How much land for...

darbyfamily · #1 09/20/07, 10:28 AM

I know this has been asked before, and I have tried to search for it, but cant find...

how much land do you need for just two dexters? If I want one for milk and one for beef... okay, maybe three

one for milk, the calf she has, and one for beef..might be the same as the calf if its a bull, but since you can only butcher every 24mths or so, you'd need to have two of them, or at least we would. We'll be sharing beef with my folks, and with a family of 10, we'll go through it faster too... so butchering once a year would be nice.

SO,... how LITTLE land can you do this with do you think? I realize I will have to buy hay for several months a year or more or else rent some pasture somewhere else if needed.

The other land we looked at fell through, and right now, the place we're looking at has only 2 acres but one of them is good for pasture... so, could you really raise two or three dexters on one acre? if you planned ahead to buy a lot of hay?

Trying to be realistic, but this house is VERY doable for us... its just the land thats a bit small. Both neighbors on either side have two acres as well and dont seem to be using them, so maybe if we make nice and share our eggs and maybe some steaks and such, they'd be willing to sell off an acre each and then we'd have four! The land behind the house is about 60-80 acres of farmed land and if it ever comes up for sale we may want to buy some, but for now, 2 is what there is available.

Can I still make my dream work?

travlnusa · #2 09/20/07, 11:02 AM

As I am sure you know, if you buy enough feed, you can raise them on land measured in square feet, not acres.

So it comes down to how much feed are you willing/able to buy.

I don't know your weather area, but I would bet heavy that you will have pastures that look like putting greens in no time.

Call you county extention office. They will tell you what the average is for land per head needed.

Look for a post from UpNorth. They just moved to KS, and will have a better feel for the growing climate there, but I am thinking you are looking at more of a feedlot setting rather than cows on lush pasture.

Yvonne's hubby · #3 09/20/07, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darbyfamily

SO,... how LITTLE land can you do this with do you think? I realize I will have to buy hay for several months a year or more or else rent some pasture somewhere else if needed.
Can I still make my dream work?

A couple acres of pasture is fine, but you will need to feed a bit of hay most likely year round. In the winter you will need more of course as the grass wont grow but we usually figure about 1 1/2 acres per animal unit here in Ky which should be similar to where you are with the exception of growing season time. An animal unit consist of a cow and her calf up to about weaning age. I have 19 head of cattle counting cows, calves and bull pasturing on about 20 acres. I shouldnt have to start feeding hay until late october early november if we get some rain. 2 acres of good pasture should be sufficient for your dream but you will need to buy a little hay.

francismilker · #4 09/20/07, 01:00 PM

You can go to the local county extension office and ask them how many acres in your area it takes to raise beef on. Whatever their estimate is, you can cut it by at least 1/3. Most of the estimations made by the local county offices are made for a pasture with optimum conditions. In my county I'm told I can run 1 cow/calf pair on 2.2 acres. In reality, it takes 4 good acres to run them. It's a good idea to not by overzealous when stocking your pastures. (especially in the Spring when grassed are good.) When the dog days of summer come, your critters will be standing there like vultures over a blade of grass waiting on it to grow.

ksfarmer · #5 09/20/07, 01:12 PM

Not sure what part of Kansas you are in; but, Kansas FlintHills pasture figures about 4 acres per stocker steer and 7 acres for a cow and calf. I can't tell you how this relates to Dexter cattle. In a 1 acre lot, I think you would be feeding year around and the lot will look like a feed lot (bare ground, no grass) in a short time.

georgiarebel · #6 09/20/07, 02:11 PM

darbyfamily,

I can understand your excitement and you should be able to raise 2-3 on 2 acres if you willing to work at it. We raise 10 on 10 acres here, but we've got good pastures (results of a lot of work) and good access to hay, both peanut hay in the fall and grass hay in the spring. As travlnusa mentioned Dexter's only occupy a few square feet, but in addition to good pasture, you've got to plan for the amount of manure the cows leave. They don't like to eat around their manure piles. You'll need to drag some tires (or landscape rake) hooked behind a tractor or 4-wheeler about once a week to keep your pasture clean. During the winter you'll need to plan on at least 3-5 bales per cow to make to spring. Plan for the hard times and the normal ones will come as second nature. This year we had a rough spring and didn't get rain until almost June. We were starting to have to buy hay when normally we don’t start until November. We luckily got some relief during the summer. Do you have a way to transport or store hay? It can stay outside in our area, but takes up alot of space.

I suggest talking with your neighbors about leasing some of the land around you. We luckily found 50 acres around the corner from us, and another 10 to cut hay off for free just by word of mouth. We got 10 round bales of hay for free, because they wanted it cut. We took them a gift basket of home made jams, pickles and a big thank you. I'll probably have the source as long as I need it and will be able to get to 3 or 4 cuttings off of it per year.

PM me if you have any questions. We love raising Dexter's!

GR
Muddy River Farm

darbyfamily · #7 09/20/07, 04:47 PM

Thanks all

I was thinkin of cutting the 1 1/3 acre in half and then rotating on it... hoping it'd get time to grow back some before we go back to it again... and planning to build a pole barn/lean to, shed type thing for milking on one side and the other side with a cattle gate across it to store bales of hay in

Im hoping some of our 4H connections will help a little, but if we cant manage to do beef here, we'll just go for the milker I guess.

Still just in the lookin stages on this place, I'd love to have more land, but the house is the best fit for a family our size that we've found so far and dh is really liking it

JulieLou42 · #8 09/20/07, 07:26 PM

I think you'd need to cut that 1.3 acres into more than two paddocks...maybe four? It takes a few weeks for the grass to grow back to the height of their eyes when their noses are on the ground.

I've no idea how fast two Dexters would take to eat down one-third of an acre, but you could probably manage one Dexter rotating on them.

Shirley · #9 09/21/07, 12:17 AM

We hadn't been here very long, was still going to auctions getting things we needed. Went to a farm auction, 80 acres of pasture, I talked to the owner, he said they had raised cattle, I asked how many, he said 80 head. I asked him one acre per cow was fine? He said, FERTILIZE! lol

darbyfamily · #10 09/21/07, 08:48 AM

fertilize... Hmmmm.. Dont the cows DO that already? (giggle) Okay, so I should be able to do okay with a small place.

My concern is the addictive nature of Dexter cattle...and not having room to get more and more! I know when I first got chickens I just wanted to keep getting more. Of course the price difference prevents too much impulse shopping for cows

maybe :lol:

ebook · #11 09/21/07, 09:00 AM

I agree with JulieLou42, I believe you need to divide that pasture up into more than two divisions. I would say atleast four and possibly even six depending on the time of the year and the growth of the grass. Right now I have a 2 year old heifer and a 7 month old steer on about 2 acres. We have decent soil and we have been getting good moisture in southern Iowa and they can't keep up with it. But, earlier this summer (when we didn't have them) we were fairly dry and I think the would have be able to get ahead of the grass growth.

Like everyone mentioned ... be ready to buy feed in (hay or whatever) and make sure that you have a sacrifical area. If you don't have an area to sacrifice in wet times of the year you could easily ruin the whole pasture into a muddy pugged up mess.

francismilker · #12 09/21/07, 04:11 PM

Darby, I hate to sound dogmatic or pessimistic about it. But, if you're going to try running that many critters on that amount of ground, you're going to have a miniature feed lot on hand and you'll be able to smell it while you're inside the house having breakfast. Not to mention the flys that will bless you with their existance.

What you want to do can be done as long as you can afford the water and fertilizer (and I mean a lot of it) to keep the grass producing. In the winter when the grass can't grow, your animals will have every square foot of it turned into mush like you find in a pigpen.

darbyfamily · #13 09/21/07, 10:49 PM

Francismilker... THANK YOU. I dont think its pessimistic..I want the truth. Im a city girl and I want my farm, Im not citified really... I dont mind getting dirty, not afraid of hard work and not afraid to ruin my nails... but I want to do this right, and if its not practical or realistic, then I want to know before Im knee deep in cow manure. So, one cow would be okay on that much land though, right? Coz my main goal is to have milk... fresh milk for homemade cheeses and such.... and I guess the occasional calf too, since that'd be the only way to get milk from her.

Oxankle · #14 09/22/07, 10:58 AM

If you are planning to raise two cows and their calves, or even one cow and a calf, on two acres you are going to be disappointed.

House, garden, a little barn, toolshed, orchard? No way you will have room for cows on two acres unless you plan on buying almost all of your feed. In that case you will have a feedlot, not pasture, and a manure disposal problem.
Ox

Oxankle · #15 09/22/07, 11:05 AM

sorry, double post

Shirley · #16 09/22/07, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darbyfamily

fertilize... Hmmmm.. Dont the cows DO that already? (giggle):lol:

Well, that is what he told me.

Personally, I wouldn't run that many. I've got two Belgians, four qh's (and one colt yearling), seven minis, two donkeys, two angus, two goats and one steer on 50 acres and even moving them from pasture to pasture they keep everything mowed pretty good! When he said fertilize, he meant feed the soil the nutrients that it is lacking. And to do that you need the soil analyzed to know what and how much per acre it needs and how often to fertilize.

Shirley · #17 09/22/07, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darbyfamily

Thanks all

I was thinkin of cutting the 1 1/3 acre in half and then rotating on it... hoping it'd get time to grow back some before we go back to it again... and planning to build a pole barn/lean to, shed type thing for milking on one side and the other side with a cattle gate across it to store bales of hay in

Im hoping some of our 4H connections will help a little, but if we cant manage to do beef here, we'll just go for the milker I guess.

Still just in the lookin stages on this place, I'd love to have more land, but the house is the best fit for a family our size that we've found so far and dh is really liking it

Well, with your large family, I'd get the property for the house and then have a milk cow. You will be feeding the cow bought hay in the winter and depending on the quality of grass growing and the amount of rain growing it you might be buying hay for dry periods in the summer too. Have you ever thought of having milk goats?

Would be easier on the pocket book!