beef cow

[kdalton324]

My wife and I are looking at buying a property that is just about 12 acres. Now I am not looking forward to cutting that amount of grass every week so we had discussed getting a cow to help mow the yard. I was looking for a generally healthy cow, were going to be keeping it all organic, that would be good for meat production.

[nosqrls]

You will want at least 2. They are herd animals and need company.Or they will get into trouble or make it.

[COWS]

I hate typing out a good reply and then losing it due to hitting the wrong button!!

Trying again. At the present time, plan on spending $1000 per head, whether it grown cows or 300 pound up calves. One other method is to buy a cow with a young calf, keep the pair 6-8 months, and sell the cow, keeping the calf to raise further if it's a heifer, or just put the calf in the freezer. You will need a good fence preferably with a couple of strands of electric wire because the cow may come in heat and get out looking for a bull. A mile separation from another pasture is not enough, ask me how I know. A cow calf pair is sold for a reason. The cow may have had calving difficulties, or is too old to give enough milk to raise a big calf, or she has an attitude problem, so my advice is to sell the cow.

IMO buying small calves tor raise on a bottle is not cost effective. The main source of small bull calves has been dairies and now the cattle prices are so high the dairies, which have a supply of milk, will raise the calves to market size themselves.

I have never been able to make raising calves on a bottle pencil out due to the high cost of milk replacer. I would appreciate someone else's opinion of that.

COWS

[Oakshire_Farm]

It may help to post you general location?? Lots of people form all over the place on here.

But I do agree with above posters, cows are happiest in a herd.. I would say minimum 2 cows, when you are shopping I would suggest with rather than buying a auction cow, look for a small farmer that is wanting to sell a few yearling heifers...

The risk with auction cows are they are going to be WILD and will go threw any fence! If you meet a small farmer in your area that may want to part with a few heifers you will (fingers crossed) end up with friendlier cows. When you have a small herd you want to be able to work the cows with out them spooking and running.

When you are ready to bring the cows home, I would also recommend having a small "barn yard" type area that has stronger, wooden rail, fencing. With a hay feeder and build a few head gates or a chute. Get the cows used to coming in and being comfortable in this area. Give a bit of grain to make them LOVE you. In the long run it will make your overall cattle experience much more enjoyable.