10 acre plot and we can get them cleared off and plant fields.
Christy please thank your husband for me. The more I hear the more convinced I am that we shouldn't get into this. Our land is mostly forest. We could use the neighbor's land but we'd still have to fence it in. Also there is no water there. Water would have to be trucked in to them daily. A three sided shelter would have to be built. They'd need a guardian since they'd be out of sight of our house. The list just goes on and on!!!
MollyD
L2G......you mean odd that we can't raise hogs? My DH works on a huge hog grow/finish farm. At this farm alone there are 9 different sites, each site has 9,000 hogs......from just weaned to just about finished and ready to ship. They have a whole procedure they have to go through.....shower in, shower out, they have different rubber boots they have to change into for different sites and barns and they have to change in and out of different overalls for different sites. The company provides all the clothes and boots they need, right down to their underwear. It is quite an ordeal.......I was shocked by it all when I first heard of it, but it makes sense. If an employee drags in a disease or illness on their boots or clothes from other sick hogs, it can wipe out 18,000 hogs in one fell swoop. My DH can't even go near them at fairs because of it, so we stay clear of them.
I'm a city girl too, at least I was until I met my DH 9 years ago. I didn't even see a chicken until I was 23. Yikes! I used to think ANY cattle in a pasture was a cow....it used to upset my DH when I said that. hee hee. It amazing how much can be learned in a short amount of time.
The difference between a bull and a steer? You know a bull is for breeding and a steer is raised for meat, right? In looking at them the way you tell the difference is to look at their backside.....(between the legs) ......ummmm.....danglers = bull no danglers = steer
Don't quote me, but I don't think all breeds of cattle have horns. I know that Jersey and Holstein's have horns, but I'm pretty sure that Angus don't. We got ripped off one time.....we bought what we thought was a pure bred Jersey heifer calf and until she got older, we didn't know she wasn't. Jersey's are this really pretty red/golden/fawn like color and she was when she was a bottle calf. Then her coloring started changing slowly to black and she didn't get horns. She ended up being a Jersey/Angus cross and we lost big money on that one. grrrrr.
I think a lot of people think there is nothing but pure profit in raising cattle, I used to think so too. There is a lot of cost involved in raising cattle of any kind and it all adds up. My neighbors run a pretty big herd of beefers every year and can only afford to keep 1/2 of one for their freezer. At the end of the day, I still think its totally worth it though. You know what went into your meat, it tastes better, and there is nothing like looking in your freezer packed full of meat. Also, you have paid xx amount per pound....whether that pound of meat is hamburger or T-Bone steak. YUM!!
Christy
Molly. also consider if you want your beef marbled.... that is a nice way of saying loaded with fat, high incholesterol. grass fed cows, [not fed corn] will be leaner. less weight gain, and it takes longer than a cow finished in a feed lot. but if you sell the meat, as opposed to "sharing", you cold make very good money.
from what you said though, your proerty is jusdt not feasible. maybe you can compromise with him. get a year or two under your belt with these other aniamls before you take on yet anohter species. we plan to get meat goats in a couple o fyears, then add cattle a coupld of years after that.
you are wise to not overwhelm yourself!
tf
wow learn something new everyday. I sure didnt know that about the hogs. I can understand that now.
Yep I am definitely putting the breaks on this project! I've got enough to do right now. I'm no kid any more.
L2G it's that way with most places that deal with animals in large quantities. It's called closed establishments. Even for chickens it's done. It's the only way to stop diseases from getting into your herd or flock. People who raise birds like parrots or cockatiels etc also do this to prevent diseases from wiping out their flocks.
MollyD
Molly, I think it was a good idea to find out all about them and what is involved. A lot of people leap and then look, which can be really bad. I have to admit, we have done that too, on a much smaller scale, but still.......
My DH is a leaper and I am a look and learn first person, then get the animal. It can be very frustrating at times.
I'm in agreement with tf, about maybe just holding off a couple of years and then doing it. I know you have plans for fencing for your goats, maybe it would be a good thing to do then.
My DH has just decided to push a couple of our plans back a little too, before we get in over our heads right now. A lot of our plans have gotten pushed back, mostly due to financial reasons and it is frustrating. The way I figure it though, it's better to put things off and be successful with it later. Better than jumping all in and losing our tails later. Huh......he's looking 1st.....maybe a not so old dog can be taught new tricks? LOL : )
Christy
LOL well he's learning and that's a good thing.
I didn't mind the chickens and the goats. I'd had chickens before so really just needed to refresh my memory. The goats were what was new (okay ducks and geese too but they aren't very different from caring for the chickens).
Tomorrow we're going to look at some bucklings at a high end goat farm. These boys come from a buck with 9 enoblements (championships). His boys begin at $500. and go up from there. Totally unrelated to my girls too. If I decide on one I'll arrange to make payments on him. Need to look the does over too while we're there. We're trying to end up with kids that are good for 3 markets (show or breeding,pets and meat) instead of limiting ourselves to one area.
MollyD
I think the one (not only one, but main) thing I learned back when I first asked about assorted livestock was the space required and how "city" folk will move to the country with a few acres and buy a herd of cattle realize there is no room, ruin the ground.. and run back to the city leaving it all in a shambles..
Well it was really said much more intelligent than that.. but it was written in a way I understood it and was not offended.. and knew whoaaaa step back jersey girl!!!
SO... chickens, goats... maybe a lady Dexter cow... baby steps.. little bitty baby steps..
BUT.. great info here! This should be stickied as this question.. "should I" comes up a lot!