What To Feed Beef Cattle

Do you have a place to store extra? Like in the parable of the ant and the grasshopper, late fall is the time to take stock of your stock. Analyze Your Forage Sometimes simply having enough forage to get through winter isn't enough.

If they are on lush green pasture or legume hay without enough fiber, they might be short on energy, their manure becomes liquid and, if the weather is cold, they can't generate enough body heat to stay warm.

Tags body condition score , calves , cattle , cows , fertility While working around or handling a bull, remember that even if you've had it since its birth, a bull should not be treated like a pet.

Only a few hundred animals are left in the wild, representative of the large population that once freely roamed the Himalayas. Before railroads, fences, excessive hunting and imported disease made their mark on North American bison herds, the 60 million...

Courtesy Kimberly F. Courtesy Janell J. Courtesy Paige H. Courtesy Sue L. Get tips and advice for keeping cows on your farm: How to Milk a Cow Did You Ever Want to Ride a Cow? Courtesy Kimberley C.

Courtesy Chopping Block Farm Courtesy Anthony W. Courtesy Debi T. As we continue our celebration of Baby Animal Month on HobbyFarms.com, we hope these photos from our readers' hobby farms will bring a bit of happiness to your day.

You can improve your pastures , beef up your winter-forage quality and mob graze all you want—but a lot of the difference is in the genes. Even within a breed, there can be a large difference between frame sizes.

Pasteurization Method 2: Continuous High-temperature Short-time Method Prepare an ice-water bath for cooling. Properly hold the teat by wrapping your thumb and forefinger around the base of the teat.

Breeding Back More an issue with small ruminants than with cattle, the difficulty in breeding these animals after giving birth needs to be considered. Generally, there's also less mud in the dryer fall months, which leads to our second point: health.

Out West, there can be hundreds of calves needing castration and vaccination over a few busy days. The newly minted steers each got up a little stiff and walked off into the pasture bow-legged with their feelings hurt.

Get more cattle info on HobbyFarms.com: How to Select Beef Cattle 7 Heritage Cattle Breeds to Raise with Your Children Body Condition Scoring for Cattle How to Milk a Cow 6 Ways to Prepare Yourself and Your Cows for Calving Tags cattle , cows , pasture

A common mistake is to install too many backstops or make the pivot points too low for tall animals. There have been many discussions about straight chutes versus V-shaped, single-file chutes.

Let's explore a few of the issues that get tossed around when it comes to feeding livestock. Farmers in both camps are passionate and base their opinions on what seems to be pretty solid research.

Recombinant bovine somatotropin (aka recombinant bovine growth hormone) is used in dairy farming to maintain higher milk production. Organic beef and organic dairy bring higher prices than meat and dairy without the organic label—they're also more expensive...

Florida Cracker and Pineywoods cattle are hardy creatures that make excellent low-input, grassfed livestock. By the 1960s when only a few hundred pure Spanish cattle remained, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services stepped in.

And, the response can actually be more harmful to the animal than no vaccination at all if the specific immunity is not needed.” Muscle tissues demand more nutrients to create the immunities, but these amino acids would otherwise be going to strengthen...

This article originally ran in the November/December 2016 issue of Hobby Farms. In the short term, cattle can make behavioral changes to alter the temperature in their immediate environment, such as finding protection from the wind.

Feeding a mix of minerals free-choice will allow the cattle to get a balanced ration. Pasture irrigation in the dry months and supplemental hay feeding round out the peaks and valleys of finishing cattle on grass, according Lemke.

Availability may be an issue. While the undisputed king of saddle cattle is the Texas Longhorn steer, any sensible, sizable, sturdily built cow or steer can be trained to ride. Think Dexters, Jerseys, Guernseys and miniatures when space is at a premium.

The key for monitoring a calving is to check on the cow or heifer periodically to make sure she's making progress. Many dairies can greatly reduce their cases of milk fever through proper nutrition .

“Sometimes, just walking around a bit will help them, and they will come back to the calf. To prevent the paste from getting on the cow's belly or udder when the calf nurses, cover the sites with a strip of duct tape.

Otherwise, you will quickly learn the joys of bottle-feeding your calf. It's best to call the vet immediately if your cow is trying to deliver and is making no progress. Once your calves are a few days old, they will naturally come into the pen to sleep...

A score—1 to 5 for dairy cattle and 1 to 9 for beef cattle—is assigned to the animal based on a visual and tactile assessment of six different areas on the cow's body: brisket, ribs, back, hook bone, pin bones and tail head.

Your environment also plays a role in which breed would fit best on your farm. Another factor important in breeding dairy cattle is how much milk the bull's mother produced, as this will impact a heifer's future milk production.

As an owner of a small herd of Dexters, I'll confirm these Emerald Isle beauties do very well in the freezer but must caution against over expectations of their dairy potential. Belfairs are most commonly black, and browns ranging from mahogany to dun...

McAfee cites many benefits that supersede the decrease in milk. “I feed my cows fairly generously. When I was growing up on a family farm where we always had at least one cow in milk at all times, twice-a-day milking was the one and only option.

Remaining country dwellers' small cows couldn't supply enough goods to meet burgeoning demands. Lowlines (Miniature Angus) may be 42 inches high, as can Dexter cows; Dexter bulls can be two inches taller.