Posted: 1/16/2005 1:39:07 PM EDT
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how much space is need to raise one cow for beef? how much work is it to raise? |
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Probably more trouble than it is worth. Devote your time to some venture you have experience with and are proficient at (your daily job is a good place to start...think 'overtime') and use the proceeds to purchase your beef in neat packages at the local grocery store. Consider it a celebration of the idea of specialization of labor.  (been there, done that, got the tax write-off, shoulda just ate at the local beef house when I wanted steak) |
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Well you would want to limit their movement. More exercise less weight gained in a day. Enuf room to lay down, eat, and drink. Start them out slow with a hay ration. Do you have access to any corn silage or haylage? Make sure that you can get them cracked or rolled corn. What we do is start with a 70% hay, 10% corn and 20% silage ration. Once the animal gets used to this ration u slowly increase the ammount of corn ingested. Right now two of our feedlots have "fats" in the pens. They are fed 65% corn 25% silage and 10% hay. They eat 33 pounds per day per animal. A feed supplement is also suggested, it helps the animal get more nutrition from the feed. I guess before all this, i ask what kind of feed do you have availible? If i can help any more let me know. Will |
Well, what you say is true. However, if you want to know what your food has been fed it changes the equation somewhat. You will need to buy feed/hay in bulk to save money. It will probably still cost you more that it would have at the store. Depends on what you want out of it. |
Beef as opposed to Dairy. BTW, all cows are chicken, stand in front of one, and wave your arms. You'll see. Bulls on the other hand. 
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Up at 10,000 feet, we would raise about 10 cattle on 160 acres. Some years we would run up to 20, but they really overgrazed. We would feed them bags of grain every weekend. These were steers we bought in the spring, fattened up, and sell most and put two in the freezer. |
If you want to know that your meat is not full of chemicals such as growth hormones or safe from Mad Cow this is the way to go. |
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Where you are in NC will detirmine how much land and work you will need to devote. I raised commercial cattle in Ga in an area very similar to the area from Greensboro to Rocky Mount. If I were to want to grow out a steer or 2, I would want about 8 acres improved pasture with running water through it. Buy the steers at about 300 lbs in late Feb to late March. Expect to feed 3 or 4 round bales of hay till the grass gets going. Confine the animals about a month before slaughter and grain feed them to reduce the grass taste. Then invite me up for one a dang fine cookout.  BTW, if you are in the eastern part of the state, don't mess with bovine, get a pig and fire up the pig cooker. MMMMmmmmmmm. N.C. pig pickin. |
| If you want to go small scale like I used to do raise 3 or 4 chickens for fresh yard eggs. I lived across the river from New Orleans and I always raised chickens in my yard. I moved out to the country and I can't have chickens where I live. But fresh yard chicken eggs are the best. |
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A lot of times the local butcher will have them already and you can buy half a beef or a whole. The problem is that you get all the parts. Not just the steaks or the ones you want. As a suggestion, get more then one if you going to do it at all. We had one, my GFs sister traded an old car for it. The damn thing ended up with a name and living in an old barn next to the house. After it was big enough we took it to get processed. No one would in the family would eat it. Even my GFs dad who was a big beef eater pushed it away and said he couldnt eat stevie. It became almost a family pet. The cow would come out and greet us when it was time to eat. If it didnt eat so much, we would have probably let it live and kept it as a pet. |