Posted: 1/20/2009 8:37:23 PM EDT
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The thread in GD was timely for me, but I have a little different motives. I need to keep a couple cows running on my 50 acres, but all in all, I like easy animals. We have goats, chickens, a few horses, but I want to produce my own beef, without tons of input. I'm happy to buy a calf every year to keep a pair around as I chop one up, or whatnot.
My goals - Mitigate some food costs by producing my own beef, for my own consumption. If I can beat the store price, good enough. No roids or antibiotics, other than what I need to keep them alive. My wife is good, and can do injections, worming, or whatever. I live in a dry state, with dryland pasture, near the foothills. I know one member here knows the pasture type well, and I currently just let the horses roam about... They pick at the good grass, leave some wheat and weeds alone, but don't generally graze it all down. It's a sparser dryland pasture, so none of the heavy green grass one might think of in some parts of the country. I will hauling hay in, and have a basic lean-to shelter. I will be needing to augment some fencing, to confine them to 8-10 acres at a time, or to a smaller pen. If I was only looking at the deduction, I'd do goats, as I have good forage for them in the rocky areas. But I don't want to deal with trying to sell/butcher, since what I really want is to produce my own beef. I've thought about perhaps the mini herefords/dexters... Ideas? If I was feeding straight hay, how much (of a typical 2x2x4 small bale) does a dexter eat per day? How do I produce my own beef with a minimum (at least initially) of friggin headaches. I don't need to increase my number of nights spent in a field with an animal, so I was thinking of avoiding bulls/calving outright for now. |
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Buy three chest freezers, fill them full of store bought beef....
Buy twice the amount of hay that you think will get you through the winter.... Fertilize your pasture for two years before you ever throw a(1) cow on it.... Don't ever buy leppy calves at the sale....No matter how cute the Mrs. thinks they are... Then eat said beef for 3 Yrs.....(btt) DON'T TRY TO PRODUCE BEEF (raise) ON A SMALL SCALE!!!! IT WILL RUIN YOU!!! Water and pasture is the biggest thing in raising pasture pets to EAT... Just trying to save you headache.... Plus think about all the livestock that will be runnin around after SHTF...Need nothin more than 1 150grn bullet every 3 months.... 
And, yes this is the pic my avitar came from..... |
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Quoted:
Buy three chest freezers, fill them full of store bought beef.... Buy twice the amount of hay that you think will get you through the winter.... Fertilize your pasture for two years before you ever throw a(1) cow on it.... Don't ever buy leppy calves at the sale....No matter how cute the Mrs. thinks they are... Then eat said beef for 3 Yrs.....(btt) DON'T TRY TO PRODUCE BEEF (raise) ON A SMALL SCALE!!!! IT WILL RUIN YOU!!! Water and pasture is the biggest thing in raising pasture pets to EAT... Just trying to save you headache.... Plus think about all the livestock that will be runnin around after SHTF...Need nothin more than 1 150grn bullet every 3 months.... http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp357/exwildlandfire/brand.jpg I still need to run something... (hint, it's worth about 2k per year if I get NO beef!  )
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| No personal experience, but a good friend of mine raises spanish (texas) longhorns and says they are very docile and as good a natural foirager as youll find, with very lean meat. The big down side is you have to be able to work with 3ft horns out of both sides in your pens. They don't pay as well as the bigger breeds, but they dont cost as much either. |
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If you only need two...
Still don't let the Mrs. or kids pick em out.... Don't buy cute.... Buy ugly black cattle...(i.e.) Angus... Decent gain...Good marble.... 3 wt Steers or Bulls...(you can make em steers)... Will be easy keepers...after awhile you will be calling them.... Gerald Fitzpatrick and Patrick Fitzgerald!!!! |
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Huck,
We have a small cow/calf operation (24 cows, one bull) on a total of just over 100 acres (mix of pasture and hay ground). Of course Northern MO is totally different ground than what you have so I really have no idea as to how much hay you'd require. I only feed hay in the winter months and they pasture the rest of the time. Don't forget minerals, and maybe some feed supplementation, or a lick tub (molasses and protein). It might be more cost effective, and less labor intensive to buy hay in big round bales (provided you have a tractor and bale spear handy)... I like the White Park breed. They are very docile, and cold hardy. |
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Quoted:
My goals - Mitigate some food costs by producing my own beef, for my own consumption. . Most economical way of doing this is to arrange with someone and sell them your beef and in turn buy their beef. You can't deduct taxes for any expense for the calves if you are intending to eat it yourself. At least that's what the turbotax thing told us. |
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My parents have 5 Black Angus cows and 3 ~1 year old calves on approximately 44 acres divided into 10 acre lots in south TX. The 5 big cows will eat through a $95 round bale in less then a week while the 3 calves will take closer to 2-3 weeks. Additionally there is no grass there due to an ongoing drought, so minimal forage is available to them.
Prep |
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I know Colorado, and I KNOW pastures (it's my business), where exactly in Colorado? (what town?)
You can make money doing a small beef operation IF you are near a big town/city. You just have to realize you are selling retail, not wholesale. Hippie/yuppie types will easily pay $4 a lb butchered for 1/4,1/2, 1 cow. It won't be a killing, but it can be profitable. I have a guy (the guy I buy from as a matter a fact), he has 10 acres (although he has water, which is rare here as you know). He runs 5 head. Most of the summer they are out on the pasture, he pulls them spring and fall so the grass grows (you'll need to do this) and runs hay, then runs hay in the winter, but let's them roam the pasture for exercise. He buys them as little guys (I dunno? 200lbs? I'd guess) and raises them to market weight. Your place has to be neat, people want to see the animals, they will all ask what they are eating, etc. (no chemicals is really what they want) and you will have a line at your door for home raised beef. |