Raising calves questions

REELDOC

The creek won't clear up til you get the pigs out.
Benefactor
Life Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2016
Messages
5,605
Location
near Clemmons
Rating - 100%
15   0   0
How many acres per calf of grass do you need per calf to raise it to butches weight?

What are the normal costs involved?
 
yes sir, per calf. trying to figure out if I want to do this. Have 5 acres of grass on the pasture behind me that I was told I could use.
 
Thanks guys, this will be my first and probably only shot at raising calves if I decide to do it. The state is taking the farm as part of the northern beltway withing the next couple of years.

I need to do a lot of repairs to the electric fence and some other things. There is a big barn back there to for weather protection.
 
we are fencing in these 3.5 acres for a bull, cow and bred heifer....this was sweetgum 20 year old cutover less than a year ago.
e4535e5f8986ed62507cd405576962cd.jpg


btw don't trust a weaned heifer. We chased this little b about half a mile before we got it corraled at a creek and fenceline. She almost made it to the neighbors' cattle and we would have had a lot rougher time getting her separated from that herd.


My neighbor is a vet tech. After this one bashed the corral a couple of times with her face, the owner / her husband wrestled her and got beat up. We finally got her heifer sedated and 275lbs loaded on the truck and taken home. She got up and was grazing 45 min later [emoji849]
a825a1769bdc869f1db8548daa8d5b29.jpg
 
Last edited:
Man, I grew up on a working beef cattle farm. Cows are a ton of work- think long & hard on whether it'll truly be worth it.

How are mutton or goat prices? Always sky high when I see it for sale. Might be a better return on your investment.
 
Your stocking density can very depending times of the year around our area. Spring you can usually get by with heavier but summer months with lack of rainfall and over winter the slow grass growing stock lighter or you will be having to come up with much more alternative feed sources. If you can rotate the animals to mulitple pastures to allow them to move before they eat grass down below 4-6” and give grass time to recover before going back you can run more animals per acre. If they eat it down below the 3-4” range it takes grass much longer to recover. Trick to rotational grazing is hit it hard and then get off it and move to a new area like animals would in the wild. Nothing fancy required to do it as well. Depending weight range you want to go for will depend how long it will take and if only feeding grass it can take a while usually with good grass a good rate of gain is 1.5-2 # a day with 1 being more realistic for someone new to the game. If your wanting to do it for slaughter just beaware of wait times right now since most slaughter houses are backed up 6 mths + last I heard. If dealing with calves that have not been weaned besure you have a good fence or get some that have been weaned and still have a decent fence and watch getting them from a stock market you maybe buying someone elses problem children. Good fence charger makes a poor fence much better but problem children will always be problem children.
 
I raise steers, very small scale. I learned quick that growing the best grass you reasonably can will make life easier.

I took a couple steers to the processor in mid March. When I picked up my product, they said they are scheduled out to August, at least on cows.
 
Last edited:
Bottle fed calves are cute, but dangerous as yearlings. They just wanna play, but will F you up if you're not careful. If you can help it, do not pet & love on 'em.
 
Bottle fed calves are cute, but dangerous as yearlings. They just wanna play, but will F you up if you're not careful. If you can help it, do not pet & love on 'em.


Bottle feeding is also dangerous approach if someone intends raise one for meat. Very educational and fun for kids but very easily turn into pet status with mom and the kids. Just word of advice that you may still be feeding a full grown cow and having to get that steak at a store. Lol
 
Bottle fed calves are cute, but dangerous as yearlings. They just wanna play, but will F you up if you're not careful. If you can help it, do not pet & love on 'em.
Bottle feeding is also dangerous approach if someone intends raise one for meat. Very educational and fun for kids but very easily turn into pet status with mom and the kids. Just word of advice that you may still be feeding a full grown cow and having to get that steak at a store. Lol
Ever been licked by a damn “pet cow”? A neighbor had a 4-H calf that turned pet ... when you came up their dogs would come up to greet you with a friendly bark and that damn cow (1 year old or so) would come up mooing. I swear she actually thought she was a dog. If you weren’t paying attention she’d lick you ... and a damn cow tongue is huge, rough and full of nasty slobber ... plus smells 10X worse than any dog. Like Carl said she got to big and quickly “disappeared”.
 
Last edited:
Cows were $1.17 a pound on the hoof here a month ago. Only way to come out is to butcher them and sell the meat. That's what my contacts are doing. My boy Jeff has 80 now and stopped going to market in January, strictly selling to neighbors. Doing well.
 
we are fencing in these 3.5 acres for a bull, cow and bred heifer....this was sweetgum 20 year old cutover less than a year ago.
e4535e5f8986ed62507cd405576962cd.jpg

Wow, I have been looking for property over the past year and have 'walked' several overcut parcels (it was more like weave, scramble, and hack through) and I am amazed you could turn something like that into a productive pasture in less than a year.

Apologies for the thread diversion, but how did you tackle it and what did you seed the pasture with?
 
Wow, I have been looking for property over the past year and have 'walked' several overcut parcels (it was more like weave, scramble, and hack through) and I am amazed you could turn something like that into a productive pasture in less than a year.

Apologies for the thread diversion, but how did you tackle it and what did you seed the pasture with?
That is the results of forestry mulching last Sept. I havent seeded it with anything
 
Back
Top Bottom