![]() Curious as to whether the rest of you think I should get a young bull to start or go with AI given the small amount of land I have. I have to say I was surprised when I saw that his bull was so tame - I'd have no problem with a bull like that around the property. A Highland breeder I talked to in this area suggested that we include a young bull at the start. Any reason you can think whether the horse or Highland plan may be better for us? I expect we will slaughter one steer or so a year for the freezer and sale to friends and family. I'm not doing this to make money really - more just to enjoy having livestock on the property. renting out the horse barn and pastures as this way we don't have people driving up the property - the pastures are still mine etc. Can I get by without subdividing the pastures further and just rotate between the two. Do you think I ought to subdivide my pastures further for 5 to 7 Highlands for rotational grazing? I've read a bit on it and it sounds like a great idea but also seems like a bit of a hassle getting water up to each paddock, eye-sore of the extra fencing and so on - kinda like the look of our nice open two paddocks. maybe start with two cows with calves and a young bull, on my 14 acres of pasture. It would then sound to me like I would do just fine with a small herd of 5-7 Highlands (including calves and a bull). Our winter is about 6 months here so the cattle would be fed hay during that time - I suppose that makes it a stocking rate of about 1 animal to 2 acres then. From talking to neighbours, they suggest that in this area people are able to keep 1 horse per acre. Does my fence situation sound reasonable for Highlands? I was considering adding one strand of electric particularly around my new board and post fence to ensure that it stayed in good shape. I have several questions that I am hoping some of you might take the time to lend your insight to: I have done some research and I quite like the breed. We are looking into the prospect of either renting the barn / pastures out to someone who wants to keep their horses there, OR, looking into starting a small hobby herd of Highland cattle. ![]() We have a three sided pole barn along with hay storage and a 5 horse stall barn.īasically the property is a really nice equestrian property - previous owners had horses and all my neighbours have horses. The board and post fences are practically new. The rest of it dries out just fine.įences are in good repair in general. Very back of the back pasture (maybe 1/2 acre) stays quite wet into the middle of the summer. Half of the back pasture floods for 2 to three weeks. The front is fenced with cedar posts and boards (the kind you would see at a horse farm). Back pasture is fenced with wire fence (not sure what else to call it - it is not barbed but stretched tight). The pasture is divided into two paddocks. We have a 26 acre farm - about 14 acres are reasonably good quality pasture - timothy, clover etc. You never know what’s gonna happen.I am very new to Highlands, cattle, and farming in general. The next day, I asked him what he’d learned from all this. ![]() By midnight, he was nursing his own momma - and Nathan checked them all night long from the cow cam in the house. They put him in the warming hutch, and before long, he was up and running around. She didn’t have much of an udder yet, so my husband gave the calf a bottle. The cow took right to him, cleaning him off. We all went out and pulled a nice-sized bull calf. Nathan went to the barn to check her around 10 p.m., and sure enough, water bag out. And waited until it dropped to 6 degrees one night, with a forecast of minus 6 by sunrise. We encouraged her to go ahead and have that calf when temperatures climbed up around 25 degrees. The second was the proverbial watched pot. She took right to the calf, cleaned him off and has been a great momma. They studied the catalog, Nathan made his list, he did the bidding, he wrote the check, and he came home with four bred heifers - two guaranteed to have heifers.Īfter a week of calf watch and three days past the “due” date, the first heifer calved. He and his dad watched the sale offerings last fall and decided to hit up one from the Welsh family, local Simmental breeders. All of this sounded like a good idea to us. He wanted to expand his herd faster than his annual show heifer project was allowing, and he wanted to raise more calves to sell, to earn more college money. Last fall, my son, Nathan, decided to buy a few bred heifers. None of this is a surprise to anyone who’s ever worked with livestock - including the 14-year-old cattleman at our house, who was at the helm of it all. The temperature: 6 degrees F (and dropping).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |